Rating: 
Summary: What can I possibly say?
Review: I always finish Kinky's books feeling confused and a bit violated, but I have no idea why. The books are so entertaining although there is not much story - just a mix of insane people (who you just can't tell if they like each other or hate each other), and their often unfortunate lives. Blast from the Past does give you some insight into the Kinkster's life and you learn things like how he came to live in his fourth floor apartment on Vandam Street, how he left country music to be a P.I., and how he came to know many of his cohorts such as Rambam, Ratso, Chinga and McGovern. This book, along with other Kinkster books is just plain bizarre and silly!
Rating: 
Summary: Fresh gimmickry keeps the Kinky series top-notch!
Review: I had lost some faith in Kinky Friedman's tales of the Village Irregulars and the "mysteries" that they take on. Most folks noticed that the series was starting to get long on drawl and short on substance about the time the gang was searching for Ratso's mother...however, Friedman had a flash of brilliance when he started pulling out new scenarios for his alter ego. First was Kinky going back home to Texas to fight the bad buys on the stomping grounds of his youth instead of the mean streets of New York. Then we had an entry featuring Willie Nelson as one of the main characters (Roadkill is still the best of the series, too). Now, in Blast From The Past, Kinky's back on Vandam Street...circa 1979. That's right, a blow to the head sends the Kinkstah's memory banks through the years to his first amateur detective work ever. And, to make things even loonier, counter-culture hero (and real life Friedman pal from back in the day) Abbie Hoffman is the center of much of the action. For those of you who've never read a Kinky Friedman book this is not a good place to start. By this point in the series it's understood that the reader "gets" Kinky's world and the characters in it. If you're not familiar with the skidmark-covered couch over at Ratso's place or the unusual greeting that they get every time they enter Big Wong's restaurant...well, go back a few books and catch up first. Many of the recurring points of interest in the series have their origins explained in this volume as well, but you have to know what the big deal is about. The jump back in time also sends the meter of un-PC behavior skyrocketing. The Kinkster is eyebrows-deep in the 'ole Peruvian Marching Powder and has just discovered Jameson's whiskey. It's a high old time (and it opens with Kinky in bed with a strange girl). It's grand fun and proof that there's still plenty of new ground to explore in the series. Or at least plenty of off-color jokes, humorous antecdotes, sex, drugs, and a teensy bit of crime-solving. My faith in this Texas Jewboy is as strong as ever.
Rating:
Summary: Fresh gimmickry keeps the Kinky series top-notch!
Review: I had lost some faith in Kinky Friedman's tales of the Village Irregulars and the "mysteries" that they take on. Most folks noticed that the series was starting to get long on drawl and short on substance about the time the gang was searching for Ratso's mother...however, Friedman had a flash of brilliance when he started pulling out new scenarios for his alter ego. First was Kinky going back home to Texas to fight the bad buys on the stomping grounds of his youth instead of the mean streets of New York. Then we had an entry featuring Willie Nelson as one of the main characters (Roadkill is still the best of the series, too). Now, in Blast From The Past, Kinky's back on Vandam Street...circa 1979. That's right, a blow to the head sends the Kinkstah's memory banks through the years to his first amateur detective work ever. And, to make things even loonier, counter-culture hero (and real life Friedman pal from back in the day) Abbie Hoffman is the center of much of the action. For those of you who've never read a Kinky Friedman book this is not a good place to start. By this point in the series it's understood that the reader "gets" Kinky's world and the characters in it. If you're not familiar with the skidmark-covered couch over at Ratso's place or the unusual greeting that they get every time they enter Big Wong's restaurant...well, go back a few books and catch up first. Many of the recurring points of interest in the series have their origins explained in this volume as well, but you have to know what the big deal is about. The jump back in time also sends the meter of un-PC behavior skyrocketing. The Kinkster is eyebrows-deep in the 'ole Peruvian Marching Powder and has just discovered Jameson's whiskey. It's a high old time (and it opens with Kinky in bed with a strange girl). It's grand fun and proof that there's still plenty of new ground to explore in the series. Or at least plenty of off-color jokes, humorous antecdotes, sex, drugs, and a teensy bit of crime-solving. My faith in this Texas Jewboy is as strong as ever.
Rating: 
Summary: Same old same old
Review: I love the Kinkstah and have read all his other books, or should I say, "book". But somewhere around the fourth one (I'm a bit slow ...), I realized Hey, I've already read this book. It's been the same ever since. Nobody reads Kinky's books for the plots, since they don't have one. They read them for the one liners and the very funny Village Irregulars. Unfortunately, he seems to have run out of new material and is just rehashing the same old lines. Maybe he's been away from Vandam St too long. I don't know what his problem is, but my problem is I shelled out for the hardback, when I would have had the same reading experience if I had just pulled one of my old Kinky's off the shelf and reread it. Kinky once said something like: my readers get much more out of my books than I put into them. He didn't put anything into this one. It could have been written by an intern at Simon and Schuster just cutting and pasting from the last few books; in fact, I'm beginning to wonder, was it.
Rating:
Summary: Hold the weddin', it's time for a change!
Review: Kinky Friedman has been my favorite writer, balladeer for many a moon. His exploits with the Village Irregulars has kept me laughing through my share of rainy days and plenty of bad cigars. Alas, Blast from the Past did not live up to the creative, humorous standard the Kinkstah has established for himself. I found it to be repetitive and sometimes stale as a fifty cent stogie. I think it's time to rotate the tires on this bad boy and pump some gas into the fuel injector. Kinky's too good a writer to allow his novels to fall so flat. If this was indeed the product of a ghost writer, maybe that person should make like a ghost and get the Boo out of the industry. I still have faith and eagerly await the next opus. I even have the Jameson waiting by the easy chair.
Rating: 
Summary: The Prequel is Unequaled
Review: Kinky Friedman is a literary treasue enjoyed only by the truly literate.....and, sometimes, the ignorant. To the cogniscenti, he is their favorite absurdist, satirist, and funnyman. To others, he's just a cigar-smoking, wisecracking, skirt-chasing, whiskey-drinking, country music singing, Texas Jewboy who writes funny mysteries. BLAST FROM THE PAST would be a terrific place to begin for a newcomer to Kinky books. For the aficionados, it's a must. Don't miss this one
Rating:
Summary: Irreverently delightful
Review: Kinky Friedman is heading to the apartment of Stephanie DuPont to collect seven million dollars when he takes a blow to head and learns first hand what Alice and Dorothy's strange adventures were like. Suddenly, it is no longer 1997 as Kinky is back in 1970's Greenwich Village. Kinky meets the Village Irregulars for the first time. His pal, Ratso Sloman suggests Kinky become a private investigator because of his weird way at looking at things. Kinky's first client is Abby Hoffman, who is being stalked by a dangerous person, who ultimately blows up the Kinkster's Manhattan apartment, making the case suddenly very personal. BLAST FROM THE PAST may be the best Kinky Friedman novel of them all. The eccentric reoccurring characters come to life and their relationship to Kinky is groovy. The setting is vintage Greenwich Village as seen through a purple haze of smoke. The story line is raunchy humor with a bittersweet message about the ultimate results of ! ! the sixties idealism- or was it naivety? In his eleventh Kinky novel, Mr. Friedman demonstrates he is one of the best at humorously trivializing society. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: BRAVO KINKAZZO!
Review: Man, am I addicted to Kinky's gonzonian books! Look at me, I'm a Jewish Italian former transplant to Aussieland, and what do I like reading? About a sleazeball, down-and-out, retired Texan country-music detective with a cranky cat in the house (is that a house?) and half a puppet on the fridge. This particular novel is actually a prequel - just like the last Star Wars - that answers all your burning questions about those Village [fellows] Kinky hangs around with. Happy now? I shouldn't think so: this is actually a suspenseful tale of murder, mayhem, madness, eroticism, and irrepressible laughter. Kinky, sei in gamba!
Rating:
Summary: Vintage Kinky, in more ways than one
Review: The Kinkstah does it again! I always wanted to know how Messrs. Friedman and Ratso Sloman became the Sherlock and Watson of our generation and now it's all revealed. Wonderful reading about the late, lamented Abbie Hoffman. For an amazing biography of Abbie see Ratso's own book, "Steal This Dream". Write on, Kinkster!
Rating:
Summary: the kinksta rewls
Review: this is an hillarious read from front to back, as is the entire kinkster collection. i read (chuckled) my way through this puppy twice and read the acknowledgments five or six times. keep 'em comin kinksta!
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