Season of Gene: A Novel [Hardcover]

Dallas Hudgens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 2007

Somewhere between incarceration and sainthood stands Joe Rice, a man who relishes peace, painkillers, and his Friday-night baseball league. When his shady business partner Gene dies rounding the bases, Joe knows this isn't going to be an ordinary season. Soon enough, a suburban ex-mobster, his entrepreneurial son, and a gun-toting minister have Tasered, maced and harassed Joe over the location of a three-million-dollar Babe Ruth baseball bat he doesn't know anything about.

Joe just wants to save his car-detailing/ticker brokerage business from Gene's mountain of debt, crime and craziness. (Winning a game of Madden NFGL against his ex-girlfriend's twelve-year-old son would also be a relief.) But first, he must confront the ghosts of his past - namely, his murdered uncle and his mentally unstable mother. He must also deal with the present, navigating the space between the two women he cares about. And finally, he must face the future, every man's least favorite obstacle.

Dallas Hudgens, the acclaimed author of Drive Like Hell, blends Guatemalan chicken, online pharmaceuticals, and unforgettable characters in a raucous but moving story of love and baseball. Season of Gene is a wild ride of a novel about a troubled man, the troubled women who love him and a legendary baseball bat that could either save their lives or get them killed.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Virginia-based Hudgens (Drive Like Hell) channels regular guy Joe Rice for his rollicking sophomore effort. Gruff, conscientious Joe owns a Washington, D.C., car-detailing service and ticket brokerage, while best friend Gene Dellorso manages a local limo service. Joe's the manager and catcher for the Vicodin-and-beer-fueled Whip Spa Yankees, for which Gene also plays. When Gene, 35, collapses dead at a game, his pre-game confessions of an unsalvageable marriage and a desire to flee for Las Vegas aren't the only secrets he's been hiding: a cavalcade of thugs come crawling out of the woodwork all wanting to claim a 1932 vintage bat used by Babe Ruth that's now worth a cool three million. Things only get worse from there. Though lacking the hyperactive dramatic punch of Hudgens's debut, consistent conflict and a whole heap of mischief keep this lean, amusing novel chugging along. The story is narrated by Rice, and his constant onslaught of conversational expletives may prove a challenge for some, but those ready for a rowdy ride won't be disappointed. (Sept.)
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From Booklist

Joe Rice runs his modest Whip Spa car-detailing business, and he's player-manager of the Whip Spa Yankees. For Joe, life is largely a metaphor for baseball. He and his teammates are all in their 30s, and a pregame meal is two cans of Red Bull and a couple of Vicodins. Then there's Rice's utterly profligate business partner, Gene, the Yankees' slumping slugger, who dies of a massive heart attack sliding home with the go-ahead run. After Gene's death, Joe is tasered by New Jersey gangsters looking for a nearly priceless bat used by Babe Ruth. The Jerseyans tell the still-twitching Joe that the bat was Gene's, and Joe decides that the Babe's bat will mean salvation for Whip Spa and the Yankees, but securing it will pit him against dangerous hoods, his own fecklessness, and his own past. Hudgens (Drive Like Hell, 2004) has scored again. He's given readers an engaging, knowing glimpse of an odd, but no doubt real, world of arrested development. And he knows his baseball. Gaughan, Thomas

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (September 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416541489
• ISBN-13: 978-1416541486
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,326,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very funny guy-centric book women will probably enjoy too, July 31, 2010

By 

J. Luiz (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Season of Gene (Kindle Edition)

I loved this book. It captures all the typical guy obsessions -- baseball. professional athletes, and videogames (predominantly Madden NFL). The basic premise is that the manager of an amateur baseball team experiences the death of his friend/teammate in the midst of a game, and then he's left to clean up the mess his friend had made of his life. The biggest challenge is to track down the bat that Babe Ruth used in the 1932 World Series, during which he reportedly called a home run by pointing to the outfield where he planned to hit it. The dead friend had managed to get his hand on the bat, which is expected to be worth several million dollars, so the main character, Joe Rice, has to retrieve it to help the dead man's now heavily indebted wife, while contending with a Mob-tied family who'd like to keep it for themselves. There is a lot of humor here, wonderful characterizations, and very touching moments, but none too sentimental, in keeping with the macho attitude most of the characters try to cop. Joe has a very attentive relationship with his girlfriend's 12-year-old son, but their way of connecting is to trade profanity-laced trash talk while competing at the Madden game. There's a particularly poignant moment when Joe runs into one of the boy's teachers at his school. The teacher is concerned because the boy is doing poorly -- a situation Joe can sympathize with because he was never much of a student either. When the teacher asks him a few simple questions, Joe gets nervous and feels put on the spot, flashing back to the moments when he felt put on the spot by teachers everyday. In a funny Sopranos-like moment, Joe tries to use a big word to impress the teacher, but uses the word "progeny" when he means prodigy. It's a very funny demonstration of how men never really grow up, but it also has some very touching examinations of men's relationship with women. I highly recommend if you're looking for something well written but also immensely entertaining. Some of the funniest observations come when Joe draws parallels between managing a baseball game to handling people and challenging situations in his life.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another classic from Hudgens, November 5, 2007

By 

B. Burns MD - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Season of Gene: A Novel (Hardcover)

Better than Drive in my opinion. Fast paced and no real "soft spots". Provided a much needed diversion and escape from reality with its' well developed characters and plot.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grand Slam Read, October 21, 2007

By 

Lynn Harris (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Season of Gene: A Novel (Hardcover)

Season of Gene is a grand slam for Drive Like Hell author Dallas Hudgens. If you liked Drive (really, if you haven't already, you should check out this book), and you're looking for another page-turning, funny, fast-paced and edgy book you will not be disappointed. When Joe Rice's business partner, Gene, dies rounding third base, Joe's quiet suburban life takes some unexpected turns,invovling gun-toting gangsters, internet drug scams, and a search for Babe Ruth's bat. Funny, unpredictable and certainly enjoyable, this boisterous and raucous novel will keep you busy turning pages.