num_pages: 190
description: "I know some things. A guy can't grow up in Claude without knowing something about the place. But what I understand best about my town is how it shuts down on game night, how dusk settles over the deserted Main Street with only the blinking of a single yellow light that sort of marks the center of Claude. And with the wind blowing dust and bits of trash along the sidewalks and gutters downtown, not a soul in sight, someone driving through on the interstate could just think a bunch of folks got tired of where they was at and decided to leave for good.So begins Whompyjawed , the story of Willy Keeler, a high school football hero from Claude, Texas. From a brief and depressing sexual encounter with a classmate to an infatuation with one of his mother's friends, he moves through the societal underside of his backwash hometown. And while struggling to make sense of himself, his own capacity for desire and regret, he espouses a purely instinctive take on his small world--sometimes affectionate, sometimes bitter--reflecting the lives of those who inhabit it. Told with a humorous edge, Whompyjawed offers a vivid insight into a fading corner of rural America, coupled with the evolving, often violent personal odyssey of a young man who intuitively experiences an awareness of how he is being groomed to be a hero--which in itself is the antithesis of the currents that are sweeping him along toward college.
language: English
title: Whompyjawed
titlecomplete: Whompyjawed
genres: Fiction, Sports
ratings_count: 95
series: The Texas Trilogy
publisher: The Permanent Press