Busted Flush: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Brad Smith (Author) "Who's to say why a man will do the things he does?..." (more)
Key Phrases: Leona Anderson, Willy Burns, Dock Bass (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Fleeing a soured marriage and the general turpitude of modern life, Dock Bass retreats to a newly inherited Gettysburg farm where he discovers a trove of priceless Civil War artifacts, including a possible recording of Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg address. He is soon besieged by media vultures, an opportunistic rival claimant to the treasure and a number of shady antiquarians trying to cash in on the find. Fortunately, Dock is just the man to defend Lincoln's legacy. Indifferent to fame and money, Dock stoically restores his farmhouse while denouncing or physically battering every avatar of contemporary crassness; at one point he even recites the Gettysburg Address by heart, punctuating it with crashing hammer blows. Finally, assisted by an eccentric history professor and a glitzy investigative reporter with a heart of gold, Dock squares off against an evil gay antiques dealer and his henchman. Smith (One-Eyed Jacks) concocts a frothily entertaining satire of the corrupt Civil War memorabilia industry, but the fun is somewhat dampened by the figure of Dock, a tower of laconic manliness whose censorious mission is to reclaim the project of historical commemoration from all traces of vulgarity and materialism. The incongruous result is what you might expect if Gary Cooper were to ride into town to clean up The Antiques Road Show.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Canadian Smith delivers another engaging mix of comedy and caper novel. This time, though, the light coating of country noir that colored his delightful American debut, All Hat (2003), has been replaced by a Capraesque mix of light and dark. On the lam from a vapid wife and an upwardly mobile real-estate job, Dock Bass--Mr. Deeds with a touch of Elmore Leonard--heads for Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he has inherited a ramshackle house from a forgotten relative. While renovating the house, he stumbles on a trove of Civil War memorabilia, including what may be a primitive recording of Abraham Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg Address. Suddenly Dock lands in the middle of a gaggle of corrupt antique dealers and Civil War buffs even more avaricious than the real-estate weasels from his former life. No running this time. Dock draws a line in the Gettysburg dust and squares his back for a fight. The subsequent sparring match mixes comedy, history, and rugged individualism in just the right amounts. The ending leans toward sentimental, but like Capra, Smith earns it. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (January 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805076506
• ISBN-13: 978-0805076509
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,750,952 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A look at the shady side of human nature, August 18, 2006

By	Pat Browning "Author of ABSINTHEOF MALICE" (Yukon, OK USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Busted Flush: A Novel (Paperback)

There's not a single murder in Brad Smith's BUSTED FLUSH. Except for the scene where the protagonist whacks a bully across the face with the short length of a two-by-four, the only crimes committed are theft and fraud. Too character-driven to be a straight caper novel, BUSTED FLUSH is a funny and fascinating story about the shady side of human nature.

In upstate New York, Dock Bass doesn't have a midlife crisis, he has a midlife awakening. To use a biblical expression, the scales fall from his eyes. He sees a discontented wife, a dishonest boss, and a bucolic past being wiped from the face of the earth by a newly-rich couple building a McMansion.

Dock throws clothes, books and fishing tackle into his red '91 Ford pickup truck and heads for Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, leaving his wife and the local gossips to invent their own reasons for his disappearance.

Dock has a letter from a Gettysburg attorney advising him of an inheritance. It turns out to be a small farm passed down to him through a series of relatives he never really knew. Dock decides not to sell the property but to move in and renovate the old farmhouse.

Meanwhile, in Washington D.C., a star TV reporter named Amy is heading for Chicago to cover the baseball World Series. Amy, whose favorite person is herself with a Porsche Cayenne Turbo in second place, hates the assignment. She wants to go to Aruba to track a political scandal story. Her boss uses the carrot-and-stick approach: First, the World Series, then Aruba.

By the time the Series ends the big story is in Gettysburg, where Dock Bass's renovations have uncovered the workshop of a young photographer/inventor/diarist who died in the Civil War. His parents sealed off the room just as he left it, and sealed it has remained since 1864.

Among the contents are 223 glass photo plates which include seven candid shots of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, and a contraption called a phonautograph which seems to have recorded Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

Word spreads. Collectors, connivers, Civil War buffs, outraged Edison scholars and reporters come from all directions. Typical are a New York agent who tells Dock that "the whole idea of the Civil War is sexy"; a rapper named J'Makir Slim who has written a hip-hop number based on the Gettysburg Address, and two local phonies who have designs on the entire treasure trove.

And then there's Amy. Once again, Aruba must wait. Her boss is a noted collector and he wants the phonautograph. He already has one but it doesn't have a cylinder with a recording of the Gettysburg Address. He sends the protesting Amy to Gettysburg with instructions to use her feminine wiles on Dock Bass and bring back the machine.

Her feminine wiles get her nowhere with Dock, but she has more maneuvers than Robert E. Lee and wouldn't acknowledge a lost cause if it turned around and bit her. Then into this stew plops a turnip named Leona, who claims to be the real heir of the farm's previous owner.

Dock is willing to turn it all over to Leona if her claim is legitimate. He tells Amy, "The pictures, the diary, the recording -- it's all about the Gettysburg Address, and everybody wants a piece of it. What they don't seem to realize is that everybody already has it. In a hundred and fifty years they haven't figured out what to do with it."

Still, the whole thing has a smell about it. Dock decides to call Leona's bluff and run one of his own, and that's why I stayed up most of the night to finish reading the book.

I kept thinking of Paul Newman in "Nobody's Fool." If Newman were 40 instead of 80, he would be the perfect Dock Bass, who is certainly nobody's fool. As it turns out, neither is Amy.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wild lampooning of for sale America, January 25, 2005

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Everybody in Coppers Falls, New York has an explanation why Dock Bass left town, leaving his social climbing spouse and the realty job she pushed him into behind as he resents one and hates the other. In fact, no one is close to the truth why abruptly Dock, who enjoys fishing and cards with beer left town. Simply the letter from the Pennsylvania attorney gave Dock a reason and means to skip for he has inherited a farm in the Gettysburg area.

On his new homestead that needs immense cleaning, Dock finds nineteenth century treasures especially valuable Civil War artifacts, but the prize is an apparent recording of Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg address. For someone who sought mellow, Dock finds he becomes the center of a storm with the media, treasure hunters, avaricious "friends", and his greedy wife.

Using hyperbole to exaggerate traits, Brad Smith provides a biting satire on America where everything from the Blair House to the Lincoln Room to an Inauguration is on sale. Nothing is sacred regardless of what it might be as there is a price for everything as unassuming Dock learns during the shark infested frenzy. Fans of wild lampooning and historical buffs (while cringing with the for sale sign) will enjoy this sharp edged tale and ponder could Monica's dress be E-Bay bound?

Harriet Klausner

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Re-write Gettysburg History, January 25, 2005

By	CD Chamberlin "CD Chamberlin" (Parsonsfield, Maine USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A very interesting, well developed story, about re-enactors and a great historical discovery in Gettysburg that will rewrite history.
I enjoyed it; however, the historical errors detracted from the story for me. Anyone familiar with Gettysburg knows that Gettysburg College played a role in the famous battle, and is still there today as a college, not a university. I guess the author (Candian) could be forgiven, but I can not. It was a serious sloppy editing error. Other than that, the other errors can be forgiven. I enjoyed the book and would encourage people to read it. Next time, edit better: thus, only three (3) stars.