Nice - Hardcover

Holdefer, Charles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1579620388 ISBN 13: 9781579620387

Publisher: Permanent Pr Pub Co, 2001

Synopsis

NICE is a delicious black comedy about Jerry Renfrow, a nice guy, whose business is helping others to be nice, and whose benevolence and thoughtfulness only lead him deeper and deeper into trouble. It s a contemporary version of Don Quixote amalgamated with the axiom that no good deed goes unpunished.

About this title

About the Author

Kirkus Reviews heralded Holdefer's first novel APOLOGY FOR BIG ROD as "whimsical... his blithe humor hints at more substantial entertainment to come". Charles Holdefer's fiction has appeared in numerous magazines. He lives in France.

From the Inside Flap

"A ferocious comedy and love story, NICE offers a roller-coaster of a read, a straight-on look at human foibles, and a sharp portrait of contemporary America."

Reviews

Following Apology for Big Rod, this second novel by Iowa-born Holdefer (who resides mainly in France) is set in Iowa, where the author still spends his summers. Striving for satire in his chronicle of the absurd foibles of an obsessive but simpleminded do-gooder, Holdefer unfortunately fails to display the necessary sense of timing, finesse and writerly flair to carry off this predictable shaggy-dog story. Tediously referred to throughout as Mr. Nice Guy, protagonist Jerry Renfrow is so eager to please that he has encouraged his wife Barbara to take other sexual partners to satisfy her restless libido. A curator at a museum erected above a labyrinthine cavern on the fringes of an Iowa city, Barbara takes her husband at his word and seduces men in the bowels of the cave. In keeping with his unbridled altruism, Mr. Nice Guy is proprietor of Home Made Services, Inc. While striving to fulfill a contract to supply 20 purebred apricot Labrador puppies for a surprise birthday party for the daughter of a Middle Eastern sheik, Mr. Nice Guy is called to jury duty, leaving the pups in the care of a less-than-trustworthy employee. As a consequence, Mr. Nice Guy is sent to prison for five years for animal cruelty. Not surprisingly, Barbara moves her shenanigans above ground and takes off for Mexico with one of her casual lovers. Sadly, the already undistinguished narrative slides even deeper into the tedium of daily prison life before the reader is finally granted a reprieve. If admirers of The Music Man librettist/composer Meredith Wilson ever wanted to argue that most Iowans are indeed inherently humorless, they'd find evidence here.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

When Jerry Renfrow arrives home from work to discover his wife having sex with the pizza delivery boy, he feels immense regret. He regrets that his wife did not get to finish the lovemaking session, that the pizza delivery boy got so scared, and that in the anxiety of the moment, Jerry forgot to pay for the pizza. While the world tramples on him like a doormat, Jerry Renfrow, aka Mr. Nice Guy, maintains his philosophical worldview: "optimalism" (because optimism isn't optimistic enough). But when Mr. Nice Guy is sent to jail for five years, away from his wife, and alone in a cell with a renegade Jehovah's Witness, he begins to harden. Will his spirit be crushed by prison? Unfortunately, the characters lack the emotional depth to justify Holdefer's thematic explorations of the utility of compassion, and many of the hero's mannerisms seem borrowed from the constantly cheery Ned Flanders of The Simpsons. But this truly eccentric novel, with its well-earned humor and poignant story, will reward readers with an unusually compelling hero. John Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Permanent Pr Pub Co
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1579620388
• ISBN 13: 9781579620387
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 254