Fender Benders

by Bill Fitzhugh

Book Overview

Eddie Long plans to be a country music star but he's stuck touring the college frat circuit. After his wife dies at the hands of a serial killer, Eddie writes the best song of his life. It goes... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380977575
• ISBN13: 9780380977574
• Release Date: December 2001
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 326 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Refreshingly different view of reality

If you understand the statement "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture," then you'll know some of why I have such a hard time describing the extreme pleasure I had reading FENDER BENDERS. Eddie Long had a plan. He wanted to become a country music star, so he set about making it happen. He practiced his guitar, took some classes at night school, and started playing at dives and bars, paying his dues. When his wife Tammy died suddenly, a deep and profound song found its way from his soul. Not a dry eye remained in the house the night he debuted "It Wasn't Supposed to End That Way." Eddie knew he had a hit, so he moved on to Nashville. Now Jimmy Rogers followed Eddie's career from the very beginning. He figured there was a book in this story somewhere, depending on whether Eddie made it big or not. Jimmy's girl Megan had eyes for Eddie, too, but with something very different than a book in mind. About the time Eddie met up with the artist management firm of Herron & Peavy in Nashville and struck the most unique contract known to country music, Jimmy was frantically working on Eddie's biography and discovering that Eddie's wife didn't die naturally. Neither did three other people who had headaches one night. Seems like a serial killer might be on the loose. Add to that the fact that Herron and Peavy weren't exactly choir boys. Twisted legal contracts and complicated money schemes bring some disgruntled clients to this scenario. Take all these ingredients, mix, and you have the wild romp that ensues in FENDER BENDERS. It takes an ingenious and wacky mind to take all these varied storylines and have them flow so incredibly smoothly. I'm amazed at just how well all the clues tumbled together and fell over each other. Coincidence? No way. Kind of like writing a song where all the elements must gel just right. Poetry to music. Understated hilarity is what Bill Fitzhugh brings with his writing. Not knowing much about the country music business detracted nothing from my enjoyment of this inspired frenzy. Expert details were scattered liberally throughout the story. I never knew what the differences between, say, digital and analog recording sessions were, but I have a pretty good inkling about it now. Was this explanation just a way to show off Fitzhugh's research? Nope. A well calculated clue, just as every detail included was. Turns out that the explanation was integral to the story, I just didn't know it until later. It bewildered me how what should have been such a simple story could become so incredibly elaborate yet could also be so very subtle as to have me doubting my own senses. I'm not quite sure which direction is up, but I am sure that this was a highly satisfying tale that left me breathless and smiling. Be sure to treat yourself with this refreshingly different view of reality. Disclaimer: Any similarities between my husband "Bill Herron" and the character "Big Bill Herron" are co

Disturbingly hilarious!

Read it! This was my first Fitzhugh book... and I couldn't put it down. (I know, skip the cliches!) But this one should be read in as close to one sitting as possible. Really, Fitzhugh is funny... in the same vein as Carl Hiassen and Christopher Moore. "Fender Benders" characters are well-conceived... the story flows well... and the conclusion is mysterious enough. No, it's not a mystery... it's a darkly comic novel. Be sure to read "Heart Seizure", too.

A fun read, mystery and all

Fitzhugh has expanded his talent, this may be his best. I love them all, this one has much more mystery, it goes fast. Every Fitzhugh book is well researched, this one gets into the Nashville music scene in a fun way.

Fitzhugh Rides Into Nashville With Guns A'Blazin' !

OK. I admit it. I love all of Fitzhugh's books. Notwithstanding that admission, however, this one is clearly his best. Opry-land proves to be a wonderfully fat target for Fitzhugh's keen eye and rapier wit. Reading "Fender Benders" was like watching a humourous strip tease of the portly country music industry...In this case, the tables are turned, and the Fat Cats who are accustomed to pulling the strings that dictate who becomes a Star in Nashville are exposed by Fitzhugh's rib ticklin' humour for the underhanded, stab-each-other-in-the-back-bums they really are. All aspects of the country music scene are heartily lampooned, with 'nary a rhinestone G-string left intact to shield the industry's loins. Fitzhugh's characters seem to wander down the wrong country lanes...drawn like moths to the bright lights that beckon. But success for one seems to entail death for another. And therein lies the mystery that the reader is required by book's end to resolve - which of the several possible candidates is actually responsible for the murders? Fitzhugh's signature blend of fast humour, real life situations and paradoxes, and uncompromising one-liners leave you limp with laughter. This book is a "must-read" for anyone with a sense of humour and even a mild curiosity about what makes Nashville tick.

An amusing satirical look at the music industry

Mississippi's Eddie Long feels one day he will take Nashville by storm. Eddie is currently doing the Southern bars and college route, but feels he is just paying his dues before the big break occurs. However, while on the road, Eddie learns that his wife has died. Grieving, he pours his soul into a eulogy-song that stuns the music world and makes him a hot prospect. Writer Jimmy Rogers sees honky tonk performer turn superstar Eddie as the perfect vehicle for a biography. His research soon leads him to believe that Eddie may have arranged his spouse's demise via food poisoning and the deaths of several other people while the musician toured the south. Jimmy, already jealous of Eddie stealing his girl, plans to prove that Eddie is more talented as a serial killer than a country western musician. FENDER BENDER is an amusing satirical look at the music industry and indirectly at serial killer novels. The story line skews any icon that falls in its path, but does so through not so subtle references to movies and books and a strong cast whose eccentricities and personal agendas add humor to a very funny mix. If novels like CROSS DRESSING and PEST CONTROL have not already introduced the reader to the sharp barbs of Bill Fitzhugh; FENDER BENDER is the right tale for those who relish laughing at idols crumbling from the pedestals inside a dark facetious mystery.Harriet Klausner