Fup

This is the book you want to read to that kid in high school who doesn't understand why books are anything. This is the book you want to read to the person you think might fall in love with you. This is the book you want to read to your friends so you will laugh together like you never have. This is the book to read when the world is too serious. This is the book to read when you are too serious about yourself. This is the book to read when you feel dull and uninterested. This is the book to read if you've gotten too big for your britches. This is the book to read if you feel more Christian than someone who cusses. This is the book to read if you want things you can't name. This is good medicine: a short shot, powerful. FUP is the American book.

We once read exerpts at a college Thanksgiving dinner and discovered that while most of us were soon gasping for breath from laughing so hard at that one part where..., our friends from Germany, Sweden, and Japan thought it was amusing, but didn't react at the same deep level. So although this is the book I give to all my new friends, I know it doesn't work for everyone. It also doesn't work for people who have never had dirt under their fingernails. For the rest of us, it's short and funny and deeply real. It's a book about a duck. And a boar. And Tiny, who builds fences. And Grandaddy Jake Santee, with his Ol' Death Whisper whiskey. It's a book about livin'.

FUP, like all of Jim Dodge's work, takes place between rain and sunlight, diamonds and love. Read it. Live a little wiser.

Fup is a book rare in that it functions as an oral history--I was surprised to read here that so many people had read it out loud to each other and given it away--I gave my first copy away and met someone two years later who had it--and gave it back to me. Fup is best read aloud, to friends, on road trips, alone. I don't think you can compare Fup to Dodge's other two novels, which are indeed excellent in their own ways, because Fup is different than almost any other book you will ever read. Buy it and pass it on.

I found Fup in a thrift shop, it cost me less than a dollar. It was money well spent and I am gong to buy Jim Dodge's other books when I get the chance. Dodge's story about Fup, his friends Grandpa Jake and Tiny bought tears of sorrow and laughter to my eyes. Even Lockjaw the rampaging homicidal boar made me chuckle. It is an easy read I would recommend it most heartedly, especially if you're someone who likes to read when they are eating. Just be careful, you might choke on some of the funnier moments, but its worth every cough and splutter.