Cross Dressing

After reading Pest Control, I picked up Organ Grinders and hated it. This book was a triumphant return to the style of writing and humor that made Pest Control such a great book. The character development is excellent. At the beginning of the novel, Dan Steele, the main character is a prototypical yuppie executive whose thirst for material possessions exceeds all other desires in his life. By the end, he cares about his fellow man and not as much about how many toys he can amass. The aspect of the novel that really shines, though, is how Fitzhugh portrays the residents of the Care Center. While most authors might stereotype the elderly as cranky old codgers, Fitzhugh portrays them as the people who society forgot and who are desperately show more trying to cling to the Care Center, the last meaningful thing in their lives. While the ending seems kind of rushed, it is satisfying. This novel is a return to the style of Pest Control, and is all the better for it. show less

Dan is a scumbag advertising agent who is more concerned with acquiring wealth and getting laid than with taking care of his senile mother or doing good in the world. Then, his twin brother and Catholic priest Michael arrives back from a mission in Africa. Some greed-inspired hijinks ensue, and when Michael dies, Dan assumes his identity and goes to work in an impoverished care facility run by a nun.

Ultimately, this book is silly and funny and entertaining. But there were some things about it that I found off-putting. The biggest problem is that it turns out to be a "boy gets girl" story, even though the boy is a priest and the girl is a nun. Not every story needs to end with a sexual relationship. Even though the book makes fun of show more movies like Pretty Woman for romanticizing prostitution, it also views sex work through rose-colored glasses.

All in all, reasonably entertaining, but certainly not fine literature. show less

Bill Fitzhugh will make fun of anything. Whether it's the smarmy world of organ transplants, the political system, industry, technology, and even pest control.
In "Cross Dressing", he starts with shallow, treacherous advertising people squarely in his sights but plenty of other juicy targets get blasted before the book is through – including real estate developers, African warlords and the Catholic Church.
Big-shot ad exec Dan Steele feels entitled to the best life has to offer - even if he has to live way beyond his means to acquire it. But there's hope on the horizon. Dan has just stolen what's sure to be an award-winning idea for a multimillion-dollar account. If he can keep the creditors at bay long enough, he'll get the keys to show more the executive restroom and all his problems will be solved.
That's when Dan's twin brother shows up at his door. Michael is a Catholic priest with his own problems which are literally eating away at him from the inside. When he needs medical attention but has no medical insurance, the ethically-challenge Dan has no problems switching identities. Then Michael dies - and takes Dan's identity with him.
Now Dan has a choice: go to prison for insurance fraud or take a vow of poverty and become a man of the cloth. Before he can say "God bless," Dan finds himself pursued by a relentless insurance investigator, the psychopathic copywriter whose idea he stole, and a deadly killer from his brother's mysterious past. And, as if that wasn't enough, Dan finds himself falling in love with a gun-toting nun who has some very interesting secrets of her own.
The plot tests the limits of credibility pretty early on and soon decides to go flat out for preposterous. That’s pretty usual for FitzHugh – but somehow this one just didn’t do it for me. show less

Dan Steele, an up-and-coming creative director in a swank L.A. ad agency, is desperate to make partner. Trouble is, his manic-depressive mother, Ruth, periodically suffers bipolar episodes. Dan tries to help, but he's been living extravagantly and he's out of cash, so when lowly copywriter Scott Emmons comes up with the perfect ad campaign for a Japanese corporate client, Dan thinks it's only fair to steal Scott's idea. Scott goes postal with a .44 magnum, but before he can ventilate his sleazy superior, Dan has an unexpected visit from his long-lost twin brother, Michael, a priest back from a mission in Africa, where he witnessed Church and state corruption and tangled with a local warlord, who has left him with a terminal souvenir of show more his homeland. Dan switches identities with his brother so that Michael can be treated under his own health insurance, but Michael promptly dies and Dan is forced to continue his clerical impersonation to avoid felony insurance fraud.

And that's not even all the book just to show you how convoluted and complicated things get. Fitzhugh reminds me of Carl Hiaasen, Max Barry, Dave Barry and other surreal humorous authors. He may not be for everyone but he is for me. His distinct voice and wit make it worth reading show less

This guy just gets better with every book. This is his third. Dan Steele is at the top of his game - the ad game. His twin brother, the priest, is hitting some career snags himself. Yes, 'twin' is the operable word there. Fitzhugh is a pretty funny guy in word and plot.

The title to this one may make your mind wander to some very strange places indeed, but you can't judge a book by it's title or whatever it is they say. This book has also been publish under the title, McJesus. This is the story of a high powered ad executive (Dan Steele), who lives well above his not so meager means. Dan's twin brother Michael, or rather Father Michael, returns from a mission in Africa and falls ill. Thinking that he'll simply need a prescription antibiotics and being the clever man that he is Dan allows Father Michael to assume his identity for a moment by using his insurance card. Everything goes awry when Michael's illness is determined to be more serious and the medical test pile up. Unfortunately, Father Michael's show more illness turns out to be fatal. Father Michael's hospital stay cost over a quarter of a million dollars and now Dan is being investigated by the insurance company for fraud. So Dan feels he has two choices, 1) face huge fines and go to jail, or 2) take on Father Michael's identity (after all turnabout is fair play, right?) Well you can guess which option he chose. The story also contains a hit man, a disgruntled former co-worker, a hooker, and a gun toting nun, just to name a few.

This was an enjoyable story. show less

I can't even remember what the book was about. Guess that says it all.