Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch is the fifteenth Kinky Friedman novel, with the fictional Kinky at his actual Texas family ranch property (Friedman in real life runs the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch and the Echo Hill Ranch summer camp on this same property). The case here involves a stolen-horse mystery and a series of small Hill Country incidents that bring the New York-based Friedman voice into a rural Texas register.

Friedman's strength in Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch is the Hill Country texture. The ranch geography, the small Texas-town politics, and the specific way Kinky-the-narrator processes a return to his actual childhood landscape are rendered with the kind of autobiographical weight the comic form does not require. Fans of Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon or of Larry McMurtry's contemporary Texas novels will recognize the careful rural-Texas literary register.

The plot is, as usual, less important than the voice. The Hill Country material is genuinely warm.

Three stars. A pleasant Texas-set Kinky entry. The Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch Kinky Friedman novel works best for series regulars who want the autobiographical context. New readers should start with the Village-set books.