The Prisoner of Vandam Street: A Novel
by Kinky Friedman

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Book Reviews of The Prisoner of Vandam Street: A Novel

Book Review: Kinky Friedman at his best
Summary: 5 Stars

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.

Summary of The Prisoner of Vandam Street: A Novel

It's a case of malaria versus murder when private dick extraordinaire Kinky Friedman comes down with a tropical disease, in the jungle known as New York City, and is confined to his loft on Vandam Street in lower Manhattan, a prisoner in his own home with only his cat and black puppet head as company (neither of whom are great conversationalists).

With little to do but stare out the window in between bedridden bouts of fever and hallucinations, Kinky calls on assistance from the stalwart Village Irregulars, who proceed to dish out their own uniquely skewed brand of tea and sympathy, turning the loft into a virtual Mardi Gras of confusion and drunken debauchery.

Suffering almost as much from company overload as from his fever, Kinky welcomes a rare moment of calm as he finds himself once again alone in his loft. Resuming his position at the kitchen window, he spots a pretty young woman in an apartment across the street. What he hopes might be titillating turns terrifying, however, as a man joins the woman and proceeds to attack her. Sure that he's witnessed a crime, Kinky calls in the cops, but, upon investigating his claim, they can find neither a victim nor an apartment across the street. In addition, no one else saw or heard anything that would ndicate a crime had taken place. Was it foul play or merely a fevered dream?

Convinced that their friend is about to slip off into the land of eternal slumber, the Village Irregulars increase their vigilance and in the process raise the Kinkster's irritability level to an all-time high. Not to be deterred, however, Kinky sticks to his story and is rewarded when a few days later he sees the man in the apartment again, but this time with a gun.

Outrageous, audacious, and ingeniously crafted, The Prisoner of Vandam Street is vintage Kinky: irreverent, clever, and full of the hardened philosophy and mordant wit that has earned him a vast and devoted readership. But what more would you expect from the writer The New York Times has called "The world's funniest, bawdiest, and most politically incorrect country music singer turned mystery writer"?

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