Customer Reviews

Bingo

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Those crazy Hunsenmeir sisters are back, and this time, it's personal.... Julia and Louise, after 80+ years of sibling rivalry, still don't have it right. And when Ed Tutwieler Walters saunters into Friday night bingo, the fireworks are on autopilot. Vying for the attentions of the town's newest bachelor, Julia and Louise pull out all the stops. And often at hilarious consequences....

Told through the perspective of Julia's adopted daughter, Nickel, readers are treated to small town life in all its glory. Gossip, disputes, affairs, friendships and, yes, even pesky family troubles, run amok in Runnymeade, Maryland, and Rita Mae Brown uses every ounce of her literary talent to create this unforgettable story. I was very impressed by what I read, and despite all their cat-fighting, Julia and Louise are two women I'd love to have lunch with!

I read the first book in the Hunsenmeir series, Six of One, a couple years ago, and I truly enjoyed Bingo so much more. Funnier and more wisecracking, Bingo will have readers yearning for weekly bingo dates in the Catholic Church basement, socializing at the town square, and the chance to take your pets with you everywhere you go, even to the doctor's office during your annual check-up. Wonderfully endearing. Can't wait for Loose Lips.

I really was bored with this book. I had found a great author (and still think she is) after Rubyfruit Jungle and Six of One, but Bingo was a BIG disappointment for me. I was bored stiff and found myself reading and re-reading lines because I'd fallen asleep. Read Rubyfruit Jungle or Six Of One for some great entertainment.

A girlfriend of mine from work lent me the book - you've got to read it she said. As I was reading the book, people thought I was crazy because I would just "bust out" laughing constantly. I could not put the book down! I knew nothing about the author, Rita Mae Brown, at the time. A few months later I ran into another girlfriend who was a "big" Rita Mae fan. She has lent me "Six of One" and I'm about half way through it - it is just has hysterical. My suggestion: Read "Six of One" first and then read "Bingo" (Have "Bingo" on your lap when you finish "Six of One" because you will not want the story to end!)

Nicole "Nickle" Smith's life is more than slightly schizoid: she lives in Runnymead, a small town that straddles the Mason-Dixon line, with all the cultural division that implies; her life is dominated by her elderly adoptive mother Julia "Juts" and Juts' equally neurotic sister Louise "Wheeze;" the tiny newspaper she loves and works for is about to be sold out from under her; and she is a self-avowed lesbian having an affair with her best friend's... husband? Needless to say, the situation is ripe for comedy--particularly when St. Rose of Lima's weekly bingo game, at which most of the townfolk meet without fail, begins a move toward a big-pot game known as "Blackout" and Juts and Wheeze, both in their eighties, begin to compete over the same man.

BINGO is not one of Rita Mae Brown's most literary efforts--it is too loosely structured for that--but it is surely one of her most beloved novels, effectively juggling eccentric characters and ridiculous situations with Brown's own take on modern morality. A particular joy are the supporting characters, which are presented with tremendous appeal: Mr. Pierre, the town's effeminate hairdresser; the massively overweight Verna BonTon and her endless family; the feuding law enforcement officers; the yuppie cub reporter--all presented with considerable aplomb and charm and sharpness. Everything adds up to one of the most hilarious things you'll ever read, a real can't-put-it-down, laugh-out-loud book that will have you sitting up half the night trying to silence your hoots lest you wake the neighbors. The setting, characters, and one-liners are extremely memorable, funny, and remarkably honest, and this is one you'll return again and again. I know I have! Recommended.

Runnymede, MD has to be the oddest town ever created in fiction. Full of well-intentioned nuts such as the feuding town sheriffs and the protagonist's mother and aunt--Juts Smith and Wheezie Trumbull--Bingo picks up where the equally implausible _Six of One_ left off. This time, the story is from the POV of Nickel Smith, the adopted daughter of eighty-something iconoclast Juts. Nickel watches as the town newspaper battles corporate takeover and her mother and aunt battle one another over, well, everything, particularly the available octogenarian Ed Walters.

At times, it's hard to believe that the town could be so crazy--there's no way Nickel's pets could be unconditionally welcomed wherever she goes--but if you stop and think about the desperate actions a small town will take to shake itself up, then perhaps there really is something believable about local yokels who fire a Civil War-era cannon in an attempt to separate two brawlers, and who obstruct justice to pull Aunt Wheezie's fat out of the legal fire. Who knows.

Despite the frequent necessity to suspend disbelief, I laughed out loud several times and felt good whenever I dipped into _Bingo_. Rita Mae Brown obviously has fond memories of her past, and that reverence is clear and convincing in this semi-autobiographical look at Runnymede. If only my hometown had a cannon.

First off, I loved Bingo and have re-read it many times. Many of my general thoughts are already well said in other reviews, so I want to add an offbeat one. Bingo also tells a story about a woman's love for her career, newspapering, and how that career is endangered by the sale of "her" paper to a big company. Brown nails that part of the story -- her descriptions of how it feels when the "big guy" arrives on the doorstep of the little paper are dead on. I lived through that same situation, with less happy results, and Nickel's reactions ring very true. In this era of mergers and buyouts, that's another reason to read Bingo. Share the book with a friend or three.

I simply cannot imagine that ANYONE could read this and not absolutely LOVE it!! I've read it at least 10 times, and I've loaned out too many copies; time for another one. It's funny how you can learn so much from works of fiction; there's something to love and hate about all the characters and that's what makes this book so wonderful. I can honestly say I have a new appreciation for living life to the fullest and accepting people for who they are. Although I've enjoyed Ms. Brown's mystery books, what I really want is a third book to complete the stories told in Bingo and Six Of One. If you love books that are REAL and oh so touching, this and it's prequel are must haves. I also would like to see a sequel to "Southern Discomfort."

"The stands cheered the skunk, not Ursie. The skunk stood her ground and shooed her babies back into the nest. She waited with cool precision for the arrival of this rabid human." A big grin covers my face and I chuckle as I read about the snobbish Ursie Yost being publicly humiliated as she chases a skunk. A gift of love to the main character, Nickle Smith, touches my heart. Bingo is a book that I will read time and time agian. It is a book filled with everything: joy, sorrow, pain jealosy, laughter, failer, success, romance, mischief, and love. Set in the New England town of Runnymede, the unforgettable characters weave in and out of the story,, always with a tidbit of gossip to share. Middle aged Nickle Smith is going through a period of time in her life that requires some major decisions. She is trying to by the newspaper wher she works as an editor. Her affair ends in an unexpected manner. And on top of that, her mother and aunt, the spirted Hunsenmeir sisters, argue and make public displays as they hanker after the same man. With the loving support of her family and friends, Nickle somehow pulls through. I recived a book for christmas called Loose Lips. I liked so much that I bought another book in the triogy, Bingo. There is another, Six of One , which I have yet to read and am looking forward to.

I loved all the books by this author but this book I could not finish, I found it too disgusting.

If you were as enamored with the childhood antics of Nickel Smith as I was in Six of One, you will also welcome her adulthood antics in Bingo. Although Dr. Brown introduces new vibrant characters, none of them seem to reach the complexity and sheer genius of Celeste Chalfonte, Ramelle or the beloved Cora. However, the fact that I miss these characters, might prove that Dr. Brown has succeeded in stimulating within her readers a nostalgia for those who have died and for time past. Brown Brilliantly captures how time can change people and places alike in the most subtle ways. Good read.