A Gypsy Good Time

by Gustav Hasford

Vietnam veteran and Private Investigator Dowdy Lewis, Jr. struggles with alcoholism, his time in the Vietnam War, and his own rapid aging. He meets Yvonna Lablaine, an attractive, red-headed outcast from a prominent Hollywood family, and falls in love. One day, however, after a brief but passionate romance, Lewis finds Lablaine dying at his door, murdered. He then embarks on a quest involving drug dealers, mobsters, and Hollywood moguls in order to find the truth about what happened and to take revenge on the culprits.

Genres: Fiction

177 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Jerry Gustave Hasford (November 28, 1947 – January 29, 1993), also known under his pen name Gustav Hasford was the author of two major novels of the Vietnam war, The Short Timers and The Phantom Blooper, as well as a third book, A Gypsy Good Time. At the time of his death in 1993, he was perhaps best known for a screenwriting credit he shared with filmmaker Stanley Kubrick and author Michael Herr for the film Full Metal Jacket (1987), a screen adaptation of The Short Timers. The film is regarded as being one of the greatest depictions of the Vietnam war.
Hasford was born in Haleyville, Winston County, on November 28, 1947, to Hassell and Hazel Hasford; he had one younger brother, Terry. Hasford's cousin, Jasper native Jason Aaron, is an award-winning comic book writer. After leaving high school
Gustav Hasford in Vietnam
in Russellville, Franklin County, in 1966, and refusing to take his graduation exams in protest over the state's poor education system, Hasford joined the U.S. Marine Corps and served in Vietnam as a combat correspondent with the First Marine Division. Upon his return from Vietnam, he moved with his parents to Washington State and attended Lower Columbia Community College, where he published his first story, which would later serve as the basis for The Short Timers, in the school newspaper.
The Short Timers was published in 1979, The Phantom Blooper in 1990, and A Gypsy Good Time in 1992. The Short Timers follows the story of Private Joker, a character supposedly based on Hasford himself, from basic training through the
Gustav Hasford Receives Navy Medal
Tet offensive in Vietnam. The Phantom Blooper once again features Joker as he comes to terms with the death of many of his friends and his own survival, through his time as a POW, and to his return to the United States. A Gypsy Good Time is a departure, best characterized as a parody of the hard-boiled detective novel genre.
Hasford came into conflict with director Stanley Kubrick over writing credits for the screenplay of Full Metal Jacket, which is based on The Short Timers. The financial bonanza that
Gustav Hasford, ca. 1979
Hasford expected from that film never materialized. Hasford also gained significant notoriety as a literary eccentric, described in newspaper stories as having secreted himself illegally with a "research" hoard of more than 700 books from libraries in the United States and Great Britain, some of them 12 years overdue. Hasford was arrested in 1988 on a charge of possessing stolen property; a San Luis Obispo, California, judge sentenced him to six months in the local jail.
Hasford was active in anti-war veterans' activities. At the time of his death at age 45 from untreated diabetes on January 29, 1993, Hasford was residing alone in Greece. He is buried in Winston Memorial Cemetery in Haleyville.

Wikipedia: Gustav Hasford

Reviews

[Dan Downing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gustav Hasford was a casualty of the Vietnam War. One of the delayed deaths. Between his birth in 1947 and his death in 1993 he published three books. This is the third. Not having an ear for titles, his first book was called "The Short-Timers", better known by its movie title, "Full Metal Jacket". He was nominated for an Oscar for his work on that movie.
Here he gives us a part owner of a book store who gets caught up in a nasty adventure which cuts open the underbelly of Hollywood...and much of America.
Hasford is funny and tough and irreverent and full of truth. After spending a page describing Georgia Rose, the oldest whore in the United States and Canada, he ends the portrait: "On a bar stool Georgia Rose sits. In her mouth is a small plastic baby doll, head first. Pink baby doll legs stick out of Georgia Rose's mouth. Georgia Rose chews, chews slowly, chews and chews and chews on the baby doll's plastic head". Gustav's Hollywood is not a pretty place; it is short of glamour. But it is well worth visiting.
Highly recommended.

[Monty · Rating 5 out of 5]

possibly, without exaggeration, the funniest, most quotable book i have ever read.

[Richard Schaefer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hasford’s final book is unfortunately very hard to find because it has never been reprinted. I was happy to find a copy piled in the mystery section of a great used bookstore, and, backlog be damned, I read it right away. It’s the only Hasford I’ve gotten my hands on so far, so I don’t know how it stacks up against the others but A Gypsy Good Time is written in a style that’s Groucho Marx meets Raymond Chandler meets Vietnam-era PTSD; sometimes it’s laugh out loud funny, sometimes it’s heartbreakingly sad, and the shift between the two extremes can be jarring. Some of the wordplay isn’t as clever as Hasford thinks it is, and some of the pseudo-profundities aren’t as, well, profound as he hopes. But it IS a smart book, once you get acclimated to the Looney Tunes style dialogue paired with hardboiled violence. The pages drip with the cynicism of someone who has been burned by Hollywood (Full Metal Jacket is based on his novel The Short Timers, and if I recall correctly the reason the novel is so long out of print is because the movie pissed him off so much), and the central mystery tries to shed light on the rotten mass at the heart of the movie industry. Well, that’s not so special, they’ve been doing that since Chandler, at least; but Hasford does it pretty well, nonetheless. Given how rare this book is, my recommendation is probably moot; it’s worth so much that if you find a copy you’d be a fool not to grab it. But if you do get your hands on it, give it a read while you’re at it. The book is far from perfect, and on occasion it even seems smug, but at its best it is genuinely funny and has real insight into the nature of life in the late 20th century.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

If i pulled out my goodreads red pen i would've given this 1-2 stars. Unless you feel compelled to read Hasford's last book skip this book altogether.

At first glance this appears like an average late 1980's or early 1990's hard-boiled crime story that you would grab from the display at the grocery store aisle at that time. This book fits that basic formula: a cynical male hero of sorts, a vixen, cops and criminal, a lot of guns, alcohol, drugs, sex, and a plethora of anger and revenge to fill half of the book. I had more hopes for this last of three Gustav Hasford novels. Gustav's Short-Timers aka Full Metal Jacket, the Kubrick Film Title, it was described as the unique Viet Nam novel of its time which beared a strong likeness to Catch 22 on many levels. Phantom Blooper, the second novel was almost a continuation of Joker in Short-Timers, its a lesser known novel that was never made into a film, albeit some of the material resembles the main character in the movie Tropic Thunder.

A Gypsy Good Time has a good punch, its a non-PC romp, the main character is a unique voice for many of the Viet Nam Veterans of that time, there's lots of alcoholic and criminal empathy, and a strange sense of justice. There's some great lines in the book, but its hard to read through the endless steady and uneven cliches.

There's a great irony and no coincidence that the lead character in this story is a part owner of a rare book store, Hasford was an extreme bibliophile who spent time in jail for tens of thousands of borrowed library books. Add to that this book is sought after rare book, because there was no reprint. And Lastly there's a lot of Hollywood bashing, there was hard feelings between Hasford and Kubrick. Nice touch Private Joker.

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars. A huge disappointment. I was so excited to read this novel since I loved Hasford's Vietnam novels, which became the basis for Full Metal Jacket. This one is extremely hard to find and quite expensive (over $100 on used book sites), but Interlibrary Loan saved the day for me, as it so often does! Unfortunately, this novel is a mess, written entirely in the exaggerated pastiche voice of noir detective fiction, but so over-to-the-top as to be almost unreadable. Hasford only wrote three books, but readers would do better to stick with his two Vietnam novels. Even if you loved those and enjoy detective noir (as I do) you will be taking a huge gamble on this one. Perhaps it's better to just remember Hasford as the writer of two great Vietnam novels.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this, but not as much as I enjoyed the Vietnam ones. 3 1/2 stars.

I know it's noir, and that short, terse sentences of inner monologue are the word. But this book is so full of aphorisms that it felt like it was "doing too much," as the kids at my school would say.

It is funny and witty, and the vengeance is sweet.

Recommended for anyone of the opinion that parking lots are works of modern art.