Customer Reviews

Sex and Sunsets

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I found Sex & Sunsets in a used bookstore yesterday and today I'm going out to buy all his other books. I couldn't put it down. Kelly Palomino is crazed and the scary part is I totally understand him. Sandlin is an incredible wordsmith--I found myself laughing out loud at his wry, quirky, hyper-attunement, and underlining words and phrases to remember the rest of my life!

Don't be swayed by the negative reviews for this book! Tim Sandlin's stories are not steeped in realism, they require a suspension of disbelief and a light hearted approach.

Far from being a creepy stalker, the main character Kelly Palamino (best protagionist name ever!) is a die hard romantic, playful and self-depricating, who falls in love and perserveres against all odds. Sure, it's a plot that been been done before, but I've never come across an ending as satifying. Those who feel his character isn't believable aren't being honest with themselves. All of us share Kelly-like quirks, thoughts and motives, (we just don't act on them the way he does!)

Sandlin is one of the few authors who makes me laugh out load and every once in a while hits upon a universal truth about life that delights. I think the people who didn't enjoy this book just don't "get" Sandlin's sense of humor and style. I feel lucky that I'm someone who does.

I had the pleasure of reading Sex and Sunsets while living in the community in which the book is set. A deceptively light-hearted romp with a lead character so odd, so miserable, so painfully honest in accounting for his myriad misfortunes that one can't help cheering for the fellow. He is Everyman to which EVERYTHING has gone laughingly wrong. Other reviewers have faulted this book for it's lack of a real-world sensibility--a quality which I believe recommends it for re-reading. I get enough of the real world in the course of my everyday life--Sandlin gives us romance via vaudevillian silliness. His charms are those of the jester--deceptively wise. His follow-up, Western Swing, is even better.

This is neither Sandlin's best book nor for everybody, but for fans off the offbeat, its an enjoyable read.

Kelly Palomino is a 30ish, ex-hippie, suffering from some degree of mental illness. Among his more appealing quirks is the fact that he hears voices in running water--and occasionally acts on their advice. He's definitely delusional in other ways too, although Sandlin leaves it pretty much to the reader to discern how much of the plot (revealed through Kelly's first person narration)is actually happening and how much is a figment of the imagination.

The main plot revolves around Kelly's pursuit of the lovely Collette who he first encounters on her wedding day. Upon seeing her punt a football, he decides they were meant for eachother. The rest of the novel basically consists of Kelly stalking Collette, which, depending on the reader's tolerance is either harmless, Quixotic and often hilarious or more than a little creepy. I tend toward the former, although the latter can't be dismissed and occasionally darkens the fun.

As the plot moves on there are quirky characters, Kelly's amusing stories and Sandlin's distinctive voice. If taken literally, the ending is more than a little contrived and if its all taken as a figment of Kelly's imagination, then the whole story gets more than a little sad.

On the whole though, Sandlin's first book is an enjoyable read and a good introduction to all of the elements that makes him a treasured cult author.

(Note: Kelly's story is picked up in the superior "Western Swing.")

This story traces a few months in the lives of a couple of wooden characters. The book's premise of a "loser" finally getting the girl had potential, but the author made the main character (Kelly Palomino) a bit too unlikeable. His conquest, Colette, was also unlikeable. I was left wondering what the two of them could ever see in each other.

If you have time for a good read, I'd highly recommend Kurt Vonnegut, J.D. Salinger, or Tom Robbins, all of whom Tim Sandlin has been compared to in these reviews. I don't think that this book measures up to the comparison.

A truly enjoyable book. I happened across this book one day, never having heard of Sandlin. I read it in one sitting and promptly went out and bought his other 4 novels - reading them in a week. Sandlin reads like a Wyoming version of Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut if they were younger.

Despite what other reviews say, this book does not make light of, or condone stalking. It's an off beat love story. It's about honesty and following your heart. Definitely worth reading - Then read "Skipped Parts."

This is the first book I've read by Tim Sandlin, and what an introduction! Kelly Palamino is at once crazy, likeable, annoying, and just plain sad. From the first line this book grabbed me and wouldn't let go. Intersting characters throughout, and twists and turns that were completely unexpected. I recommend to anyone looking for that "not your ordinary novel".

This book was excellent! The main character, Kelly is so likeable because of the antics he thinks up to win Colette over. Tim Sandlin is a fabuous fiction writer and I can't wait to read Sorrow Floats.

Why a movie producer hasn't snapped this property up is beyond me.

Kelly Palamino is focused on one thing and one thing only, the woman named Colette. His obsession begins when Colette kicks a football seconds before her wedding and it grows through a progression of rejections, torments, and self abuse until he wins the object of his dreams.

If all humans were as focused as Kelly is in the pursuit of their goals everybody would be a winner.

Sex and Sunsets by Tim Sandlin is an unusual, funny heartwarming story of love and persistance. It grabs you from the start when a down and out Wyoming dish washer sees a woman kick a football over a church just before she goes in to get married. From that point, he is determined to make her his...wether she likes it or not. A must read for fans of humor and off beat love stories