Playing Out the String [Paperback]

B.J. Leggett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2004

Fiction. Robert McCabe is a professor of film at a Tennessee university. Until this semester he's passed his time trading film quotes with another professor to make a game of current events. Then a woman accuses him of exposing himself in the university library over the summer, and the quotes take on a new seriousness, starting with Ernest Borgnine's "playing out the string" from his movie The Wild Bunch. Borgnine says this directly to indicate a fatalistic will to continue despite overwhelming odds. And sure enough, he and his friends are killed by gunfire. Amid mounting accusations will McCabe end in a similar spiral?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Leggett's debut fancies itself a mystery—though not so much a whodunit as a sustained inquiry into the subterfuge of petty academics and the perils of political correctness at a liberal Southern college—as Robert McCabe, a well-liked professor of literature and film, finds himself embroiled in a scandal that the college dean is only too happy to inflate. With maddening evasiveness, the dean, assisted by the school's beguiling young lawyer, informs McCabe that a graduate student has identified him as the man who, months before, committed a lewd act in the library, saddling McCabe with the burden of proof in Kafka-like moments of upheaval. As the accusations mount, McCabe's cinematic imagination whisks them into a realm of intrigue. He pores over case notes for motives and jabs at conspiracy theories with almost comic conviction, estranging his sensible wife along the way. Incisive anonymous letters, a brush with the law and McCabe's growing intimacy with the school's lady lawyer raise the stakes for McCabe and readers alike. Negotiating the line between satisfying fiction and cultural commentary, Leggett employs as his first-person narrator a journalist who's trying to spin the saga into a New Yorker-esque indictment of the rancorous university climate. While McCabe is not always likable, his agenda-touting accusers are far worse, and Leggett pits them against each other with taut pacing and crackling dialogue.
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Review

". . . Taut Pacing and crackling dialogue." -- Publishers Weekly Oct 29, 2004 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: Livingston Press (September 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931982449
• ISBN-13: 978-1931982443
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,330,602 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty Look at Academic Life, October 22, 2004

By 

Devoted Reader (Greeley, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Playing Out the String (Paperback)

This book is so funny. Anyone who has been a college student, faculty member, administrator, staff, or maintenance person will get a chuckle - no, many, many chuckles - from this witty account of a senior professor who is accused of shameful behavior among the stacks in the library. He keeps wishing he had been accused of murder instead because it would have been more interesting and less embarrassing. He starts to believe himself guilty, even though he knows he didn't do it, because the accuser "has no reason to lie." This Kaskaesque-but-funnier book is a fast and delightful read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Playing Out the String, February 17, 2005

By 

Bonzo Copeland "Bonzo" (Tennessee) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Playing Out the String (Paperback)

The classic mystery novel has indeed run its course throughout the history of literature. Time and time again, readers are presented with the cookie-cutter images of a wrongfully accused protagonist, a sinister and conniving antagonist, a predictable conflict, and redemptive resolution. However, in attempts to prevent the reader from unraveling the mystery after three or four chapters, modern writers seem to elaborate on this age-old equation, in order to throw unexpected curve balls to the reader; keeping them on the edge of their seats and deeply interested until the very last chapter. B.J. Leggett is no exception.
B.J. LeggettÂ's Playing Out the String successfully explores the world of academic bureaucracies, complete with the intricate relationships between faculty members, students, and administration of a Southern University. Robert McCabe, a highly esteemed and respected professor of English and film studies is faced with an accusation that could quite possibly ruin his life and career. Obsessed with his innocence, McCabe begins a quest for justice and the truth, constantly testing the strength and validity of his relationships with his wife, colleagues, and ultimately, himself. This trying situation becomes more and more intricate as the novel proceeds, presenting McCabe with endless amounts of red tape and complications, having a drastic impact on his performance as a professor, writer, and husband. Throughout the progression of the text, the novelÂ's main theme seems to focus around manÂ's quest for superiority in life despite the consequences that may occur. Often obsessed with this pursuit, men sometimes fall to the depths of deception and greed in order to gain a leg-up on others who surround them. Playing Out the String contains characters who are constantly on guard against others, in the constant pursuit of superiority and personal gain, behind the façade of truth. As a theme, this pursuit is present throughout the entire course of the novel, as Robert McCabe is forced to put all that he stands for on the line in order to prove his true self worth. Highly intricate and imaginative, the plot of the novel is extremely unique and original. LeggettÂ's use of intricate plot twists provides the reader with an extremely complicated plot to wade through. These hurdles within the plot serve to ultimately maintain the suspense and interest level throughout the novel as a whole. The elaborate plot is extremely unpredictable, constantly changing just as the reader begins to attempt to make any further predictions.
Within Playing Out the String, Leggett succeeds in vividly establishing a strong character base. Through vivid character development, the novelÂ's characters are extremely humanistic and complex, straying away from the character stereotypes present in the majority of literary works. Through this characterization, LeggettÂ's characters indeed come alive within the pages, complete with unique idiosyncrasies and details that truly establish each character as an individual. This novel introduces many characters that are extremely likeable in the readerÂ's mind, including Robert McCabe, Charles Redfern, and James Carpenter. In addition, the novel presents other characters that are ultimately sinister, such as Dean Schneider. Still yet, other characters within the novel continue to hang in limbo, balancing between good and bad within the readerÂ's mind. These dynamic characters provide the novel with a sense of realism throughout. Set in and around Knoxville, Tennessee and the campus of Western Appalachian University, the novelÂ's setting greatly advances the storyline throughout. Accurately so, Knoxville is a medium sized city with a small town mentality. Everyone seems to gossip and have a drastic desire to know what scandalous activities are afoot. Similarly, the campus of Western Appalachian seems to harbor the same problem. Gossip runs rampant throughout the student and faculty communities. Sides are chosen within conflicts, based often times on mere hear-say. This setting works hand-in-hand with the character development in providing a realistic tone to the novel, making it ultimately believable. The language scheme within LeggettÂ's work relies mainly on the usage of dialogue between characters. This dialogue establishes the complicated relationships between the characters, thus promoting further character development. Through this dialogue, the characters reveal what aspects and themes are most crucial within the novel as a whole and the corresponding views and feelings that the characters hold in relation to the subjects at hand. In addition, this dialogue makes the novel an extremely quick read, advancing the novel at a brisk pace.
As a whole, B. J. LeggettÂ's novel, Playing Out the String, is an extremely entertaining novel, covering a wide range of topics, occurring every day in the world of academia. The vivid characters and intricate plot line establish a story that is quite out of the ordinary. Through McCabe, the reader learns to question oneÂ's true inner qualities, cherish every movement as it were oneÂ's last, and to always stick to what is known as the truth in life. Playing Out the String is an extremely delightful read and is thus recommended.

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Mystery - Find a Copy & Read It, October 1, 2009

By 

stoic (Mobile AL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Playing Out the String (Paperback)

Playing Out the String is an entertaining mystery by BJ Leggett. The novel focuses on an English professor who is accused of exposing himself in the library at his university. The professor is innocent (or is he?), but university politics and the professor's past conflicts with administrators combine to keep him under a cloud of suspicion. As a university professor, I could appreciate many of the dramas that occurred in this book.

There are many things to like about this novel. Leggett's protagonist, McCabe, is well drawn. McCabe is likable, but he is by no means perfect; the uncertainty as to McCabe's "true" character adds a nice bit of suspense to an already-suspenseful novel. Leggett makes the reader care about McCabe's fate and, by doing so, draws the reader in to the drama.

A major theme of Playing Out the String is perception. McCabe challenges his students and colleagues to think about how their individual views of the world shape their reality. Of course, this is connected to the central drama in the book, which is whether the seemingly-respectable McCabe has another side that others have not seen.

Another interesting aspect of the book is McCabe's obsession with movies. Throughout the novel, McCabe references quotes and scenes from his favorite movies. This adds to the reader's interest in the novel. (I wonder whether McCabe's name was a reference to the film "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" and, if so, how that reference is significant).

The tiny University of West Alabama Press published Leggett's Playing Out the String. This is a much better mystery than many novels from names at bigger publishers. Readers who like mysteries (and stories about contemporary university life) will enjoy this novel.