Customer Reviews

Steppin' on a Rainbow (Kinky Friedman Novels)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I graduated from Kinky Friedman (the Lasso from El Paso) and the Texas Jewboys to his mysteries, and was more than pleased. Like his music, his first novels were great, and improved with age. Somewhere along the line, about six books into the series, he got lazy. The dialog is no longer witty, just trite. Steppin' on a Rainbow is awful. Kinky has just stopped trying.

As a longtime Kinkster fan, i must admit i was ever-so-slightly disappointed with Steppin' on a Rainbow. I thoroughly enjoyed his previous outing ( The Mile High Club) and feel Rainbow is a step backward. NO Ratso! Rambam also makes a very minor appearance. These are stalwart characters who i look forward to seeing in each new adventure. Stephanie DuPont takes on her largest role so far and, i confess, was starting to get up my sleeve before the book ended. however, these are minor qualms and i liked the book, just not as much as his other work-- hence, the 4 star rating. As they say about both pizza and sex, "even when they're bad, they're still better than anything else." I think the Kinkster can be added to that list. .......As a side note, i would encourage anyone who is a fan and hasn't already done so, to get the audio versions of his books as read by Kinky himself. They're really killer bee....

Having read everything that Donald Westlake has written, I am always looking for other authors of comic mysteries. A friend suggested Kinky Friedman so I bought "Steppin On A Rainbow." I'll try another of his books because he is so popular that they have got to be better but it will be the last if it's like this one. The main character has some great lines and is certainly likeable enough and so are his cohorts but his love interest, Stephanie DuPont, has got to be the most obnoxious character in all of literature. I was hoping that she might get bumped off before the end so she doesn't reappear in any other books. I also had a problem with Kinky getting the solution to the case in a dream rather than by clever detective work. Not a great mystery but good enough to try another.

Not only did I think Rainbow wasn't Friedman's best; I wondered if it's really Friedman's. What happened to Ratso? Why is Stephanie without any personality traits except annoyance? Why are there fewer of those precious Kinky gems (literary road apples?) I enjoy so much? While the plot is as good if not better than most of Kinky's books, I read his books for the characters and the charm of his warped wit. Either Kinky needs a sabbatical or a better quality ghost writer. Nevertheless, it won't stop me from seeking his books; he's one of a kind, and even a mediocre Kinky Friedman book is better than many, many other writers'.

Let me start out by saying that I own every book Kinky Friedman has written. My husband even got me McGovern's "Eat, Drink and Be Kinky" as an anniversary gift this year. That being said, I found that this latest effort from the Kinkster wasn't up to his usual high standards. Maybe it was the lack of most of the Village Irregulars. (My God, does that mean I missed Ratso? Whoa...) The last half to last third of the book kicks into true Kinky mode, but there was a bit of traveling before we got there. If you're new to Kinky, start with another one of his books first.

This book will feel familiar to Kinky Friedman fans, with the usual cast of characters included. The themes of loyalty and loneliness are well drawn. This book is a classically enjoyable Kinky-style mystery; however, I must downgrade my rating of this tale to a 3-star rating. The character of Stephanie DuPont is so irritating and unlikeable that it is distracting from the whole. Unfortunately, she plays a large role in this mystery, so you cannot skim past her appearances. I hope Kinky's next mystery will be investigating her death.

While I sometimes feel like the Kinky mysteries have worn thin, I still have to read every one. In (author) Friedman's quest to keep things fresh he yet again moves the locale from (character) Friedman's NYC home. This time it's Hawaii and it lends the story a supernatural flair that didn't particularly sit well with me.

Nonetheless, it's still the same 'ole Kinster. This time lovable journalist/teddy bear McGovern is MIA on the islands and the whole crew (minus the glaringly absent Ratso) has to come to the rescue. That rescue seems to consist mainly of drinking, sunbathing, drinking, and a new bit that involves Kinky's friend Hoover and his passion for limericks.

The plotline is so thin that I get the impression Friedman uses them simply as a vehicle for his often hilarious vulgar lessons and stories. Any reader not familiar with earlier entries won't get too far. However, for the faithful it's still a treat to read about our beloved Jewish cowboy.

I've read all of The kinky Mysteries, save for "While the Cat's away" (which is a mystery in itself) and have loved them all and enjoyed seeing Kinky's style progress though the years. "Rainbow" reads as if it were written by someone trying to write like Kinky. Not only is he out of his element, New York, but worst of all, He's recycled a character and changed him completely.

He's traveled before and wrote about it well, but to take a bee-keeping loner from Texas with a nervous twitch ("Armadillos and Old Lace") and turn him into a friendly news photographer who used to be a Nashville buddy. . .It's like reading a story set in the fifties that mentions FM Radio, Laptops or the space shuttle...

Hopefully, the next book will actually be written BY the Kinkster.

Okay - I am a fan. Else why would I put up with this? You either love him or leave him. Nobody waffles when it comes to Kinky. While this may not be the tightest plot line - hey, you don't get Shakespeare from this guy. Closer to Madd Magazine, eh? Bawdy - yes. Clever - in parts. witty - I'd say mostly. But I really read it to get my hit of really rude analogies and metaphors - none of which I will quote here for fear that young persons may be reading this. Kinky's friend McGovern dissapears into the Pacific Ocean - highjinx ensue. After you read it, give it to somebody with a dry sense of humor.

I have the same reservations as most of the reviews below. It probably didn't help that I'd just finished re-reading Armadillos and Old Lace, but I found the Kinkster's latest a bit ponderous, poorly plotted and when the action eventually began it seemed to be dispatched far too quickly.
And you're right, Stephanie DuPont is a major, major irritation. She may be gorgeous but I think we'd all be a lot better off without her.
It's still a funny book, though, replete with the usual pearls of wisdom. Let's hope the slight loss of form, is just a blip on the radar.