Rude Behavior
From beginning to end,Rude Behavioris deliciously true to its title. Not for the easily offended or the purveyors of PC, it forms the third installment in Jenkins's continuing saga of Billy Clyde Puckett, first introduced inSemi-Toughas a star running back whose attitude matched his twinkle-toed unpredictability on and off the field. Now, some two decades later, Billy Clyde's feet may have slowed, but his mouth and his passions haven't. He still loves the game; he's just sick of the way it's gotten soft: "Pass interference (used to be) when you broke a guy's ribs. Today it's excess frowning." His plan is to heal it. He's decided to turn his back on the clichés that have sustained his life as a broadcaster for "something more important than Hamlet": he will start his own NFL team, the expansion West Texas Tornadoes, and run it the way it should be run. Of course, if he can't exactly set the game right, he will at least set it on its ear with the help of old teammates T.J. Lambert and Shake Tiller--and his father-in-law's fortune.Between kick-off and pay dirt, Jenkins visits his usual haunts: saloons, locker rooms, bedrooms, front offices, and the field. With rambunctious good spirit, he steers us from the dust of Texas to the glitter of New York and Hollywood. Sure, it's a funny novel--rudeness and crudeness abound--but it's also a novel that insists on tackling the game's problems, piling onto human foibles, intercepting overbearing stupidity, blindsiding political correctness, splitting the uprights with the virtues of hard work and good friendship, and still leaving enough room to slip in advice for disarming airplane smoke detectors. From Jenkins, who would want to accept less?--Jeff Silverman