Customer Reviews

Honey Don't

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

 

 

If there's such a thing as a typical Tim Sandlin novel, this probably ain't it. This is funnier in an over-the-top sort of way than his four-book trilogy, which is just plain funny in a Tim Sandlin sort of way. One way to look at this, if you're so inclined, is to consider Honey Don't as Tim's answer to my novel, Heart Seizure wherein I created an unfortunate FBI Agent by the name of Sandlin (in Tim's honor). In Honey Don't, Tim paid me back by creating a Senator Fitzhugh who is, well, lacking in several key personality traits. I think I lied to Tim soon after this came out, told him I read it and loved it. Truth is, I just got around to reading it but I was right about loving it. Honey is a sweetie, check her out.

To compare Tim Sandlin with Tom Robbins, as "one dust jacket critic" has, is a bit of a stretch. Nevertheless,I remain a fan, anxious to get my hands on his next offering.

Having said this, Honey Don't was a mild disappointment. As in all Sandlin novels, the prose was entertaining and often humorous, but the book didn't seem to reach the levels of keen social awareness and psychological insight that we've seen in this fine writer's previous efforts, most notably The GroVont Trilogy.

I don't mean to dog this book. If you're a Sandlin fan as I am, by all means read this book. Just don't expect too much.

It's been years since I've read any of Tim Sandlin's books (and I've read every single one of them )...so I can't compare Honey Don't to his prior works. BUT I can say I really enjoyed Honey Don't. It took a little while for me to get into it but once I did, I found myself intrigued by the characters and what happened to them.

I don't want to give the plot away. Let's just say it is a dark comedy about the murder of a very famous man and the way the murderer and his girlfriend and various other characters deal with the situation.

What I liked most about Honey Don't is how Tim incorporated a lot of modern day pop culture into the story...ie: Starbucks and the internet. He didn't flat out make fun of them...but he kinda did in the subtle way he does make fun of every day life.

It's been a long wait for Honey Don't. I hope all fans of Tim Sandlin will read it. I had NO idea what it was about but I bought the hard cover copy anyway. I'm glad I did.

It's wacky, wicked and LOL funny. Give yourself a happy present and read the latest by the irrepressibly irreverent Tim Sandlin. If you haven't had the laugh inducing pleasure of meeting this author yet, here's an introduction in his own words:
"I worked over 40 entry-level jobs including driving an ice cream truck, skinning elk, cooking in a Chinese restaurant,...gardener for the Rockefellers, pizza parlor manager, belt buckle buffer, and multiple dishwashing jobs......The more mind-numbing jobs have helped me to hone my creative skills, but all of these experiences have helped me to learn to appreciate life and its inherent follies."

"Follies" is the operative word here as Sandlin can surely spot them; satire is his forte. His previous five novels have garnered critical praise and a host of admirers; "Honey Don't" adds to his luster.

Skewering all that we hold dear from the leader of our country to pro football players, Sandlin introduces the gutsiest Southern belle extant. Honey DuPont puts Odessa, Texas, in her rearview mirror at the age of twenty. She heads for Washington, D.C. where she applies for a counter job at Starbucks. For reasons known only to Honey she agrees to satisfy the carnal desires of President Charles Franklin.

When her dim witted boy friend mob gofer Jimmy Sebastiano discovers them in her apartment, the poor Prez is so undone that he scrambles from bed, trips over his thong, and knocks his head on Honey's prized decorative object - a cast-iron flamingo. A fatal fall. She calms her irate boyfriend by explaining that she had only slept with the President for him, in case they ever needed some Executive help.

Compounding matters is the fact that Jimmy is holding $656,000 cash for his Mafia honcho, Don Gino "Rat's Ass" Olivetti. They have no recourse but to run. After stuffing the deceased into a bean bag chair they retreat to the home of Honey's bosom buddy, Farlow Stubbs, a gay football player. Fortunately, Farlow has a freezer large enough to hold our nation's late leader.

R. C. Nash, a down-at-the-heels journalist, believes he has found the story to jump start his faded career, and pursues the pair. Discovering a frozen dead President was not at all what he expected.

Of course, a missing President isn't an easy matter to explain. Lonicera, his embattled widow and a former Jazzercise instructor does everything in her power to cover up. She's aided in her machinations by Claude Hammer, the Chief of Staff, who has eyes for her. Things don't bode at all well for our country as the Vice-President, Chip Allworth, is decidedly mentally challenged.

Only the mind of Tim Sandlin could conceive of the ribald and rollicking solution to the mess Honey and Jimmy find themselves in. Hint: it involves a desperate gambit at a Redskins game.

Tim Sandlin is a rarity, and a treasure!

- Gail Cooke

I've only been on the Sandlin bandwagon for a year, but in that time I've read his first five novels--most more than once--and he's become one of my all-time favorite writers. That said, Honey Don't was a big disappointment.

There are two main differences between this and Sandlin's earlier work. First, Sandlin uses third person for the first time and it robs the story of a lot of the quirky charm exuded by the narrators of his earlier books. Much of the humor in those works came from the awardward moments of self-awareness present in the characters. As a result, this one comes off as much more generic--there's really nobody for readers to relate to on the level of previous books. Rather than a Sandlin work, I kept feeling like I was reading a knock-off Carl Hiassen. That's not a terrible thing, its just not up to par with something like the GroVont trilogy.

The second big difference is that rather than an off-beat look at life and relationships, Honey Don't functions more as political satire. While some of Sandlin's barbs hit the mark, too often things feel bitter so that on the whole this book lacks the insight and the pathos that made the earlier works so memorable.

That's not to say the book isn't without considerable strengths. Its packed full of belly laughs and the characters, if somewhat two-dimensional, have enough quirks to keep readers entertained. There are a collection of hilarious scenes, ideas and lines. But in the end, none of it ever provokes much of an emotional reaction, making Honey Don't perfect as light beach reading but far short of Sandlin's most memorable effort.

(interesting side-note--the plot of this book was first introduced as Kelly Palamino's unpublished fourth novel in "Sex and Sunsets" Sandlin's 1987 debut. Kelly didn't think it was that great either.)

Tim Sandlin is not up to his usual standard in Honey, Don't - and he knows it. Midway through the story he describes a character by describing what she sees as she looks into a mirror. Later on the same page that very character decides that if she were President she would make it a felony offense for a fictional character to describe herself by looking in a mirror. Things are bad when the author himself is pointing out the cliches he stoops to using.

The plot itself is interesting and deserved better. Honey and the President of the United States are interrupted mid-assignation and, in the resulting mayhem, the President dies. Honey and her boyfriend Jimmy (the interruptor) endeavor to get out of their jam and along the way collect a motley assortment of helpers and hangers on, including a down on his luck journalist who provides the brains of the outfit.

Sounds fun right? It is - if you skip about 125 pages in the middle. We learn a lot about people who don't matter to the story and the writing is packed with more of the aforementioned cliches. Would have been a great novella, but as it is it's not really worth the effort.

I am a big fan of Mr. Sandlin's, but...this is clearly his weakest work. It is more in the vein of a Tim Dorsey or Carl Hiaasen novel then it is a Sandlin. By the way, I am a fan of those two writers, but they don't compare to Sandlin's normal output.
Unlike in the four other Sandlin books I have read, the characters do not come across as real people. Usually Sandlin's characters are flesh and blood despite the oddball plot devices. That was not the case in "Honey Don't". The characters never gained dimension.
Another thing that got in my way was the title character of the novel, a Texas gal named Honey. I just flat out did not care for her as a person. Sandlin creates her as a woman who uses sex to manipulate her friends and enemies, and yet he clearly wants the reader to accept her as a sort of "hero" of the novel. Not me. Simply put, I could not stand her!
Now, don't get me wrong, I did not go into this book expecting great things. When the advertised plot device is that a couple of yahoos accidentally kill the president as he is engaged in oral sex you know you are not reading a typical book. However, the text stretched the realm of possibility just too far for my tastes. Had the premise and resulting scenarios been a little more realistic and the characters stock types (or vice versa) I might have been able to stomach it. However, when both plot and characters are shallow and trite, the result is not good.
I did laugh out loud a few times, and I read the book on the beach. It is perfect for that, just not much else.

I just found Sandlin and I love his work. A real kick! Thank you Amazon for carrying his now out of print books.

it's a great book! I've been enjoying working my way through all of his books, and it's been quite fun!

Never heard of Sandlin before this, but I"m a sucker for books set in DC, so I picked this up. What I discovered is a light, fluffy farce-perfect is you're in the mood for something requiring little concentration, but possibly disappointing if you like your stories to have a little meat on their bones. The style and tone is not unlike someone like Carl Hiaasen, plenty of snappy chatter, pop culture references, and comedic murders. The story starts by introducing RC Nash, a 40ish journalist in decline, and Jimmy Sebastiano, a smalltime mafia bagman. The story is set in motion when Jimmy's catches his delectable girlfriend Honey in a comprising position with the President and the president accidentally dies in the struggle that follows.

Fleeing the scene with the dead president's body, Honey and Jimmy embroil Honey's old friend Farlow (a gay professional football player) in their problems. Soon, through a variety of contrivances (you just have to roll with them), RC shows up and joins them on the lam. Meanwhile, the White House-spearheaded by a nasty chief of staff and the astute and efficient first lady-is quietly trying to locate the missing president. However, the foursome (five if you count the prez), is also being pursued by Mafia don Gino Olivetti, who is after the $650,000 Jimmy was supposed to deliver to him. Lots of running around, shoot-outs, machinations, sexual tension, and light satire ensue. Populated with nothing but a series of cardboard characters (the nasty scheming editor, the airhead vice-president, the crazy homeless guy, and so on), each with a signature tic or phrase, the novel is well-suited to Hollywood or a lazy summer day by the pool.