This
week I thought I would do something a little different for Friday’s Forgotten
Books hosted by Patti Abbott here. I thought some humor was in order. So, this
week I offer up my review from a couple of years ago of The Feedstore Chronicles by Travis Erwin. I thought the book was
funny, at times, and if you check it out I hope you find it funny too.
Building on his experience working at a feedstore as
a teen, Texas author Terry Ervin fictionalized those years and all involved to
come up with this often funny coming of age tale. Except for references to the
author and two former pro wrestlers, The Feedstore Chronicles is fiction.
Despite the fact it is fiction, the book on occasion will strike a strong
resonance with you if you are of a certain age and grew up in Texas.
It is the spring of 1989 and the
young narrator, Travis, is all of sixteen. Travis has a crush on the nubile
Samantha Black who is a certain cheerleader at Caprock High School. Doyle
Suggs, thirty, twice divorced, runs Pearl’s Feed and Seed in Amarillo, Texas.
Travis believes that if he had some cash from working he might have a chance
with her. So, he gets a minimum wage job at the feedstore and soon learns there
are very nasty jobs at the store. Not all of the nasty ones involve Doyle’s dog
“Snuggles.”
While working after school making
money did not do anything to get him any closer to Samantha it did let him see
the world through the eyes of his boss Doyle Suggs. Doyle believes that every
woman on the planet is his to bed. He is active and makes every effort to get
laid on a daily basis with as many women as possible. When necessary, he is
more than willing to work out a trade of some of the store product on credit
for some intimate time with the ladies. Doyle also likes practical jokes, to
harass his small stuff of Travis and Jerry, and to be the boss and play
favorites. As the months turn into years and Travis works closer and closer to
High School graduation he learns the good, the bad, and the downright ugly and
smelly from Doyle.
There is no great summing up of this
book that is possible. No great mysteries are solved, no meaning of life is
pronounced, and no great revelations are explained. Something that was made
clear from word one of the introduction. The Feedstore Chronicles is a fun
read and an ode to a time when, as pimply faced Texas teens, we knew it all.
For Travis it also meant he met and married the woman of his dreams. For me it
means I still can’t walk into Burger King without shuddering just a little.
Occasionally graphic in terms of
language and physical descriptions, this is a book of interconnected stories.
Stories that have been fictionalized massively to protect those involved.
Stories much like what you would tell while sitting around with your buddies
and drinking beer. A fun read that does not take itself seriously nor has any
deep meaning or symbolism.
Read it for fun and enjoy.
The Feedstore Chronicles
Travis Erwin
TAG Publishing, LLC
2011
ISBN 978-1-934606-31-5
Paperback (also available on Kindle)
206 Pages
$14.95
Material in the form of a PDF
supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2012, 2014
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