B-Four by Sam Hodges
Newspapers, the Civil War, love, barbecue . . . Nothing escapes Hodges's twisted sense of southern culture in his outrageous novel B-Four. Beauregard Forrest has been a faithful son to his wealthy and quirky father, joining him in Civil War reenactments and morning coffee, and an uncomplaining second fiddle to his brother Jackson, an ex-Crimson Tide football player. To please his father, Beauregard works as a cub reporter at the Birmingham Standard-Dispatch, a job his father hopes will raise Beauregard's college entrance test scores and gain him admittance to prestigious and gentrified Washington and Lee University. Far from honing his skills and sharpening his wit, however, Beauregard's assignments at the Standard-Dispatch--Pet of the Week and obituaries--promise to bury him in Section B, Page 4, hence his nickname. Beauregard's road to Page 1 is filled with more potholes than an Alabama back road. Assigned to cover a speech by a British cleric, the young reporter believes he may have escaped journalistic limbo, only to discover the entire sermon delivered in Latin. When he files his story partly in Latin, he finds himself once again covering breaking news at the Humane Society. Hoping to woo his love interest, Lorena, and wow his fellow reporters with a sizzling front-page scoop, B-Four investigates an anti-Atlanta campaign organized by the Birmingham Boosters. The hilarity that ensues launches him on the road to self-discovery.
""B-Four is smart, sassy, and as Southern as collard greensBut he doesn't go easy on us! He chooses his targets carefully and demolishes them thoroughly. This book is fun all the way through.""—Fred Chappell|""This gem of a novel has more quirky characters than a half-dozen country stores--from a Birmingham booster frustrated by Atlanta's success, to Taco Bob, a Vietnamese refugee who becomes a barbecue king.""—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sam Hodges is currently a Washington Correspondent for Newhouse News Service and has been a staff writer at the Birmingham Post-Herald and the Orlando Sentinel. Born in Georgia, Hodges now lives in Washington, D.C. and is a correspondent for the Mobile Register.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780817310493 |
| ISBN 10 | 0817310495 |
| Title | B-Four |
| Author | Sam Hodges |
| Series | Deep South Books |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | The University of Alabama Press |
| Year published | 2000-08-17 |
| Number of pages | 288 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |