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Locklear Letters, The
by Michael Kun
A middling comedy
It's been said that a good television sitcom tells a joke
once, a medium grade sitcom tells the joke twice, and a bad sitcom tells
a joke three times, just to make sure the viewers get it. It's hard to
place the Locklear Letters into this grading system, as the author
repeats jokes ten or fifteen times. We are into the absurd, sometimes
verging on the surreal.
As the main character and author of the letters in this epistolary novel,
self-absorbed Sid Straw writes to a variety of family members, co-workers,
lawyers, etc., but mainly he sends letters to TV actress Heather Locklear,
with whom he attended a class, years ago, at UCLA, and on whose intramural
volleyball team he played. He writes to her, not in any prurient way, but
about the states of his business and personal lives, which are on a steep
downward slope through most of the novel. Even when, in his more rational
moments, he is sure that Heather Locklear's publicist and lawyers are not
passing these letters on to the actress, he continues to write with
(anti)heroic persistence. Sid, a denser version of Seinfeld's George
Costanza, gets into hot water because of his own stupidity, anger and
insensitivity. But his troubles are magnified by the ineptitude of a series of nemeses--government workers, magazine and book sellers, and a
florist Sid continues to use despite disastrous results when he sends
flowers. Just when Sid (and the reader) can take no
more, a deus ex machina turns up. The effect is unconvincing, but,
then again, this is supposed to be a silly story that has to end somehow.
Title: Locklear Letters, The
Author: Michael Kun
Publisher: MacAdam Cage
ISBN: 1931561362
Review written by: William Keogan
Reviewer's Rating:5.5
Reader's Rating: 9.41
Reader's Votes: 26
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