Baja Oklahoma
by Dan Jenkins
On This Page
Description
Dan Jenkins' second best-known novel, Baja Oklahoma, features protagonist Juanita Hutchins, who can cuss and politically commentate with the best of Jenkins' male protagonists. Still convincingly female, though in no way dumb and girly, fortyish Juanita serves drinks to the colorful crew patronizing Herb's Cafe in South Fort Worth, dates a fellow middle-ager whose connections with the oil industry are limited to dipstick duty at his filling station, and also hopes to become a show more singer-songwriter in the real country tradition of Bob Wills and Willie Nelson. Too many of her early so show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Country music doesn't do much for me, but the cheerful bleakness of this style of humor does. Or bleak cheerfulness. One of the two.
Yes, there's humor here that won't fly with modern sensibilities. The racism of the characters (not the work itself) is going to be too much for some readers, who expect all character flaws to be punished or at least explicitly condemned by the narrative.
Folksy and funny.
Yes, there's humor here that won't fly with modern sensibilities. The racism of the characters (not the work itself) is going to be too much for some readers, who expect all character flaws to be punished or at least explicitly condemned by the narrative.
Folksy and funny.
If you like Dan Jenkins you'll still be disappointed. The plot is typical, and the main characters are easy to root for, and there is some humor in the song lyrics. But it is very formulaic.
What a great book. Like all Dan Jenkins books, hilarious, profane, and semi-touching. What you call your pure Texas romp.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
30+ Works 1,309 Members
Dan Thomas Jenkins was born in Fort Worth, Texas on December 2, 1928. He graduated from Texas Christian University. In the mid-1950s, he became a writer and editor at The Fort Worth Press. He was promoted to sports editor before joining Sports Illustrated in 1962, where his main beats were golf and college football. His first novel, Semi-Tough, show more was published in 1972 and adapted into a movie in 1978. His other novels included Dead Solid Perfect, Baja Oklahoma, You Gotta Play Hurt, and Limo written with Bud Shrake. His memoir, His Ownself: A Semi-Memoir, was published in 2014. He later wrote for Playboy and was a senior writer for Golf Digest. He died on March 7, 2019 at the age of 90. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Work Relationships
Has the adaptation
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1981
- People/Characters
- Juanita Hutchins; Slick Henderson; Lonnie Slocum; Doris Steadman; Candy Taylor; Dove Christian (show all 10); Tommy Earl Bruner; Foster Barton; Beecher Perry; Old Jeemy Williams
- Related movies
- Baja Oklahoma (1988 | IMDb)
- Epigraph
- ...It's a roundup stirring mem'ries
Of the rough-and-tumble days.
It's a detour off the freeway
To see where you were raised.
It's the laughter you can carry
Through the years that turn you old.
It's "Baja ... (show all)Oklahoma,"
But it's Texas in your soul!
--From "Baja Oklahoma," a song by Juanita Hutchins
Lord, I hate to let you go.
Your body drives me wild.
...But I'm a smoking window,
And you're a non-smoking aisle.
--Lonnie Slocum, from an unfinished song
Her bluejeans weren't as dirty as
The thoughts that crossed his mind.
--Juanita Hutchins, from a work in progress - Dedication
- This book is totally dedicated to the former June Burrage, homecoming queen, lifelong love interest, exemplary mother of children and grownups, nurse, bookkeeper, handyperson - and not a bad little chef.
- First words
- Prologue; the sound was born on a summer night at the old Crystal Springs pavilion in Fort Worth, Texas, when Bob Wills and his string band were entertaining the cowboys and their ladies from 9 till Fist Fight.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Her music was surely going to take her away forever now, away from the old hometown, but Juanita Hutchins knew her heart would always be somewhere back there in that place called Baja Oklahoma.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 102
- Popularity
- 315,840
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.32)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 3
