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Kinky Friedman #3
When the Cat's Away
When wisecracking Kinky Friedman sets out on a search for his editor's missing cat he finds himself unexpectantly involved with drug-centered gang wars, a beautiful woman, and a couple of macabre murders
201 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
9 people are currently reading
129 people want to read
About the author
Kinky Friedman
70 books288 followersRichard S. "Kinky" Friedman is an American singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician and former columnist for Texas Monthly who styles himself in the mold of popular American satirists Will Rogers and Mark Twain. He was one of two independent candidates in the 2006 election for the office of Governor of Texas. Receiving 12.6% of the vote, Friedman placed fourth in the six-person race.
Friedman was born in Chicago to Jewish parents, Dr. S. Thomas Friedman and his wife Minnie (Samet) Friedman. The family moved to a ranch in central Texas a few years later. Friedman had an early interest in both music and chess, and was chosen at age 7 as one of 50 local players to challenge U.S. grandmaster Samuel Reshevsky to simultaneous matches in Houston. Reshevsky won all 50 matches, but Friedman was by far the youngest competitor.
Friedman graduated from Austin High School in Austin, Texas in 1962 and earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin in 1966, majoring in Psychology. He took part in the Plan II Honors program and was a member of the Tau Delta Phi fraternity. During his freshman year, Chinga Chavin gave Friedman the nickname "Kinky" because of his curly hair.
Friedman served two years in the United States Peace Corps, teaching on Borneo in Malaysia with John Gross. During his service in the Peace Corps, he met future Texas Jewboy road manager Dylan Ferrero, with whom he still works today. Friedman lives at Echo Hill Ranch, his family's summer camp near Kerrville, Texas. He founded Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch, also located near Kerrville, whose mission is to care for stray, abused and aging animals; more than 1,000 dogs have been saved from animal euthanasia.
Series:
* Kinky Friedman Mystery
Friedman was born in Chicago to Jewish parents, Dr. S. Thomas Friedman and his wife Minnie (Samet) Friedman. The family moved to a ranch in central Texas a few years later. Friedman had an early interest in both music and chess, and was chosen at age 7 as one of 50 local players to challenge U.S. grandmaster Samuel Reshevsky to simultaneous matches in Houston. Reshevsky won all 50 matches, but Friedman was by far the youngest competitor.
Friedman graduated from Austin High School in Austin, Texas in 1962 and earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin in 1966, majoring in Psychology. He took part in the Plan II Honors program and was a member of the Tau Delta Phi fraternity. During his freshman year, Chinga Chavin gave Friedman the nickname "Kinky" because of his curly hair.
Friedman served two years in the United States Peace Corps, teaching on Borneo in Malaysia with John Gross. During his service in the Peace Corps, he met future Texas Jewboy road manager Dylan Ferrero, with whom he still works today. Friedman lives at Echo Hill Ranch, his family's summer camp near Kerrville, Texas. He founded Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch, also located near Kerrville, whose mission is to care for stray, abused and aging animals; more than 1,000 dogs have been saved from animal euthanasia.
Series:
* Kinky Friedman Mystery
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July 21, 2021
CRITIQUE:
New York Setting
One of the things I most enjoy about Kinky Friedman's novels is their setting on the boundary between different subcultures or tribes living in New York in the 1980's.
Not only is this intrinsically interesting, but it's also the foundation of Kinky's sense of humour.
Kinky (the author, character and narrator) describes himself as "a country-singer-turned-amateur-detective":
If Kinky wouldn't go into that then, who am I to speculate on what they might be? I would only add that he also loves to consume Chinese food at Big Wong, and "generous slugs of Jameson Irish whiskey" from an old bull's horn at home in his loft, downstairs from the studio of Winnie Katz's lesbian dance class.
His best friend seems to be Larry "Ratso" Sloman, who plays Dr Watson to Kinky's Sherlock: "Ratso was loud, garish, and fiscally tight as a tick, but he was also warm, loyal and blessed with an ingenuous spirit...He looked like an amiable pimp. He wore a coonskin cap minus the tail, fuchsia slacks, and red flea-market shoes that, as I often pointed out to him, had once belonged to a dead man." At the time, he was editor of National Lampoon (which is true!).
Feline Abduction
Cats (or their absence) play a starring role in the novel.
Early on, Kinky confesses that "I'd never much liked cats myself, until one winter night about eight years ago in an alley in Chinatown when I'd met the first pussy that ever swept me off my feet."
Strangely, Kinky's cat is the only character in his novel that doesn't have a name. It is referred to simply as "the cat". In fact, he doesn't so much have a cat as:
This time, Kinky's criminal investigation starts with the disappearance of a cat called Rocky from a high society cat show in Madison Square Garden, which soon mysteriously escalates into two murders (of real people by a real person, if you count people in the publishing industry).
Wisecracks in Bohemia
Kinky remarks that one of the managers of the cat show "probably sang in the Gay Men's Chorus", which proves that Kinky is at least even-handed in the way he dispenses seemingly homophobic wisecracks. This was 1988, so they were pretty good-natured rather than malicious. Kinky was more determined to make enemies out of Republicans.
All subcultures add colour to the novel, as they do/did to New York itself. Besides, it can be entertaining to witness a little rivalry (if not outright hostility) between tribes. At the same time, Kinky and his close friends are the frequent targets of his own self-deprecating humour. After all, he still wore his cowboy hat everywhere he went (including indoors), like one of the Village People.
Leila and Other Assorted Love Interests
What would a private detective novel be without a love interest? In the beginning, Kinky still longs for "the girl in the peach-coloured dress."
I don't recall reading anything about his relationship with this woman in the previous novels (or this one), beyond the fact that he dreams about her. It's not clear how recent the relationship, if any, was. In the first chapter, he says, "I was dreaming the unisexual dreams of the everyday houseperson..." Perhaps, she is someone who once took Kinky beyond the unisexual, at least in his imagination. In the final chapter, Ratso takes a call on one of Kinky's phones from somebody he describes as "the girl in the peach-coloured dress", but he might just be kidding Kinky.
Kinky does seem to go straight (or further) up the garden path with a beautiful Colombian woman named Leila, who wears a keffiyeh that resembles a red and white checked Italian table cloth. He describes her as half-Palestinian, and their love-making adventures (he calls intercourse "hosing"), as the only prospect the world has for peace in the Middle East:
Her brother, Carlos, appears to be an obstacle, which is not a wise personal or career move, because he works for a Colombian cocaine syndicate which is at war with another family on the New York drug scene. He plans to resolve both disputes with guns. Kinky, on the other hand, is more a healing kind than the killing kind.
For a while, the Colombian connection threatens to solve the cat and murder crimes (the cat has four white paws, which might be significant from an anthropological point of view), but ultimately proves to be a short-lived distraction for readers and a red herring for the cat. Beyond that, the relationship just seems to provide a little spice for the movie version of the book.
Cat Scratch Fever
The wisecrackery flows thick and fast throughout the book. Here are some classic lines that just seemed to spring up out of nowhere, like a weed in a vegetable garden, yet they always seemed to be in context (rather than gratuitous):
"The guy on my immediate right was so close that when he ate his smoked fish I could spit out the bones."
"No one had opened the window or even looked through it in forty-seven years."
"Golf is the only opportunity that middle-aged Wasps have to dress up like pimps."
"C'mere, baby," I said, "Let me show you where the rabbi bit me."
"I don't know, but you'd look pretty cute handling me a dry towel."
"Her legs looked as pink as the house where The Band used to practise with Bob Dylan."
"My friend ...knows a hotshot lawyer who once got a charge of sodomy reduced to following too closely."
"My father once told me that in Greenland every family has five kids, three dogs, two chickens, and one anthropologist."
"I stood there for a moment breathing like the guy who came 791st in the Boston Marathon."
"I'd been on the human rodeo circuit long enough to know that you couldn't change people's minds by telling them the truth."
"The cat and the bottle of Jameson sat on the desk between the two red telephones to keep me company. I wasn't an alcoholic. Alcoholics drink alone."
"One of these days, they're going to make a life out of my movie."
"There is a time to live and a time to die and a time to stop listening to albums by the Byrds."
SOUNDTRACK:
New York Setting
One of the things I most enjoy about Kinky Friedman's novels is their setting on the boundary between different subcultures or tribes living in New York in the 1980's.
Not only is this intrinsically interesting, but it's also the foundation of Kinky's sense of humour.
Kinky (the author, character and narrator) describes himself as "a country-singer-turned-amateur-detective":
"Cats, country music, and cigars have become the three spiritual linchpins of my life. Actually, I have a few other spiritual linchpins and they also begin with a c, but we won't go into that now."
If Kinky wouldn't go into that then, who am I to speculate on what they might be? I would only add that he also loves to consume Chinese food at Big Wong, and "generous slugs of Jameson Irish whiskey" from an old bull's horn at home in his loft, downstairs from the studio of Winnie Katz's lesbian dance class.
His best friend seems to be Larry "Ratso" Sloman, who plays Dr Watson to Kinky's Sherlock: "Ratso was loud, garish, and fiscally tight as a tick, but he was also warm, loyal and blessed with an ingenuous spirit...He looked like an amiable pimp. He wore a coonskin cap minus the tail, fuchsia slacks, and red flea-market shoes that, as I often pointed out to him, had once belonged to a dead man." At the time, he was editor of National Lampoon (which is true!).
Feline Abduction
Cats (or their absence) play a starring role in the novel.
Early on, Kinky confesses that "I'd never much liked cats myself, until one winter night about eight years ago in an alley in Chinatown when I'd met the first pussy that ever swept me off my feet."
Strangely, Kinky's cat is the only character in his novel that doesn't have a name. It is referred to simply as "the cat". In fact, he doesn't so much have a cat as:
"A cat and I have each other."
This time, Kinky's criminal investigation starts with the disappearance of a cat called Rocky from a high society cat show in Madison Square Garden, which soon mysteriously escalates into two murders (of real people by a real person, if you count people in the publishing industry).
Wisecracks in Bohemia
Kinky remarks that one of the managers of the cat show "probably sang in the Gay Men's Chorus", which proves that Kinky is at least even-handed in the way he dispenses seemingly homophobic wisecracks. This was 1988, so they were pretty good-natured rather than malicious. Kinky was more determined to make enemies out of Republicans.
All subcultures add colour to the novel, as they do/did to New York itself. Besides, it can be entertaining to witness a little rivalry (if not outright hostility) between tribes. At the same time, Kinky and his close friends are the frequent targets of his own self-deprecating humour. After all, he still wore his cowboy hat everywhere he went (including indoors), like one of the Village People.
Leila and Other Assorted Love Interests
What would a private detective novel be without a love interest? In the beginning, Kinky still longs for "the girl in the peach-coloured dress."
I don't recall reading anything about his relationship with this woman in the previous novels (or this one), beyond the fact that he dreams about her. It's not clear how recent the relationship, if any, was. In the first chapter, he says, "I was dreaming the unisexual dreams of the everyday houseperson..." Perhaps, she is someone who once took Kinky beyond the unisexual, at least in his imagination. In the final chapter, Ratso takes a call on one of Kinky's phones from somebody he describes as "the girl in the peach-coloured dress", but he might just be kidding Kinky.
Kinky does seem to go straight (or further) up the garden path with a beautiful Colombian woman named Leila, who wears a keffiyeh that resembles a red and white checked Italian table cloth. He describes her as half-Palestinian, and their love-making adventures (he calls intercourse "hosing"), as the only prospect the world has for peace in the Middle East:
"I don't know if she was an angel of the morning or a straggler from the Arabian Nights, but she was sitting on my bed wearing the naughtiest smile I'd ever seen and not a hell of a lot else."
Her brother, Carlos, appears to be an obstacle, which is not a wise personal or career move, because he works for a Colombian cocaine syndicate which is at war with another family on the New York drug scene. He plans to resolve both disputes with guns. Kinky, on the other hand, is more a healing kind than the killing kind.
For a while, the Colombian connection threatens to solve the cat and murder crimes (the cat has four white paws, which might be significant from an anthropological point of view), but ultimately proves to be a short-lived distraction for readers and a red herring for the cat. Beyond that, the relationship just seems to provide a little spice for the movie version of the book.
Cat Scratch Fever
The wisecrackery flows thick and fast throughout the book. Here are some classic lines that just seemed to spring up out of nowhere, like a weed in a vegetable garden, yet they always seemed to be in context (rather than gratuitous):
"The guy on my immediate right was so close that when he ate his smoked fish I could spit out the bones."
"No one had opened the window or even looked through it in forty-seven years."
"Golf is the only opportunity that middle-aged Wasps have to dress up like pimps."
"C'mere, baby," I said, "Let me show you where the rabbi bit me."
"I don't know, but you'd look pretty cute handling me a dry towel."
"Her legs looked as pink as the house where The Band used to practise with Bob Dylan."
"My friend ...knows a hotshot lawyer who once got a charge of sodomy reduced to following too closely."
"My father once told me that in Greenland every family has five kids, three dogs, two chickens, and one anthropologist."
"I stood there for a moment breathing like the guy who came 791st in the Boston Marathon."
"I'd been on the human rodeo circuit long enough to know that you couldn't change people's minds by telling them the truth."
"The cat and the bottle of Jameson sat on the desk between the two red telephones to keep me company. I wasn't an alcoholic. Alcoholics drink alone."
"One of these days, they're going to make a life out of my movie."
"There is a time to live and a time to die and a time to stop listening to albums by the Byrds."
SOUNDTRACK:
August 23, 2013
Who would have thought that Kinky Friedman, yes that Kinky Friedman writes books! He has written more than 15 mysteries and some non-fiction, for more than 20 books total.
For a news junky like myself, I knew a bit about him although I’m not from or live in Texas. (However, I did live there for a year but I never heard his name mentioned.)
Some of his bio was in the news when he ran for governor of Texas in 2006 and I recalled hearing that he was a musician with group called, hold on to your seat, “Kinky Friedman and The Texas Jewboys.” WHAT? WHO IS THIS GUY? I asked myself! Strange dude, that's for sure and I wondered was he serious.
Apparently he was serious and no, as we know, he didn't win. Texas was blessed with the re-election of Rick Perry. Yes, the presidential candidate who couldn't remember the three departments he would abolish if elected president.
For some reason, I put in a status update and my friend from UK, Col wrote one of the most clever comments I've heard in a long time when he saw I was reading a Kinky Friedman.
Here goes: Col speaking here: “I tried Kinky once, and didn't get on with him - a bit too smug for my liking. I always thought that it was a good job he wasn't made out of chocolate, otherwise he would have ate himself a long time ago.”
Yes, I have to agree with Col that Kinky is a bit full of himself but I think anyone who runs for public office has somewhat of an inflated ego to begin with.
Well, I got along with Kinky and accepted his outrageous behavior and put it aside. (Even saying Kinky and behavior in the same sentence, sounds odd to me.)
Kinky, the author, writes his book in the first person and guess what? The protagonist is Kinky. Kinky the protag (opposed to the real Kinky) smokes cigars the entire day, drinks Jameson (an Irish whiskey) does a line of coke from time to time, well, in the book Kinky does pretty much what Kinky wants to do. Which is probably not far removed from the human, real Kinky Friedman who drinks Jameson and from pictures I've seen, always has a cigar in his hand.
Apparently Kinky’s Two Favorite Things in Life
Kinky is in New York and is a P. I. It’s very hard to describe whether he’s a serious P. I. or not because I’m just not sure. Nevertheless, a friend calls from Madison Square Garden that her prized kitty is missing from her carry crate at the cat show. She needs Kinky to find her kitty which has four white feet, white socks.
Only two showing but this kitty, I’m certain, has four feet
The characters, of course, are as kinky and weird as Kinky but all in all, being honest, I liked the book. Surprised, too, because I didn’t think I would, didn't expect to like it.
This fellow is so irreverent about everything that it’s outrageously funny. A couple of the titles of his books: Texas Hold 'Em: How I Was Born In A Manger and Died In The Saddle, And Came Back As A Horny Toad; and Elvis, Jesus and Coca-Cola.
And smug? Like a Jackson Burnett (who recommended Kinky to me) said, he's from Texas! Although Kinky was born in Chicago, he’s been a Texan his entire life.
Texans are unique. They’re not quite like the rest us in the U.S. and they proudly stand apart. I haven’t heard anything about it recently, but a bill was proposed in the Texas Legislature to secede from the Union, the United States of America. And it wasn't a joke like our Conch Republic in Key West seceding.
Seen that slogan “Don’t Mess With Texas”? Well, they mean it. (Lewis Black, a political satirist ignores that saying and motto in a big way as seen on The Daily Show last month: Lewis Black on TDS)
Yes, Kinky Friedman is different but I enjoyed this book, it was a bit quirky and off the radar but it was entertaining and a fun read.
Although I'm not running to the library to get another, or running to see my friend Vanessa at All Books and Comics, if I find some, sure, I'll pick them up. They won't tax my mind, that's for sure.
Mount Kinky...Think He's Full of Himself?
Maybe a campaign poster in 2006?
Kinky and Willie Nelson---Kinky Hangs With Good Company
For a news junky like myself, I knew a bit about him although I’m not from or live in Texas. (However, I did live there for a year but I never heard his name mentioned.)
Some of his bio was in the news when he ran for governor of Texas in 2006 and I recalled hearing that he was a musician with group called, hold on to your seat, “Kinky Friedman and The Texas Jewboys.” WHAT? WHO IS THIS GUY? I asked myself! Strange dude, that's for sure and I wondered was he serious.
Apparently he was serious and no, as we know, he didn't win. Texas was blessed with the re-election of Rick Perry. Yes, the presidential candidate who couldn't remember the three departments he would abolish if elected president.
For some reason, I put in a status update and my friend from UK, Col wrote one of the most clever comments I've heard in a long time when he saw I was reading a Kinky Friedman.
Here goes: Col speaking here: “I tried Kinky once, and didn't get on with him - a bit too smug for my liking. I always thought that it was a good job he wasn't made out of chocolate, otherwise he would have ate himself a long time ago.”
Yes, I have to agree with Col that Kinky is a bit full of himself but I think anyone who runs for public office has somewhat of an inflated ego to begin with.
Well, I got along with Kinky and accepted his outrageous behavior and put it aside. (Even saying Kinky and behavior in the same sentence, sounds odd to me.)
Kinky, the author, writes his book in the first person and guess what? The protagonist is Kinky. Kinky the protag (opposed to the real Kinky) smokes cigars the entire day, drinks Jameson (an Irish whiskey) does a line of coke from time to time, well, in the book Kinky does pretty much what Kinky wants to do. Which is probably not far removed from the human, real Kinky Friedman who drinks Jameson and from pictures I've seen, always has a cigar in his hand.
Apparently Kinky’s Two Favorite Things in Life
Kinky is in New York and is a P. I. It’s very hard to describe whether he’s a serious P. I. or not because I’m just not sure. Nevertheless, a friend calls from Madison Square Garden that her prized kitty is missing from her carry crate at the cat show. She needs Kinky to find her kitty which has four white feet, white socks.
Only two showing but this kitty, I’m certain, has four feet
The characters, of course, are as kinky and weird as Kinky but all in all, being honest, I liked the book. Surprised, too, because I didn’t think I would, didn't expect to like it.
This fellow is so irreverent about everything that it’s outrageously funny. A couple of the titles of his books: Texas Hold 'Em: How I Was Born In A Manger and Died In The Saddle, And Came Back As A Horny Toad; and Elvis, Jesus and Coca-Cola.
And smug? Like a Jackson Burnett (who recommended Kinky to me) said, he's from Texas! Although Kinky was born in Chicago, he’s been a Texan his entire life.
Texans are unique. They’re not quite like the rest us in the U.S. and they proudly stand apart. I haven’t heard anything about it recently, but a bill was proposed in the Texas Legislature to secede from the Union, the United States of America. And it wasn't a joke like our Conch Republic in Key West seceding.
Seen that slogan “Don’t Mess With Texas”? Well, they mean it. (Lewis Black, a political satirist ignores that saying and motto in a big way as seen on The Daily Show last month: Lewis Black on TDS)
Yes, Kinky Friedman is different but I enjoyed this book, it was a bit quirky and off the radar but it was entertaining and a fun read.
Although I'm not running to the library to get another, or running to see my friend Vanessa at All Books and Comics, if I find some, sure, I'll pick them up. They won't tax my mind, that's for sure.
Mount Kinky...Think He's Full of Himself?
Maybe a campaign poster in 2006?
Kinky and Willie Nelson---Kinky Hangs With Good Company
April 26, 2021
Улюблений Кінкі з сигарою в зубах і ковбойським капелюхом. Кінкстер, що ходить вулицями нью-йорка під дощем, їсть у Біг Вонгу і Делікатесах Карнегі разом з Раццо на якому хвостата шапка з єнота з відірваним хвостом, п’є Джеймсон як воду, потрапляє у колумбійсько-кокаїнову перестрілку, закохує в себе чарівних жінок, жартує всі ті самі жарти, розплутує вбивство, і любить лише свою кішку. Завжди в серденько.
August 31, 2019
Once upon a time, not so long ago, I ordered furikake from Japan and the seller mixed the shipping labels and instead of furikake, I got an anniversary edition of the Sakuma Candy Drops from Grave of the Fireflies anime.
This was a wonderful mistake, as I got to learn about the sakuma drops history and their place in the anime and see the anime and [ugly] cry a lot and eat the candy too. Entropy won!
In a similar manner, I wanted to get this Kinky Cats, Immortal Amoebas and Nine-Armed Octopuses: Weird, Wild and Wonderful Behaviors in the Animal World but instead got When the Cat's Away. It stayed in my shelf for many years, until I read somewhere that it is funny and it has a cat in it and I decided to read it. I can say that this mistake didn't have the redeeming quality of the Sakuma drops mistake, it wasn't horrible either, in this case entropy just did a shoulder shrugging meh motion my way and moved on ....
The book is funny in a very 80s cringy way, has a weak plot and a histrionic smug author/protagonist but it is not badly written (unless you get triggered by stuff easily, in which case burn it).
If the book arrives at your doorstep by mistake, then read it. If not, then don't bother. Read something else. Or eat some candies. But DEFINITELY watch Grave of the Butterflies.
PS-That's how you turn a review about a mediocre book to a movie suggestion.
This was a wonderful mistake, as I got to learn about the sakuma drops history and their place in the anime and see the anime and [ugly] cry a lot and eat the candy too. Entropy won!
In a similar manner, I wanted to get this Kinky Cats, Immortal Amoebas and Nine-Armed Octopuses: Weird, Wild and Wonderful Behaviors in the Animal World but instead got When the Cat's Away. It stayed in my shelf for many years, until I read somewhere that it is funny and it has a cat in it and I decided to read it. I can say that this mistake didn't have the redeeming quality of the Sakuma drops mistake, it wasn't horrible either, in this case entropy just did a shoulder shrugging meh motion my way and moved on ....
The book is funny in a very 80s cringy way, has a weak plot and a histrionic smug author/protagonist but it is not badly written (unless you get triggered by stuff easily, in which case burn it).
If the book arrives at your doorstep by mistake, then read it. If not, then don't bother. Read something else. Or eat some candies. But DEFINITELY watch Grave of the Butterflies.
PS-That's how you turn a review about a mediocre book to a movie suggestion.
February 15, 2016
I really wanted to like this book more than I actually did, but hey, for a confirmed insomniac with tinnitus, anything goes at 1 AM, as long as you don't have to think too hard. Trust me, you don't. The author doesn't telegraph his punches, he shouts at you, "Punch coming!" and presents a stiff arm and a clenched fist before he's even close to you. I figured out who the killer was about a minute after that person appeared, though the "motive" was wobbly in the extreme. And the cat in the title? That thread wasn't so much wrapped as snapped off and thrown in the trash.
Some reviewers have stated that the author is full of himself. He is that--who else would use "Kinky" as a pen name? His wit probably owes quite a lot to writers like Chester Anderson, Michael Kurland, and of course Terry Pratchett, but Friedman isn't quite as witty as he thinks he is. His style started to pall a bit when I realised that a little too much was left totally unexplained: the cat thread, but also--what was Ratso doing when he was gone all day, at a time when he had refused to leave his wounded buddy's side? Not a clue; turn the page and it's another day and nothing is said. The discerning reader counts about 10 days passing in the novel; so why does Friedman speak of the catnapping happening "weeks ago"? What did the drug ring thing have to do with anything? We are told several times that Friedman had "fried his brain" on drugs; maybe that explains the clunky, incoherent lack of exposition.
Some reviewers have stated that the author is full of himself. He is that--who else would use "Kinky" as a pen name? His wit probably owes quite a lot to writers like Chester Anderson, Michael Kurland, and of course Terry Pratchett, but Friedman isn't quite as witty as he thinks he is. His style started to pall a bit when I realised that a little too much was left totally unexplained: the cat thread, but also--what was Ratso doing when he was gone all day, at a time when he had refused to leave his wounded buddy's side? Not a clue; turn the page and it's another day and nothing is said. The discerning reader counts about 10 days passing in the novel; so why does Friedman speak of the catnapping happening "weeks ago"? What did the drug ring thing have to do with anything? We are told several times that Friedman had "fried his brain" on drugs; maybe that explains the clunky, incoherent lack of exposition.
April 29, 2008
(read along with Elvis, Jesus, and Coca-Cola.
These are annoying but entertaining little crime novels by Kinky, starring Kinky as himself. They can be funny, and I enjoy the Texas similes and the fact that a guy who writes novels about himself drinking incessantly, smoking countless cigars, and doing coke on occasion, could make a semi-serious run for governor of Texas! Both books were exactly the same but with different plots. Probably, overall, not worth reading.
These are annoying but entertaining little crime novels by Kinky, starring Kinky as himself. They can be funny, and I enjoy the Texas similes and the fact that a guy who writes novels about himself drinking incessantly, smoking countless cigars, and doing coke on occasion, could make a semi-serious run for governor of Texas! Both books were exactly the same but with different plots. Probably, overall, not worth reading.
November 2, 2008
Good diversion for an afternoon or sleepless night. Beats TV all hollow.
Read
January 12, 2011Kinky- nothing more to say ;-)
February 15, 2025
review of
Kinky Friedman's When the Cat's Away
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - February 15, 2025
I'vve only previously read Friedman's Black Cracker wch I took to be a serious autobiography while it became gradually obvious that it was to be taken w/ a grain of salt. I liked it.. but I didn't loooovvvvee it. I liked this one more, the humor was downright rollicking.
"Winnie Katz's lesbian dance class was like God. Mankind never saw it, but you knew it was there.
"Of course, Moses had seen God. In the form of a burning bush, interestingly enough. Then he took two tablets and went to bed." - p 1
That's how it begins. Friedman manages to keep the jokes coming regularly. He's good at it.
"You can always tell a cop with a notebook from an angry young novelist with a notebook. Both of them are angry, but the novelist opens his notebook from the side while the cop flips the pages over the top." - p 17
"As for myself, I felt like a swallow that had gone down the wrong way and stopped at a service station for directions to Capistrano. I needed either a road map or a Heimlich maneuver and I wasn't sure which." - p 28
Both of the above quotes are excellent examples of how he works his comedic wonders. Next up, he talks w/ his cat:
""I'm not afraid to die," I said. "I'm not afraid to live. I'm not afraid to fail. I'm not afraid to succeed. I'm not afraid to fall in love. I'm not afraid to be alone. I'm just afraid I might have to stop talking about myself for five minutes."" - p 38
Fortunately, in a novel, you can just assume it's a jump cut.
"So with the two deliverymen doing an impatient jitterbug in the doorway, I christianed Ratso down to sixty-five bucks and let it go." - p 82
Friedman's Jewish so instead of using the offensive 'Jewed him down' he changes it to 'christianed him down' as an alternate offensive expression. In order to get the joke, you'd have to know what's being twisted here. Personally, in order to be on the safe side, I usually say "I giraffed them down" but then one day at the zoo a giraffe leaned over its enclosure & swiped its tongue over my face in a way I'll never forget.
As for the novel? I cdn't put it down. In fact, it's still stuck to my fingers. I don't know whether that's b/c of some error in production that involved an excess amt of glue or whether it's a deliberate business crime on the part of the giraffes.
Kinky Friedman's When the Cat's Away
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - February 15, 2025
I'vve only previously read Friedman's Black Cracker wch I took to be a serious autobiography while it became gradually obvious that it was to be taken w/ a grain of salt. I liked it.. but I didn't loooovvvvee it. I liked this one more, the humor was downright rollicking.
"Winnie Katz's lesbian dance class was like God. Mankind never saw it, but you knew it was there.
"Of course, Moses had seen God. In the form of a burning bush, interestingly enough. Then he took two tablets and went to bed." - p 1
That's how it begins. Friedman manages to keep the jokes coming regularly. He's good at it.
"You can always tell a cop with a notebook from an angry young novelist with a notebook. Both of them are angry, but the novelist opens his notebook from the side while the cop flips the pages over the top." - p 17
"As for myself, I felt like a swallow that had gone down the wrong way and stopped at a service station for directions to Capistrano. I needed either a road map or a Heimlich maneuver and I wasn't sure which." - p 28
Both of the above quotes are excellent examples of how he works his comedic wonders. Next up, he talks w/ his cat:
""I'm not afraid to die," I said. "I'm not afraid to live. I'm not afraid to fail. I'm not afraid to succeed. I'm not afraid to fall in love. I'm not afraid to be alone. I'm just afraid I might have to stop talking about myself for five minutes."" - p 38
Fortunately, in a novel, you can just assume it's a jump cut.
"So with the two deliverymen doing an impatient jitterbug in the doorway, I christianed Ratso down to sixty-five bucks and let it go." - p 82
Friedman's Jewish so instead of using the offensive 'Jewed him down' he changes it to 'christianed him down' as an alternate offensive expression. In order to get the joke, you'd have to know what's being twisted here. Personally, in order to be on the safe side, I usually say "I giraffed them down" but then one day at the zoo a giraffe leaned over its enclosure & swiped its tongue over my face in a way I'll never forget.
As for the novel? I cdn't put it down. In fact, it's still stuck to my fingers. I don't know whether that's b/c of some error in production that involved an excess amt of glue or whether it's a deliberate business crime on the part of the giraffes.
September 5, 2025
I had no idea who Kinky Friedman was when I bought this for $1.98 off the Borders discount shelf. That's not an amazing bit of recollection or record keeping; the sticker is still on front. For about two decades, this book sat on several shelves unread until now.
I recall assuming when I bought it that Kinky Friedman was a New York society woman, sort of a Jewish Carrie whatever from Sex and the City. For two bucks, what did I have to lose?
Turns out that Kinky is a he, and he is country singer turned mystery writer. He is one hell of writer. This book is a lot of fun and very easy read. Chapters are from 1 to 4 pages and there is a laugh on pretty much every page, if not more. Although very light and airy, this book manages to be very filling and satisfying.
The book was written and is set in the mid 1980s. Doing a little research, Friedland has always had an edgy sense of humor. Some of Friedman's un-PC remarks which might have been fine back then or pushing the envelope a little then, now feel pretty wrong. Rather than being off put about it, we can take solace in how far we've all come since then.
I'm so glad my read every book we own project turned me onto this author. I went to his Website to look for electronic versions of this other novels. This is the third one the series BTW. Each is about $8. Intellectual property is a strange thing - $2 for a hard copy found in a bargain bin or $8 online for some ones and zeros.
I recall assuming when I bought it that Kinky Friedman was a New York society woman, sort of a Jewish Carrie whatever from Sex and the City. For two bucks, what did I have to lose?
Turns out that Kinky is a he, and he is country singer turned mystery writer. He is one hell of writer. This book is a lot of fun and very easy read. Chapters are from 1 to 4 pages and there is a laugh on pretty much every page, if not more. Although very light and airy, this book manages to be very filling and satisfying.
The book was written and is set in the mid 1980s. Doing a little research, Friedland has always had an edgy sense of humor. Some of Friedman's un-PC remarks which might have been fine back then or pushing the envelope a little then, now feel pretty wrong. Rather than being off put about it, we can take solace in how far we've all come since then.
I'm so glad my read every book we own project turned me onto this author. I went to his Website to look for electronic versions of this other novels. This is the third one the series BTW. Each is about $8. Intellectual property is a strange thing - $2 for a hard copy found in a bargain bin or $8 online for some ones and zeros.
April 4, 2021
I fought the urge to give this book 5 stars, but Kinky Friedman has my number. The first two books in the series I also gave 5 stars. Admittedly this book is not PC, and those remarks stick out like a sore thumb, but it WAS 1987. The Kinky Friedman series is definitely not for everyone, some people will just see the trees.
As I mentioned in the first two books, you don't read Kinky Friedman for the lyrical prose of deep plots, but for the humor. I thought this installment's plot was better than the previous book, "A Case of Lone Star". In this one I actually could, and did, solve the mystery before the end of the book and I must say I chuckled from beginning to the end. I read to escape, and this book was perfect for that. I can unashamedly say that I plan on reading the whole series, but that's just me, feel free to miss the fun.
As I mentioned in the first two books, you don't read Kinky Friedman for the lyrical prose of deep plots, but for the humor. I thought this installment's plot was better than the previous book, "A Case of Lone Star". In this one I actually could, and did, solve the mystery before the end of the book and I must say I chuckled from beginning to the end. I read to escape, and this book was perfect for that. I can unashamedly say that I plan on reading the whole series, but that's just me, feel free to miss the fun.
February 23, 2019
The first paragraph of the introduction made me laugh out loud.
"Mysteries with cats as central characters have become so plentiful and predictable that I can't believe I've written fourteen and a half of them. I don't kill quite as many trees as the woman who writes The Cat Who Got A Blow-Job, The Cat Who Killed Christ, etc. etc., but I am guilty of purveying the cat upon what I consider to be an essentially non-cat-loving world. I do this to irritate people."
Pure Kinky. So damn irreverent. The reason I like him so very much.
"Mysteries with cats as central characters have become so plentiful and predictable that I can't believe I've written fourteen and a half of them. I don't kill quite as many trees as the woman who writes The Cat Who Got A Blow-Job, The Cat Who Killed Christ, etc. etc., but I am guilty of purveying the cat upon what I consider to be an essentially non-cat-loving world. I do this to irritate people."
Pure Kinky. So damn irreverent. The reason I like him so very much.
October 19, 2025
Kinky Friedman #3
Third book in the series that sees the singer Kinky Friedman write as Kinky Friedman about a private eye named Kinky. Friedman.
Anyway, typical Friedman material here is an average yarn.
Nothing too amazing, mild diverting.
The chapter length rivals James Patterson for their brevity.
Third book in the series that sees the singer Kinky Friedman write as Kinky Friedman about a private eye named Kinky. Friedman.
Anyway, typical Friedman material here is an average yarn.
Nothing too amazing, mild diverting.
The chapter length rivals James Patterson for their brevity.
April 5, 2018
Didn’t care for this book at all. Lots of uncomfortable and ignorant gay and racist humor in this one. I understand the protagonist is supposed to be an exaggeration of the author, but the jokes were lame and cruel, and the story sucked.
December 15, 2018
Way too much unnecessary gay and racist jokes. How (the Kinky in the book) Kinky can still be alive as much as he drinks and smokes is beyond me. The book was still fun to read and the funny parts were funny.
August 11, 2025
Trademark Kinky Friedman comedic crime lunacy. Sometimes hard to follow but that's not even a problem as the plot is largely just a framework to hang comedy escapades, hilarious dialog and offbeat characters on. Immensely enjoyable.
October 23, 2017
Witty, silly and at times very enjoyable. Just don't expect much of a storyline.
April 27, 2020
The mystery is not quite as mysterious as in some of his other novels, but a crime novel by Kinky Friedman is always fun to read. It's not unlike a Tarantino movie in many ways.
November 8, 2020
As a fellow cat lover I enjoyed this fast-paced book. I will be searching for more of Kinky's books to read.
June 12, 2021
The wisecrackery and overall silliness gets in the way of the story, but who cares?
February 25, 2023
Hilarious as alwayd
September 3, 2024
RIP Kinksta
Not his best work, but a quick read and never a dull moment.
Not his best work, but a quick read and never a dull moment.
December 1, 2014
I had no idea who Kinky Friedman was when I bought this for $1.98 off the Borders discount shelf. That's not an amazing bit of recollection or record keeping; the sticker is still on front. For about two decades, this book sat on several shelves unread until now.
I recall assuming when I bought it that Kinky Friedman was a New York society woman, sort of a Jewish Carrie whatever from Sex and the City. For two bucks, what did I have to lose?
Turns out that Kinky is a he, and he is country singer turned mystery writer. He is one hell of writer. This book is a lot of fun and very easy read. Chapters are from 1 to 4 pages and there is a laugh on pretty much every page, if not more. Although very light and airy, this book manages to be very filling and satisfying.
The book was written and is set in the mid 1980s. Doing a little research, Friedland has always had an edgy sense of humor. Some of Friedman's un-PC remarks which might have been fine back then or pushing the envelope a little then, now feel pretty wrong. Rather than being off put about it, we can take solace in how far we've all come since then.
I'm so glad my read every book we own project turned me onto this author. I went to his Website to look for electronic versions of this other novels. This is the third one the series BTW. Each is about $8. Intellectual property is a strange thing - $2 for a hard copy found in a bargain bin or $8 online for some ones and zeros.
I recall assuming when I bought it that Kinky Friedman was a New York society woman, sort of a Jewish Carrie whatever from Sex and the City. For two bucks, what did I have to lose?
Turns out that Kinky is a he, and he is country singer turned mystery writer. He is one hell of writer. This book is a lot of fun and very easy read. Chapters are from 1 to 4 pages and there is a laugh on pretty much every page, if not more. Although very light and airy, this book manages to be very filling and satisfying.
The book was written and is set in the mid 1980s. Doing a little research, Friedland has always had an edgy sense of humor. Some of Friedman's un-PC remarks which might have been fine back then or pushing the envelope a little then, now feel pretty wrong. Rather than being off put about it, we can take solace in how far we've all come since then.
I'm so glad my read every book we own project turned me onto this author. I went to his Website to look for electronic versions of this other novels. This is the third one the series BTW. Each is about $8. Intellectual property is a strange thing - $2 for a hard copy found in a bargain bin or $8 online for some ones and zeros.
January 14, 2015
Written in the late 80's, this is not your most politically correct novel. Given the fact that the main character is a cigar smoking, womanizing Jewish cowboy/P.I. living in New York and that the main character and the author have the same name, I can't be sure if this is fiction or autobiographical. And the cast of quirky characters are bizarre enough to be real. I enjoyed the ride and hope to read more of Kinky.
August 16, 2012
This is so good - I read it in 1988 and am buying it on my kindle so I will always have it.
March 29, 2011
Another corker! Loved this from begining to end, although another re-read it still blew my head clean off! Laughed my self silly.
April 17, 2013
Not his best. At times, I cringed.
However, who doesn't like a cat caper at least a little?
However, who doesn't like a cat caper at least a little?
January 23, 2015
Pretty entertaining.
Want to read
December 4, 2008Beli karena tertarik cover & judul.. so typically me :p
Anyways, hope it's a good read
Anyways, hope it's a good read
July 5, 2012
Own First Edition.
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