Four Englishmen fleeing the Inland Revenue and value-added tax settle in Arkansas expecting an easy life. One falls in love with anymphomaniac, another becomes embroiled in a poetry war with the local laureate.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Arkansas-born and -bred first-novelist Adcock makes a rollicking debut in which his narrator's love of all things English adds an unexpected sophistication to the homespun charm of his tale. Arcadia, Ark., a small town in a dry county, is set on its ear by the arrival of four decidedly eccentric Englishmen fleeing the "persecution" of high English taxes. The narrator, a "shameless Anglophile" and teacher at the local state college, naturally finds himself acting as a liaison between the four baffled, bibulous Englishmen and the equally baffled townfolk. Charles Pierponte Mugsbottom is the first to arrive, followed by his three friends: baronet Sir Montague Capulet, Captain (ret.) "Biffy" Smythe-Gardner and Reginald Dipswizzle, the source of the group's travelling funds by virtue of a regular remittance from his appalled family in Hertfordshire. Soon after they arrive, Mugsbottom is caught up in a dispute with the local poet, Homer Joe Tennyson; Smythe-Gardner discovers pay-per-view porno films; and Dipswizzle becomes involved with a veterinarian's widow, who also happens to be the organist at the Presbyterian church as well as the town nymphomaniac. The Brits' Arkansan idyll is ruined, however, when Mugsbottom's nemesis, the flamingly affected poet Tinksly Murk, accepts the post of poet-in-residence at the local college, and when Dipswizzle, the English party's sole source of income, takes an unexpectedly tragic interest in crop-dusting. Though initially somewhat stiff, the story unfolds into a picaresque, lighthearted hybrid of American and English comic style.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
When four English gentlemen arrive, without warning, in the small town of Arcady, Arkansas, life changes for all who come in contact with them. The Englishmen come seeking a haven from the Inland Revenue and the unpalatable politics of their homeland. Charles Pierpont Muggsbottom is the ringleader. His cynical view of just about everything is the author's vehicle for poking fun at American mores. Muggsbottom's companions are the somnolent Sir Montague Capulet, the inebriated Biffy Smyth-Gardner, and the gentle and modest Reggie Dipswizzle. These four take Arcady by storm, both enraging and engaging the locals with their zany antics. Although their stay is brief, the uproar they cause is remarkable. Adcock, a native Arkansan, writes an entertaining if heavy-handed novel. Recommended for larger fiction collections.
- Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Coll. of Continuing Education Lib. , Providence
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Coll. of Continuing Education Lib. , Providence
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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