Audiobook13 hours
Fast Copy
Written by Dan Jenkins
Narrated by Richard Poe
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
In 1935 Betsy Throckmorton's father lures her from a New York job with Time magazine back to Claybelle, Texas, with the promise that she can be the editor of his Claybelle Standard-Times. Betsy brings along her husband, Ted Winton, an easterner and Yale graduate to whom she is constantly explaining Texas. Ted will run Ben Throckmorton's radio station, KVAT, where Booty and Them Others sing in rivalry with the better known WBAP Light Crust Doughboys. In Texas, it's the middle of the Depression and the Drought. And Prohibition is barely over, liquor still a controversy. Every city has its hobo camp, and Claybelle has the Star of Hope Mission. But it is also the time of new oil money, high living, infidelity, and tangled love triangles. Betsy and Ted chain-smoke and drink often and long, they wouldn't miss a Paschal High School or TCU football game, they party at the Casino on Jacksboro Highway, and dine at Claybelle's Shadylawn Country Club. Betsy is a serious journalist though, and she sets out to change the paper, clashing with the managing editor when she claims international not state news belongs on page one. She clashes with the columnists when she tries to sharpen their leads. The Texas Murder Machine becomes her big story, when she suspects that Texas Rangers may be killing innocent young men to collect rewards offered by the Texas Bankers Association. Betsy's journalistic determination leads to a personal tragedy that changes her life forever-and makes her a determined, relentless newswoman.
Author
Dan Jenkins
Dan Jenkins (1928–2019) was an author and sportswriter who wrote for Sports Illustrated. He was the author of more than twenty books, including Semi-Tough, Dead Solid Perfect, and Life Its Ownself.
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Reviews for Fast Copy
Rating: 3.8000000299999996 out of 5 stars
4/5
10 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Have enjoyed many Dan Jenkins books over the years but this one is by far the deepest, most intelligent, most reverent and yet irreverent title.
I bought a hardback copy several years ago, but having not sat down to read since then, I very much enjoyed the narrated audiobook, which is done especially well. Jenkins was truly a treasure, and a giant ptooey on the editors and agents who said he should not write this novel. How incredibly wrong they were - this is literature and this is a legacy.
It was the perfect listen for the long holiday weekend, and I'll start a re-listen as soon as I finish this review because I so enjoyed being in his world and I don't want it to end. Someday, when I have fewer things to fix around the house, I look forward to curling up with that hardback copy and letting my eyes be the passport.
Jenkins lived a long and prolific life, but I selfishly wish he was still around to offer commentary on the insanity and inanity of 2021, no doubt he would find a way to make it all more palatable. Thanks to his family who surely suffered somewhat at being writer-adjacent (don't all those near the creative endure a bit more than, say, the children of accountants?) so that great books such as this one can live on years later.
This book had the substance and historical perspective my brain needed and the laugh out loud and heartbreaking moments my heart needed. Hope Jenkins, whom I envision kicked back in Writers' Heaven with a drink and a smoke, gets an extra token for the jukebox because what he left behind on earth absolutely made someone's day.