Body ANNOTATION
In his highly acclaimed 11th novel, Crews has written a wild, weird black comedy that takes place over one weekend during a women's bodybuilding competition. A secretary has found a new life as a champion bodybuilding contender, but her turns things upside down with their redneck antics. Serial rights to Playboy.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Female bodybuilding competition is the background for a tale of ambition, success, and failure. Shereel Dupont, a leading contender, has been trained to a fine-tuned perfection by Russell Morgan. At the Ms. Cosmos contest Shereel is confronted by her past as Dorothy Turnipseed--mother, father, sister, two brothers, and a former lover from the backwoods of Georgia. Bawdy humor is generated by the Turnipseed family, and conflict is supplied by Marvella, a big black woman who is Shereel's only real competition. The interplay among the leading characters is propelled with lean prose and dialog to an ending that is as shocking as it is inevitable. Not as powerful or controlled as the author's A Feast of Snakes ( Atheneum, 1987. pap.) or as surrealistic and fascinating as The Knockout Artist (LJ 4/15/88), this is still a taut, readable book that the author's fans will savor. First serial, Playboy . -- Robert H. Dona hugh, formerly with Youngstown & Ma honing Cty. P.L., Ohio