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by James Wilcox

ISBN: 0316940453
Author: James Wilcox
Language: English
Publisher: Back Bay Books (October 1, 1998)
Pages: 256
Category: Humor & Satire
Subcategory: Literature
Rating: 4.8
Votes: 453
Size Fb2: 1700 kb
Size ePub: 1554 kb
Size Djvu: 1891 kb
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James Wilcox Humor and Satire English

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James Wilcox's Modern Baptists is filled with small-town dreamers: the handsome and Hollywood-obsessed . .

James Wilcox's Modern Baptists is filled with small-town dreamers: the handsome and Hollywood-obsessed . 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.

Modern Baptists book. 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.

Published in 1983, Modern Baptists is the universally praised debut novel by American author James Wilcox, and his best known work. Set in the fictional town of Tula Springs, Louisiana, the novel concerns middle-aged bachelor Bobby Pickens, the assistant manager of Sunny Boy Bargain Store and his half-brother . A former actor and cocaine dealer .

Wilcox's first book Modern Baptists remains his best known work. Guest of a Sinner is set in New York City with characters from Tallahassee. Wilcox was the recipient of the 2011 Louisiana Writer Award presented by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana at its annual Louisiana Book Festival in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the state’s literary heritage exemplified by his body of work. He was the Robert Penn Warren Professor at LSU from 2004–2007 and then Donald and Velvia Crumbley Professor from 2007–2010.

Books for People with Print Disabilities. Internet Archive Books. Delaware County District Library (Ohio).

is a precocious master of old-fashioned farce, and this novel. is a wonderfully funny explosion of comedy that is solidly based, as a good comic novel must be, on a serious understanding of life.

Critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful, James Wilcox is the kind of writer other writers can afford to rave about. Critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful, James Wilcox is the kind of writer other writers can afford to rave about.

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.

"Wilcox ... is a precocious master of old-fashioned farce, and this novel ... is a wonderfully funny explosion of comedy that is solidly based, as a good comic novel must be, on a serious understanding of life". -- The New Yorker.

Comments:

fr0mTheSkY

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.

Skunk Black

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!

Jerdodov

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.

Abywis

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.

Jozrone

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

Meztihn

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

Qumenalu

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.

Mr Pickens is one of lifes disasters through no real fault of his own. He just makes horrendous errors of judgement whilst trying to be good.Believing he is dying (he later finds he isn't) he takes in his jailbird half brother FX. Things go from bad to worse as he is fired from his job, gets caught up in one of FX's plots,decides to become a preacher for a new modern liberal Baptist church until he's caught praying in the dark with a naked man, and his suicide attempt fails when he runs out of gas....
Really funny, the comic pace and wit comes fast and furious over just 239 pages, and is crammed with eccentrics that lead confused amoral lives under the hell and damnation community ethos of Tula Springs (whilst every action they do is almost certain to lead to this damnation!)and the Huey Long school of politics.The undercurrent of how all this oppresses Christian spirit and makes an honest man who respects the law (Pickens) afraid of the law is wonderfully understated.
The characters-larger than life- are always believable and the humour so well constructed and funny that it will be imitated more than dated over time.
My favourite? Pickens thinking of how he can break the ice and make conversation with his dentist-who is totally ignoring him at the opera do-saying, "I guess you don't recognise me with my mouth closed" to completely the wrong person!
A book I really enjoyed.