Honey Don't

Rating:
Summary: Tim Sandlin is a wonderful writer, this is a bad book
Review: I think Tim Sandlin is great. I've read every book he's published. I looked forward to his next book, and I'm still looking forward to his next book despite Honey Dont. At a reading, Mr Sandlin made known that this was the first book that wasn't about himself. So perhaps it's a transitional necessity, an experiment, and good for him. Artists need to stretch. I certainly hope he keeps writing. I hope the Honey Dont becomes a movie and Tim becomes rich off it. The characters are unbelievable yet wacky enough that coupled with the plot (it's really plot driven - ug)that a decent movie could come out of it. Anyhow, my two cents, keep writing and best of luck Tim.

Rating:
Summary: Fine For What It Is (Beach Reading)
Review: Never heard of Sandlin before this, but I"m a sucker for books set in DC, so I picked this up. What I discovered is a light, fluffy farce-perfect is you're in the mood for something requiring little concentration, but possibly disappointing if you like your stories to have a little meat on their bones. The style and tone is not unlike someone like Carl Hiaasen, plenty of snappy chatter, pop culture references, and comedic murders. The story starts by introducing RC Nash, a 40ish journalist in decline, and Jimmy Sebastiano, a smalltime mafia bagman. The story is set in motion when Jimmy's catches his delectable girlfriend Honey in a comprising position with the President and the president accidentally dies in the struggle that follows.

Fleeing the scene with the dead president's body, Honey and Jimmy embroil Honey's old friend Farlow (a gay professional football player) in their problems. Soon, through a variety of contrivances (you just have to roll with them), RC shows up and joins them on the lam. Meanwhile, the White House-spearheaded by a nasty chief of staff and the astute and efficient first lady-is quietly trying to locate the missing president. However, the foursome (five if you count the prez), is also being pursued by Mafia don Gino Olivetti, who is after the $650,000 Jimmy was supposed to deliver to him. Lots of running around, shoot-outs, machinations, sexual tension, and light satire ensue. Populated with nothing but a series of cardboard characters (the nasty scheming editor, the airhead vice-president, the crazy homeless guy, and so on), each with a signature tic or phrase, the novel is well-suited to Hollywood or a lazy summer day by the pool.

Rating:
Summary: Honey, Don't Must Have Been Phoned In
Review: Tim Sandlin is not up to his usual standard in Honey, Don't - and he knows it. Midway through the story he describes a character by describing what she sees as she looks into a mirror. Later on the same page that very character decides that if she were President she would make it a felony offense for a fictional character to describe herself by looking in a mirror. Things are bad when the author himself is pointing out the cliches he stoops to using.

The plot itself is interesting and deserved better. Honey and the President of the United States are interrupted mid-assignation and, in the resulting mayhem, the President dies. Honey and her boyfriend Jimmy (the interruptor) endeavor to get out of their jam and along the way collect a motley assortment of helpers and hangers on, including a down on his luck journalist who provides the brains of the outfit.

Sounds fun right? It is - if you skip about 125 pages in the middle. We learn a lot about people who don't matter to the story and the writing is packed with more of the aforementioned cliches. Would have been a great novella, but as it is it's not really worth the effort.