The Prisoner of Vandam Street

This is the first book I'd read by this author and I enjoyed his kinky sense of humor. If you're feeling down, read this book and you'll feel better quickly.

Reading Prisoner of Vandam Street wasn't just something to read when I couln't sleep, it was an excuse to be awake to keep reading!As often true with Kinky Friedman books, I experienced edge-of-the-chair suspence while laughing at Kinky's unique humor and both edgy and polished use of language.Being hard-of-hearing, McGovern's misunderstandings are what people get frustrated by when I make similar mistakes. Had Kinky been well, would he have noticed the battering across the street?Had Kinky been well, and had he noticed the battering across the street, and had been able to investigate without the Village Irregulars + 3, would he have been able to protect the battered?

Private investigator Kinky Friedman suffers a bout of malaria and begins seeing the world in a whole new way. Part of it is visions and delusions created by the disease, but part of it may actually be a new clarity caused by the sickness, or by being shut up in his apartment with half a dozen strange men (his friends) who insist on taking care of him but who can hardly take care of themselves. When Kinky sees a woman being beaten in her apartment across the street, he's sure that this isn't a vision. When the cops respond to his 911 call and discover that the building doesn't have a third floor where the beating is supposed to have occured, Kinky isn't disuaded, but his friends begin to wonder whether this sighting is about as real as some of the other strange things he's seen. More to humor Kinky than because they believe he actually saw anything, his friends start to watch the window where Kinky thought he saw the beating. But only Kinky spots the next incident--where the violence escalates. Somehow he's got to figure out how to rescue this woman who might not exist, but he's got to do it from his own apartment because his malaria leaves him to weak to move. Author Kinky Friedman offers up a strange but insightful story of cat defecation, malarial visions, spousal abuse, and friendships in today's New York. THE PRISONER OF VANDAM STREET is a strange book with largely unlikable and certainly unlikely characters. But Friedman's ironic sensibilities are in full swing. I found myself reading along, chuckling at some of Friedman's thoughts on cats--only to be struck by a nugget of insight into the human condition that set me back hard on my heels. Although there is humor in PRISONER, this isn't a funny book--quite the contrary. But it is the kind of book that hits you hard and sticks with you for a long time. It's Kinky Friedman at his best. Highly recommended.

Once again, Kinky Friedman gives us a much needed respite from the tedious news we could do without. This time he does it in a unique and entertaining manner that has Kinky flat on his back, more delirious than usual, and dependent upon that wonderful group of unconventional wanna be sleuths that we have come to know and love. I love Kinky's work so much, and his terrific, if unconventional slant on life, that I could find a cook book by him entertaining and completely enchanting. I am well aware that behind that Texas wardrobe beats the heart of a poet, and the soul of a lovable and caring mystic. Genius is an overused word, but I don't think in Kinky's case you can avoid it. His interests are eclectic, and his knowledge varied. Don't let his demeanor fool you; this guy can do just about any damn thing he puts his mind to....and do it damn well If you enjoy Kinky's work, please don't let the "intelectual elite" label you as a member of some mindless cult who follows some lemming-like troop over the cliff of mediocrity. He is so much more substantial, and it is a terrible shame that the boneheaded literati prefer the boring conventional over bright, inventive, and thought provoking. Keep it up, Kinky, you are appreciated enormously by those of us who can tell the difference between assembly line drivel and the thought provoking gems you provide us. You make the mundane tolerable, and we love you for it.

While drinking at the Corner Bistro with his friend McGovern, Kinky Friedman starts shaking, mumbling and goes from hot to cold in an instant. He blacks out and comes to in a hospital. At first Kinky thinks McGovern slipped him a Mickey, but the symptoms continue. The Kinkster knows he is sick but it takes the doctor a while to figure out what is wrong with him. He suffers from a virulent form of malaria picked up when Kinky worked for the Peace Corps in Borneo.His friends, the Village Irregulars offer to nursemaid him so the doctor discharges him with the provision that he stays in his apartment for six weeks. During one of his moments of lucidity, Kinky looks out the window and sees a man beating a woman until she starts bleeding. When he calls 911and the police go over to investigate they find an empty and unused warehouse and nobody on the second and fourth floor heard anything. Kinky is determined to prove that he is right and he uses the Village Irregulars as his eyes and ears with some very hilarious results.Kinky Friedman is irreverent and witty as usual, insulting everyone and everything using blue humor so he doesn't sound like a racist (which he isn't). It's touching to see Kinky's misfits and society's rejects gather round in his hour of need and no one can doubt them for not believing Kinky since half the time he is hallucinating. The real star of THE PRISONER OF VANDAM STREET is the cat whose displeasure at the invasion of his territory by an occupying force is shown in a very definite way.Harriet Klausner