Ride, Cowboy, Ride!

July 23, 2012
In his funniest novel yet, cowboy poet Black pits two modern-day rodeo cowboys against wild bucking broncs and ornery bulls, as well as ruthless endangered species smugglers, a vindictive beauty queen, and the hilarious fumblings of the romantic heart. This comical farce is a fine example of western humor loaded with silliness and wacky malapropisms. Cooney Bedlam and Straight Line are rodeo cowboy traveling buddies who ride broncs and bulls for the big money–and bigger belt buckles—of champions. Straight is serious about his career; Cooney is a free-spirit, smitten by Pica D’TroiT, “a pistol-packin’ pawnshop pinup girl.” When Straight and Pica become involved in the fiercely competitive business of cowboy cosmetics, they earn the enmity of a bitter female model and her lovesick boyfriend. As Cooney and Straight compete en route to nationals in Vegas, their misadventures include fighting off an angry mob of animal rights activists with a fly swatter, drinking too much prune juice and tequila, and riding against famous cowboys, including Hubcap Longevity, in a goofy llama race (“A word about llamas: nasty”). Meanwhile, Pica’s framed for smuggling endangered species feathers, and Cooney tries to clear her name and avoid the murderous intentions of an inept Latino gunman (think Desi Arnaz with a pistol). A hoot.

August 1, 2012
Sounding for all the world like an American Tom Sharpe, Black tells the riotous story of Cooney Bedlam and Straight Line, a couple of rodeo riders who hook up with the alluring Pica D'TroiT, who's been set up by the nasty Oui Oui Reese to take the fall for illegal animal trafficking. Can Cooney and Straight get her off the hook and still make it to the National Rodeo Finals in time to compete? Baxter, a veterinarian, novelist, and cowboy poet, has an exuberant prose style (he uses lots of exclamation marks but not because he doesn't know better: they make us laugh) and a very weird way of putting together a story (How many novels can you name that include a calf-roping scene set in a woman's living room?). He doesn't go for the subtle humorother characters are called Salinka Mortonmortonson, Dr. Shin-Guard, Lionel Trane, and Neville Schneerand, when he goes for the big laughs, he usually gets them (with a book like this, there are always a few jokes that fall flat, but those are few and far between). A very funny, very eccentric take on the contemporary western.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)