Customer Reviews

Santa Fe Crazy

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I never doubted that life in Santa Fe would beat the midwest - especially Decatur, Illinois. But now even dentists are dropping the drill and heading south and west.

Howard Spoon is bored with life and hears that Santa Fe is populated with wealthly widows and divorcees. Unlike most men that merely dream of another, more fulfilling life, he chucks it all and goes for the gold. (Hey, if he did the logical thing and suffered quietly at home there would be no book.)

This story had me laughing out loud - on a plane. The people around me thought I was nuts. Sorry, it's just that this hapless dentist is atypical in every sense of the word. So are the people he meets. Nothing in this book is predictable, especially the ending. Don't try to guess. Just read it and laugh.

After hearing about this book, I ordered it to read before visiting Santa Fe for the first time. Alas, my husband picked it up first and interrupted a best seller he was in the process of reading to read Hutchison's delightful book. I was finally able to read it and enjoyed it just as much as my husband had. The book is full of interesting characters and has a surprise ending. We are both looking forward the the next book by Mr. Hutchison.

Howard Spoon, disenchanted with his sober ordinary existence, left his job and life in the Mid-West, and headed to New Mexico in search for a change. Some say Howard was going through a mid-life crisis, but I think it was more like a sexual identity crisis. What he discovered was more exciting and revealing than he could of imagined. Always anticipating Howard's next thrilling ordeal, I didn't want to put down the book until it was finished. This book was very fun to read and was so well written, it made reading it notably easy.

This book came highly recommended to me,so I bought a copy along with a Franz Liszt cd after church one sunday. I slipped the cd in the player and thought I would read a little of the book and then come back later and finish it. I could not put the book down! With orchestral arrangements of liszt in the background I spent two hours of absolute and total delight with howard spoon, the main character of the story. There were four times I laughted out loud and I found myself constantly smiling and feeling better the more I read. I felt relaxed and entertained for two days after finishing the book and I will never look at sante fe the same again. I can hardly wait for ron's next book. The book is not very long, it is well worth the money, and it afforded me the most relaxed and enjoyable two hours I have spent in a long time. Everytime I think about that story I can't keep from smiling and I feel "good all over" all over again.

The story is irreverent and the characters politically incorrect. No one is immune from lampooning. The book is humorous, right up to the last page. Our protagonist is innocent, something of a fool, sexually confused, and when he changes--he has managed to retain some lovable innocence that endears him to the reader. Hutchison's gallery of characters, including a Chinese Indian who spews "words of wisdom" (all of which he attributes to tribal folklore), and a girlfriend with that "something extra," combined with the naughty language and explicit sexual scenes--makes this a must for those of us with a funny bone and a broad mind.

I didn't know what to make of Santa Fe Crazy at the half-way point. Hutchison had promised a novel about quirky gay characters and so far, the novel was a heterosexual love story, and getting ever more explicit as the book progressed. The only thing gay was the occasional homophobic jibe, or liberal comment. But since Hutchison's style is addictive, light-hearted and fun, I thoroughly enjoyed the reading, even while mumbling to myself, "so when do we get to the gay part?"

All I can say, without giving anything away, is that things change and we watch a man come to terms with his sexual identity in a most unusual way. And unlike Hutchison's Latitude 38, this novel has a feel-good ending rather than a prophetic one, so it's fun from start to finish. The 2011 Kindle version of Santa Fe Crazy has been updated to the present from the 1999 paperback. It is only $2.99 and takes no more than four or five hours to read. Like Latitude 38, it is a great book for traveling.