Yikes, what a great book! Johnny Shaw is a writer who keeps
getting better, and if he gets any better than this it’ll be downright scary.
Johnny Shaw’s debut novel Dove Season (the first
Jimmy Veeder Fiasco), was great fun, and garnered a Spotted Owl Award. His
second novel, Big Maria (without
Veeder), was even better, snagging an Anthony Award. Now comes Plaster City, his best yet, and
deserving of even greater laurels.
Jimmy Veeder and his pal Bobby Maves are back, still wild
and crazy, two years after the events of Dove
Season. But they’ve grown as characters, and Shaw has grown as a writer. This
is a fine novel—witty, wacky and sometimes hilarious, but with a heart, a soul
and a brain. As a result, Plaster City
is extremely satisfying on several levels. The characters are alive, the plot
is compelling, the action is exciting and inventive, and there are real-life
serious issues lurking just beneath the surface.
There’s plenty of conflict here, as Jimmy and Bobby battle
with guns, lead pipes and fists against a biker gang, Mexican mobsters, and
even each other. But the most important conflict pits our two heroes—poster
boys for irresponsibility—against the pressures of fatherhood.
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| Johnny Shaw and his Spotted Owl |
When Bobby’s teenage daughter (a girl he barely knows) goes
missing, the two set out on a mad quest to find her and return her to her
mother. At the same time, Jimmy’s adopted son Juan is struggling with the
traumatic events that brought he and Jimmy together. As Jimmy and Bobby deal
with fatherhood in their own ways, Bobby is forced to examine his relationship
with his own estranged father, a man every bit as wild an crazy as Bobby
himself.
Yeah, there are serious issues here, but they never get in
the way of the fun. And fun is a big, big factor, beginning with Jimmy’s wise
guy narration and intensified by the wacky repartee between the Jimmy an Bobby. And
it just keeps on coming, in the choices they make, the company they keep
and the messes they get into. The book is subtitled “A Jimmy Veeder Fiasco,”
and that’s an understatement. These guys have a knack for turning the simplest tasks into
fiascoes, and do so on a regular basis. The result is a non-stop romp through
the Southwestern desert.
Plaster City is
everything a novel should be—engaging, enlightening, and always entertaining.
And as I said, Johnny Shaw is still getting better. I can’t wait to see what he
does next.
