Fup by Jim Dodge

Fup by Jim Dodge

Start with Granddaddy Jake Santee, a cantankerous, ninety-nine-year-old coot with a taste for gambling and whiskey; add in Tiny, his gentle giant of an adopted grandson, whose passion for building well-crafted fences on land with no livestock borders on obsessive; then add Fup, a twenty-pound mallard with an iron will and a fondness for hooch and romantic movies. What do you get?

You get Fup--a wildly eccentric modern classic that invites you to sit a spell and wet your whistle while it regales you with tales of teaching Fup to fly, the Sunday morning pig hunt, and the Great Checker Showdown of '78. First published in 1983, this hilarious, heartwarming, magical tale has sold over 100,000 copies since its debut. Fup is a contemporary fable that inspires an evangelical fervor in all who read it.

As Granddaddy Jake says: It just ain't possible to explain some things, maybe even most things. It's interesting to wonder on them and do some speculation, but the main thing is you have to accept it--take it for what it is, and get on with your getting.

So, get on with your getting and read Fup--it's all it's quacked up to be

Jim Dodge is the author of three novels: Fup, Not Fade Away, and Stone Junction, as well as Rain on the River, a collection of poetry and short writing. He graduated from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop with a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing/poetry in 1969 and has been the director of the creative writing program in the English department at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, since 1995. He has worked as an apple picker, a carpet layer, a teacher, a professional gambler, a shepherd, and a woodcutter while living on an isolated ranch in western Sonoma County.