I Like a Little Bit of the Handsome Americans Myself by Richard Lutman

The author warned me that this novella, I Like a Little Bit of the Handsome Americans Myself, would be different from anything I have ever read. He wasn’t exaggerating! I say that with a genuine smile.

With colorful characters including Cutbank, Porkwinder, Windust, Magnum, Mr. Watanabe, Darlene Darlene (just to name a few), this rich- with-dialog story takes us on a wild and crazy journey through a variety of relationships and interactions. It’s a joy ride of Seinfeldish proportions including a worm salesman, auto theft, a female singer with Norm Crosby’s vocabulary who eventually becomes a damsel in distress, a cowboy and active firearms.

This story features a whirlwind road trip, fast paced snippets of action and situations that may cause the reader to ponder what is this all about and where is it going?

Let it be said, however, that if you enjoy reading about peculiar adventures packed with eccentric individuals dashing through life with strangely connected agendas, you will love this novella. If you were a fan of Cosmo Kramer in Seinfeld, you will likely bond with these characters!

FYI-Contains potentially offensive language, depending upon how you view the use of certain colorful words.

Book Description

A dialogue-driven offbeat road tale set in the early 1970s in Boredemus, Indiana, I Like A Little Bit of the Handsome Americans Myself is the first great American novella. 

When J.R. and the Cutbank Cool set out to see the Handsome Americans play at the Nobility Hall, they set off a series of events with a worm salesman, a cowboy on a motorized hotdog, and a spaced out deejay that end in a supra-dramatic rescue of a former Miss Chicken Parts from the abandoned railroad tracks outside Boredemus.

They are pursued throughout by Arnold Porkwinder who deals in chrome and wants his $804.04 in back rent.  With him is Mr. Watanabe, a Japanese gentleman with unique insight and an expert baseball card flipper.

In the Words of Richard Lutman

I Like A Little Bit Of The Handsome Americans Myself is a quirky road novella set in the early seventies. There is no deep meaning in this novella which took me a month to write.  A crucial and very funny pseudo love scene occurs in a Laundromat which inspired the cover.  Pacing was important.  Most of the action is dialogue-driven so the chapters had to be short. 

J.R., one of the main characters, is based on a real person.  Many of the scenes in the novella actually occurred.

On the back of a shack door in Rhode Island, three names were scrawled across the rough wooden surface followed by the words ‘The Handsome Americans.’  After a night of drinking several pitchers of beer at a local bar and watching a very bad band perform, one of the beer drinkers said “There they are--The Handsome Americans,” which brought much laughter.  Every time another bad band performed or a conversation got long winded out would come, “I like a little bit of the Handsome Americans myself,” said in the most serious tone possible.  The name seemed appropriate for the band and the title of the novella. 

About Richard Lutman

Richard Lutman lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  He has a MFA in Writing from Vermont College.  He currently teaches short story classes as part of Coastal Carolina University's Lifelong Learning program.  His fiction has appeared in: Verdad, Slow Trains, The Green Silk Journal, Dark Sky Magazine, The Bicycle Review, Epiphany Magazine, The Petigru Review, Deep South Magazine, The Newport Review, Dew on the Kudzu, The Corner Cupboard Press, The Green Briar Review, Bethlehem Writers Roundtable and Prick of the Spindle. He has also won local and national awards for his short stories, nonfiction and screenplays.   He was a 2008 Pushcart Nominee. 

A chapbook of his flash fiction was published in June 2009, a long narrative poem in 2011 and a chapbook of four short stories in 2013 by The Last Automat Press.  A novella entitled "I Like a Little Bit of the Handsome Americans Myself" can be found on Smashwords and Amazon Kindle.  Another novella, "Iron Butterfly" can be found at The WriteDeal Publishers.

Link to Amazon page:  http://amzn.to/1auwyH0

Link to Richard Lutman’s website:  http://www.wordrealm.net

Come on back in a couple of weeks for an introduction to another book and author!

All the best,

Mary Anne Benedetto 

Author of Eyelash, 7 Easy Steps to Memoir Writing: Build a Priceless Legacy One Story at a Time!, Never Say Perfect and From Italy with Love & Limoncello.

Visit http://www.awriterspresence.com