Pawn to Queen Four: A Novel - Hardcover

Eighner, Lars

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312135815 ISBN 13: 9780312135812

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1995

Synopsis

In a comic novel of drag courts, an influential radio preacher, Brother Earl, threatens to incite a homosexual witch hunt, despite the existence of some compromising photographs

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

In 1993, Eighner's Travels with Lizbeth garnered numerous critical bouquets, praise that seems likely to be encored for this outre outing. That memoir of the author's years as a homeless struggling writer scrutinized the underbelly of Austin, Tex. The larky escapades chronicled here are set chiefly in a fanciful gay community that is labeled Austin but could as easily be Barrie's Neverland. Indeed, Eighner's wit is sprinkled about the proceedings like so much fairy dust. His repartee is scintillating (when it isn't puzzling, and sometimes it's both), and he knows precisely when and how to spring the unexpected non sequitur or the dead-on satiric barb. The story begins in the Imperial Court of the Jade Chimera, an Austin institution presided over by Madam Agnes (ne Angus McKinney), a 60-ish drag queen who makes RuPaul look like a dowdy has-been. Agnes dispatches the newly arrived hunk du jour, Jim, to Osage, Okla., where he is to recover certain incriminating photos from Brother Earl, a sleazy evangelist who heads the Holy Word of God University and Technical Institute. Subsequent episodes involve Osage's one gay bar (a hilarious watering hole worthy of its own novel), a Ku Klux Klan meeting gone awry and a plethora of quirky personalities. In a stylish display of plot and character juggling, however, Eighner eventually merges his rapid-fire scene and story line switcheroos into a dizzy, dazzling whole.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Eighner, author of the highly praised Travels with Lizbeth (LJ 11/15/93), takes the reader on an irreverent romp through gay society in Texas and Oklahoma. He pits Agnes, an aging, giant-sized queen, against Brother Earl, a fire-breathing fundamentalist minister who's about to go on an antihomosexual crusade. Using the naive Jim as her agent, Agnes aims to recover a lost series of compromising photographs that have held Brother Earl in check for years. In the end, Eighner's characters swish their way to victory in a most politically incorrect manner that is sure to stir readers to laughter. This book will not be to everyone's taste, though: Eighner's use of gay jargon has a way of excluding the uninitiated, and conservative readers will be put off by the subject matter. Nonetheless, this is a wickedly funny romp in which the outrageous triumphs over evil. Highly recommended for serious fiction collections.?Andrea Caron Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, Kan.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0312135815
• ISBN 13: 9780312135812
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280