Digital List Price:	$12.95
Kindle Price:	$9.99 Save $2.96 (23%)
Sold by:	Amazon.com Services LLC

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Modern Baptists: A Novel (Voices of the South) by [James Wilcox]

Follow the Author

James Wilcox

Modern Baptists: A Novel (Voices of the South) Kindle Edition

by James Wilcox (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.1 29 ratings

Part of: Voices of the South (5 books)

See all formats and editions

Universally and repeatedly praised ever since it first appeared in 1983, Modern Baptists
is the book that launched novelist James Wilcox's career and debuted the endearingly daft community of Tula Springs, Louisiana. It's the tale of Bobby Pickens, assistant manager of Sonny Boy Bargain Store, who gains a new lease on life, though he almost comes to regret it. Bobby's handsome half brother F.X.—ex-con, ex-actor, and ex-husband three times over—moves in, and things go awry all over town. Mistaken identities; entangled romances with Burma, Toinette, and Donna Lee; assault and battery; charges of degeneracy; a nervous breakdown—it all comes to a head at a Christmas Eve party in a cabin on a poisoned swamp. This is sly, madcap romp that offers readers the gift of abundant laughter.

Modern Baptists was included in Harold Bloom's The Western Canon, in GQ magazine's forty-fifth anniversary issue as one of the best works of fiction in the past forty-five years, and among Toni Morrison's "favorite works by unsung writers" in U.S. News and World Report.

Part of series

Voices of the South
Print length

254 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

LSU Press
Publication date

May 1, 2006
File size

543 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
See all details

All 5 for you in this series See full series

See included books

Total Price: $55.87

By clicking on above button, you agree to the Kindle Store Terms of Use

James Wilcox
12
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $7.59
Richard Russo
2,298
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $12.99
Marguerite Duras
1,630
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $11.99
James Wilcox
8
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $12.95
Marilynne Robinson
3,386
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $9.99

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This title is enjoying a renewed interest after the New Yorker article on the author. "Mr. Wilcox has real comic genius. He is a writer to make us all feel hopeful," wrote Anne Tyler in the New York Times Book Review. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

About the Author

James Wilcox is the author of eight novels, including North Gladiola, Miss Undine's Living Room, Guest of a Sinner, and, most recently, Heavenly Days. He is Robert Penn Warren Professor and director of creative writing at Louisiana State University and lives in Baton Rouge.

--This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B008OKBD36
Publisher ‏ : ‎ LSU Press; 1st edition (May 1, 2006)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 1, 2006
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 543 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 254 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0807131660

Best Sellers Rank: #1,261,530 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,978 in Humorous Literary Fiction
- #10,880 in Contemporary Literary Fiction
- #21,751 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.1 29 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

James Wilcox

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5

29 global ratings

5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Stephen Roth

A Hero who is Painfully Human

Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2014

Verified Purchase

Poor Bobby Pickens. His doctor has diagnosed him with malignant cancer, his half-brother, F.X., has moved in after being been released from Angola Prison, and Bobby is in danger of losing his job as assistant manager at the Sonny Boy Bargain Store in Tula Springs, Louisiana.

If that doesn't sound particularly funny, read on for a few pages and see why Bobby Pickens (or "Mr. Pickens" as he is usually addressed) might be the most amusing Southern anti-hero since Ignatius Reilly in Confederacy of Dunces. James Wilcox's Modern Baptists is filled with small-town dreamers: the handsome and Hollywood-obsessed F.X., the stuck-up and leggy red-head Toinette, and the big-hearted and big-boned Burma, who is about to be married but can't shake her longing for another man.

We see all of these characters through the very shallow lens of Mr. Pickens, a chubby, middle-aged man with a bad comb-over, several layers of self-pity, and an unfortunate talent for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. We follow him through one awkward social encounter after another. Bobby Pickens is like most of us on our worst days: unsteady, unkempt, self-conscious but yet hopelessly unaware of that piece of toilet paper sticking to the bottom of our shoe. That's every day for Mr. Pickens, and it's sometimes a wonder he can pick himself up from the plastic-covered love seat in his elderly mother's house.

Wilcox has a dry delivery that lets you in on his characters' flaws without being heavy-handed about it. Watching two residents of Tula Springs interact is like watching a chess match between a pair of barely sober checkers players. Each has a different agenda, and each is certain that he or she is achieving it. Yet Wilcox gives you just enough information to know that no one is winning much of anything. I haven't laughed so hard reading a book in a long time.

Bobby Pickens suffers countless indignities. The other characters beat on him like a tetherball through most of the 239 pages. In one scene when Mr. Pickens kneels with another man to pray in a darkened bedroom, you cringe in anticipation of the embarrassment that is sure to come.

Through all the defeats, however, the main character of Modern Baptists carries on and maybe even earns a smidgeon of dignity along the way. If not a hero, he at least becomes someone you can root for. That is what makes Wilcox's book a study in humanity as well as humor.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

An Amazon customer

bemused

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2008

Verified Purchase

I read and loved Guest of a Sinner and was excited to read more books by Wilcox. I checked out the reviews carefully before choosing Modern Baptists to read next. I found the book to be very dated. The characters were stereotypical, the situations weren't interesting, the pace crawled along. Unlike apparently everyone else who reviewed this, I didn't laugh out loud, not once. If I hadn't bought it new, I'm not sure I would have even finished it. I'm giving this three stars because I feel as if I must have missed something. . . but I'm not sure what it could have been. I certainly won't be reading it again to find out.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kindle Customer

Happy to Discover James Wilcox

Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2015

Verified Purchase

I'm so happy to have discovered James Wilcox, through an article on Southern US writers in the NY Times. This was the first of his Tula Springs books that I read, and I'm eagerly devouring the others. Having lived in this part of Louisiana for a few years, I have to say that the characters are not as far fetched ad one would think. The eccentricity, humor and pathos, along with the many mentions of the local plant life, bring this part of the country to life.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

jeffrey vincent

Hard to believe

Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2014

Verified Purchase

that Wilcox has such a small following. His novels, especially those set in Tula Springs, are humane, quirky, absurd, laugh out loud funny, and strangely moving. Modern Baptists, the first, is one of his best.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

A.

Meh

Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2013

I read this book because Harold Bloom mentions it in his "Western Canon."

I liked the characters. They were vivid, well-developed, and memorable. But the plot meanders. Many pointless details. Also, the whole "modern baptist" theme seems forced and, well, pointless. There were a few funny lines, but I definitely wasn't laughing my way through the book. Overall, the book is inconsistent. I give four of the thirty three chapters 4 Stars; the other twenty nine chapters get 2 stars.

In my opinion, this book is a poor man's version of John Kennedy Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces."

Helpful

scribbler1

Wilcox is a master of subtle, all-too-human comedy

Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2000

Verified Purchase

Where has this author been all my life? Or, maybe a better questions is, where have I been? "Modern Baptists" was the first Wilcox novel I have ever read, and now I want to read them all. Deft, comic, eloquently spare prose, and hilarious on every page. With writing that includes lines like "I'm just here looking at the opera," (paraphrased - but it's close) I'm ready to read the whole Wilcox oeuvre!

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

gail corkern

Brilliant

Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2015

Verified Purchase

Pure enjoyment. Took us back to a bygone era with reawakend memories of the time.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

James

I would recommend this to all of my friends

Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2015

Verified Purchase

Hilarious and timeless. I would recommend this to all of my friends.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Jason Spear

Have read this several times over the years...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 5, 2013

Verified Purchase

Every time I read this novel I find some beautiful new nuance, another unexpected and surprising insight into the heart. Modern Baptists manages the rare feat of being very funny and deeply moving at the same time. It is so subtle in its gift to the reader, an honest and rare thing to return to whenever you're feeling the world is a little too dark.

Buy for others

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Follow the Author

Modern Baptists: A Novel (Voices of the South) Kindle Edition

Customers who bought this item also bought

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the author

James Wilcox

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries