Customer Reviews

Season of Gene: A Novel

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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.

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.

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.

Season of Gene is an amazing book. Just over 200 pages long and nearly perfectly plotted, the story's real surprise is its two female leads, Joy and Theresa. One is a sudden widow and the other a struggling single mother, and both are drawn with empathy, humor, and above all generosity. Hudgens is a very rare author, whose great comic timing and breakneck pacing co-exist with his ability to perfectly paint small moments of human frailty and decency alike. The book isn't easy to classify, but it is easy to love.

Loved it. The humor and plot is top-notch and fast-paced, but don't be fooled, the characters find their way into your heart and stay there-even the dead ones. This book is different from Hudgens' "Drive Like Hell," (as different as North and South), but "Gene" is just as funny, heart-breaking, and well-written. Hudgens is an adept storyteller. Great Christmas gift!