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Modern Baptists (1983)

by James Wilcox

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304486,873 (3.61)7
Universally and repeatedly praised ever since it first appeared in 1983, Modern Baptists is the book that launched novelist James Wilcox's career and debuted the endearingly daft community of Tula Springs, Louisiana. It's the tale of Bobby Pickens, assistant manager of Sonny Boy Bargain Store, who gains a new lease on life, though he almost comes to regret it. Bobby's handsome half brother F.X. -- ex-con, ex-actor, and ex-husband three times over -- moves in, and things go awry all over town. Mistaken identities; entangled romances with Burma, Toinette, and Donna Lee; assault and battery; charges of degeneracy; a nervous breakdown -- it all comes to a head at a Christmas Eve party in a cabin on a poisoned swamp. This is sly, madcap romp that offers readers the gift of abundant laughter.Modern Baptists was included in Harold Bloom's The Western Canon, in GQ magazine's forty-fifth anniversary issue as one of the best works of fiction in the past forty-five years, and among Toni Morrison's "favorite works by unsung writers" in U.S. News and World Report.… (more)
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Showing 4 of 4
The first and so far only James Wilcox work I have read. Understated, charming prose which reserves its greatest affection for the Louisiana landscape. Its people are rendered as grotesques, albeit with a deft and sensitive touch. The book is without plot, although not necessarily to its detriment, and certainly not without tension. No real ending, and no real profundity. A young Joyce pulled it off in Dubliners, this sort of "superficially superficial" social observation, but Wilcox doesn't quite crack it. There may be very little at the heart of this book beyond the talented traducing of the young writer's home and upbringing, to please the metropolitan readership to which he aspired. It is very gentle all the same. Not unenjoyable, and short. ( )
  Quickpint | Nov 23, 2021 |
Quite a good read. Similar author to Steinbeck in the way that he writes about the dreamy southern American life ( )
  PDCRead | Apr 6, 2020 |
Subtle, humorous and just a great little book. Will definitely be reading more by James Wilcox if they're all as clever as this. ( )
  ElaineRuss | Sep 23, 2013 |
A slight fiction, but entertaining. Sometimes it tries too hard (and tries too hard in the specific field of eccentric Louisianans). But the tale of an odd man, his odd brother, his odd not-so-girlfriends was amusing. ( )
  teaperson | Oct 31, 2007 |
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Epigraph
Remember how short my time is...
-Psalm 89:47
Dedication
To Marie and James H. Wilcox
and
Maud Larson Swift
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In the summer of 1994, the New Yorker magazine carried a long and chilling article about James Wilcox, an American novelist I had admired and followed for almost ten years. (Introduction)
When F.X. got out of jail, he went to live with his half brother, Mr. Pickens, who lived right next door to Dr. Henry's, the all-night store that sold beer ad ice cubes and gas.
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Universally and repeatedly praised ever since it first appeared in 1983, Modern Baptists is the book that launched novelist James Wilcox's career and debuted the endearingly daft community of Tula Springs, Louisiana. It's the tale of Bobby Pickens, assistant manager of Sonny Boy Bargain Store, who gains a new lease on life, though he almost comes to regret it. Bobby's handsome half brother F.X. -- ex-con, ex-actor, and ex-husband three times over -- moves in, and things go awry all over town. Mistaken identities; entangled romances with Burma, Toinette, and Donna Lee; assault and battery; charges of degeneracy; a nervous breakdown -- it all comes to a head at a Christmas Eve party in a cabin on a poisoned swamp. This is sly, madcap romp that offers readers the gift of abundant laughter.Modern Baptists was included in Harold Bloom's The Western Canon, in GQ magazine's forty-fifth anniversary issue as one of the best works of fiction in the past forty-five years, and among Toni Morrison's "favorite works by unsung writers" in U.S. News and World Report.

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