Elvis, Jesus and Coca-Cola: A Novel (Kinky Friedman Novels (Paperback)) - Friedman, Kinky

Elvis, Jesus and Coca-Cola: A Novel (Kinky Friedman Novels (Paperback)) by Friedman, Kinky

Format: Mass-Market Paperback

Published by Bantam, 1994

Kinky Friedman, the prodigal poet of country music, the novelist the Chicago Tribune called "a hip hybrid of Groucho Marx and Sam Spade," the author/musician and all-around bad ol' boy who single-handedly aims to put the "pop" back into popular fiction, has written a tale of murder, mayhem, and mental hospital slippers that is guaranteed not only to please the legion of fans who love his music, but is sure to delight readers far and wide. If you want to meet great characters, ponder the mysteries of life (and death), and have an outrageously good time, then Elvis, Jesus & Coca-Cola is just what you need. When legendary tough guy/actor Tom Baker dies, Kinky Friedman, who knew Baker probably better than anyone, suspects foul play. Bolstering his suspicion is the fact that a documentary Baker had been making on Elvis impersonators has disappeared, along with the only person who has actually seen the film, Baker's assistant, Legs. In the course of searching for the missing Elvis movie, Kinky explores his own deep, dark past, namely his simultaneous affairs with two women named Judy - Uptown Judy and Downtown Judy, both vixens of a fairly high order (if fuzzy memory serves him right). Prompting this review of ancient history is the sudden reappearance of Downtown Judy ready to resume their relationship, and the sudden and mysterious disappearance of Uptown Judy. That these two plots come together, and that the Elvis film is found, is to be expected. Nothing else in this novel, however, deals with anything remotely expected. Friedman's voice is feisty, sassy, irreverent, blistering, provoking, enchanting, mesmerizing and incredibly entertaining. In fact, Elvis, Jesus & Coca-Cola is much more than another Kinky Friedman mystery - itself a cause of joy - it is an entertainment of the highest order. Publishers Weekly Friedman's hero, an eccentric Greenwich Village musician and amateur sleuth also named Kinky Friedman, moves into action after one friend dies and another disappears. At the wake for actor and moviemaker Tom Baker, whose death is attributed to a drug overdose, Tom's dad asks Kinky to find a missing documentary on Elvis impersonators that his son had been working on. A week later, Kinky's sometime-lover Uptown Judy (as distinguished from another occasional lover, Downtown Judy) is missing from her apartment, where there is evidence suggesting that she's been taken away forcibly. In the course of his investigations, Kinky ruminates a lot over his checkered past, drinks a fair amount and expounds in great detail his peculiar, misogynistic philosophy of life. With the help of his friends (among them Kinky regulars Rambam, Ratso and McGovern), all becomes, of course, somewhat clearer in the end. But here, as in his earlier mysteries ( Musical Chairs ; A Case of Lone Star ; et al.), what matters is less the plot than Kinky himself--irreverent, mildly obscene and frequently very funny. Author tour. (Sept.)