What do you think?
Rate this book
Tallyho in the Squat
Bill Gulledge never thought rabbit smuggling would change his life.
When Bill graduates with an English degree in the precarious 2009 economy, he returns to his South Carolina hometown where his estranged father, a wealthy redneck who owns a chain of hunting stores, gives him an ultimatum: find a job or work for him running illegal shipments of wild rabbits from a town in Kentucky to stock the family’s Beagle pen.
When the job market forces Bill to choose rabbit smuggling, he teams up with his lively good ole boy cousin, Jimbo, who just lost his job as a beer truck driver due to a heart condition. The gig seems like an easy way to make cash and chase women in Kentucky bars, but an encounter with the rabbit supplier’s country-grown daughter, Rye Cotton, complicates Bill’s easygoing life.
Their romance, forbidden by their fathers, and Jimbo’s propensity for finding trouble lead Bill, Jimbo, and Rye on a series of backwoods adventures: from late-night sasquatch hunting to wardrobe malfunctions at a local waterpark to a bar fight involving a donkey.
Through their misadventures, his growing love for Rye, and Jimbo’s drunken yet oddly spot-on guidance, Bill finds that what he’s always wanted in life is much simpler than he thought—if he can get his stubborn father to agree.
When Bill graduates with an English degree in the precarious 2009 economy, he returns to his South Carolina hometown where his estranged father, a wealthy redneck who owns a chain of hunting stores, gives him an ultimatum: find a job or work for him running illegal shipments of wild rabbits from a town in Kentucky to stock the family’s Beagle pen.
When the job market forces Bill to choose rabbit smuggling, he teams up with his lively good ole boy cousin, Jimbo, who just lost his job as a beer truck driver due to a heart condition. The gig seems like an easy way to make cash and chase women in Kentucky bars, but an encounter with the rabbit supplier’s country-grown daughter, Rye Cotton, complicates Bill’s easygoing life.
Their romance, forbidden by their fathers, and Jimbo’s propensity for finding trouble lead Bill, Jimbo, and Rye on a series of backwoods adventures: from late-night sasquatch hunting to wardrobe malfunctions at a local waterpark to a bar fight involving a donkey.
Through their misadventures, his growing love for Rye, and Jimbo’s drunken yet oddly spot-on guidance, Bill finds that what he’s always wanted in life is much simpler than he thought—if he can get his stubborn father to agree.
228 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 6, 2014
3 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 1, 2015
What's funnier than Sasquatch chasing a couple of rednecks out of the woods? Answer: a light-hearted look at good old boys and their down-home, countrified way of approaching life -- one six-pack of Budweiser at a time.
In this epic tale of love and knock-down, drag-out bar fights, Clemson graduate Bill and his cousin Jimbo get themselves into one hilarious situation after another, with all the panache of a hit reality show.
Early in the book, we find Bill not quite measuring up to his "diddy's" expectations of managing the family's string of sporting goods stores scattered around Georgia. Bill, for his part, wants to be writer, but what he really needs is a steady job. His father offers to fill the gap temporarily by having him and Jimbo drive over to Kentucky once a week to fetch rabbits to use in his rabbit-hunting hobby -- called, picturesquely, Tallyho in the Squat.
The sport involves prized beagles sniffing out the scent of rabbits in a field and alerting the hunters to their presence. "Tallyho," yelled loudly at the moment of spotting a rabbit "in the squat", or lying cowering in the brush, scores winning points to both man and dog. It's unclear whether the rabbit is actually shot or is simply captured for another go-round.
Anyway, the sport is inconsequential to the storyline, which revolves around Bill's pursuit of the bartending daughter of the farmer from whom they buy their rabbits. Many of the hijinks -- from vandalizing a former boyfriend's house, to hunting for Sasquatch in the Kentucky woods -- are stories worthy of many a belly laugh, even when the cousins are being pummeled in a fight to save Rye's honor. (She's the young woman Bill is pursuing.)
One memorable quote comes from a young Jimbo, who doubts the existence any longer of the Ku Klux Klan. His cousin sets him straight: "Oh, it does (exist). They're just too stupid to organize, Mama says. All the smart ones went into politics."
There's plenty of racial and country boy stereotyping in this book, which does, however, provide a satisfying -- though slow-developing-- romance amid all the wisecracking and antics of the colorful ensemble cast of characters.
In another scene that provokes a chuckle, Bill and Jimbo are almost pulled over for being DUI on a riding lawnmower. "Jimbo held onto the back of the riding mower and howled wildly at every turn and swerve."
This novel pokes plenty of good-natured fun at the rural subculture that permeates some parts of the South, and still delivers a sustained read good enough to keep even the most jaded reader turning the pages and laughing hysterically.
I give it an unqualified five stars
In this epic tale of love and knock-down, drag-out bar fights, Clemson graduate Bill and his cousin Jimbo get themselves into one hilarious situation after another, with all the panache of a hit reality show.
Early in the book, we find Bill not quite measuring up to his "diddy's" expectations of managing the family's string of sporting goods stores scattered around Georgia. Bill, for his part, wants to be writer, but what he really needs is a steady job. His father offers to fill the gap temporarily by having him and Jimbo drive over to Kentucky once a week to fetch rabbits to use in his rabbit-hunting hobby -- called, picturesquely, Tallyho in the Squat.
The sport involves prized beagles sniffing out the scent of rabbits in a field and alerting the hunters to their presence. "Tallyho," yelled loudly at the moment of spotting a rabbit "in the squat", or lying cowering in the brush, scores winning points to both man and dog. It's unclear whether the rabbit is actually shot or is simply captured for another go-round.
Anyway, the sport is inconsequential to the storyline, which revolves around Bill's pursuit of the bartending daughter of the farmer from whom they buy their rabbits. Many of the hijinks -- from vandalizing a former boyfriend's house, to hunting for Sasquatch in the Kentucky woods -- are stories worthy of many a belly laugh, even when the cousins are being pummeled in a fight to save Rye's honor. (She's the young woman Bill is pursuing.)
One memorable quote comes from a young Jimbo, who doubts the existence any longer of the Ku Klux Klan. His cousin sets him straight: "Oh, it does (exist). They're just too stupid to organize, Mama says. All the smart ones went into politics."
There's plenty of racial and country boy stereotyping in this book, which does, however, provide a satisfying -- though slow-developing-- romance amid all the wisecracking and antics of the colorful ensemble cast of characters.
In another scene that provokes a chuckle, Bill and Jimbo are almost pulled over for being DUI on a riding lawnmower. "Jimbo held onto the back of the riding mower and howled wildly at every turn and swerve."
This novel pokes plenty of good-natured fun at the rural subculture that permeates some parts of the South, and still delivers a sustained read good enough to keep even the most jaded reader turning the pages and laughing hysterically.
I give it an unqualified five stars
Displaying 1 of 1 review