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Detective Fiction, Sports - Fiction, Occupations - Fiction

The Franchise Babe

by Dan Jenkins
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Overview

Jack Brannon, a golf writer in his forties who has been bunkered more than once in the marriage game, covers the sport for a big-time magazine. Bored with the PGA, he decides to check out β€œthe Lolitas,” on the LPGA Tour. Jack chooses as a magazine subject Ginger Clayton, a fiery eighteen-year old whose killer looks and killer game make her the kind of star who can take the LPGA to the next level. She is, indeed, The Franchise Babe, and everyone wants a part of her, but someone, it seems, is trying to knock Ginger out of the competition-permanently. Filled with dead-on take downs of sports moms, adventurous promoters, suck-up corporate sponsors, double-dealing sports agents, and just enough menace to make golf dangerous, Dan Jenkins latest tale of hijinks on the links is not to be missed.

Synopsis

Jack Brannon, a golf writer in his forties who has been bunkered more than once in the marriage game, covers the sport for a big-time magazine. Bored with the PGA, he decides to check out “the Lolitas,” on the LPGA Tour. Jack chooses as a magazine subject Ginger Clayton, a fiery eighteen-year old whose killer looks and killer game make her the kind of star who can take the LPGA to the next level. She is, indeed, The Franchise Babe, and everyone wants a part of her, but someone, it seems, is trying to knock Ginger out of the competition-permanently. Filled with dead-on take downs of sports moms, adventurous promoters, suck-up corporate sponsors, double-dealing sports agents, and just enough menace to make golf dangerous, Dan Jenkins latest tale of hijinks on the links is not to be missed.

Publishers Weekly

In Jenkins's outrageous sports satire (after Slim and None ), middle-aged sportswriter Jack Brannon is sick of writing about Tiger Woods and the boring testosterone-charged PGA tour. So the swaggering Texan decides to check out the ladies of the LPGA, specifically hot teen sensation and fellow Texan, Ginger Clayton. She's a "fiery eighteen-year-old blonde" with the potential to become the next golf superstar (or, in pro golf parlance, a real "franchise babe"). Soon, Jack is impressed by Thurlene, Ginger's gorgeous single mom, and enamored of Ginger's talent, beauty and precocious professionalism. He decides to tag along, taking notes and observing the peculiar peccadilloes of professional sports-including crazed stage-golf moms and others who'll stop at nothing to get ahead in the high-stakes game. Jenkins pokes fun at the golf world eccentricities he knows so well and allows Jack major leeway in making smart-mouth commentary as he falls in love and gets a great scoop. (June)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author, Dan Jenkins

Dan Jenkins is the author of eighteen novels and nonfiction books including Semi-Tough, Dead Solid Perfect, Baja Oklahoma, Life Its Ownself, Rude Behavior, Fairways and Greens, and most recently, Slim and None. Jenkins was an award-winning writer for Sports Illustrated for more than 20 years, and currently writes an enduringly popular column for Golf Digest. After a semi-lifetime in New York City, he now lives full-time in his native Fort Worth, Texas.

Reviews

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

In Jenkins's outrageous sports satire (after Slim and None ), middle-aged sportswriter Jack Brannon is sick of writing about Tiger Woods and the boring testosterone-charged PGA tour. So the swaggering Texan decides to check out the ladies of the LPGA, specifically hot teen sensation and fellow Texan, Ginger Clayton. She's a "fiery eighteen-year-old blonde" with the potential to become the next golf superstar (or, in pro golf parlance, a real "franchise babe"). Soon, Jack is impressed by Thurlene, Ginger's gorgeous single mom, and enamored of Ginger's talent, beauty and precocious professionalism. He decides to tag along, taking notes and observing the peculiar peccadilloes of professional sports-including crazed stage-golf moms and others who'll stop at nothing to get ahead in the high-stakes game. Jenkins pokes fun at the golf world eccentricities he knows so well and allows Jack major leeway in making smart-mouth commentary as he falls in love and gets a great scoop. (June)

Copyright Β© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Library Journal

Jenkins (Slim and None) takes his trademark humor over the top in this farcical novel about the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour. His method is to throw anti-PC jokes at everyone from lesbians to Native Americans and see what sticks. Unfortunately, nothing does. He half-heartedly includes a Tonya Harding-like plot against the "franchise babe" of the title, but drops it, seemingly from boredom. For larger public libraries and local demand.


β€”Andrew Smith

Kirkus Reviews

Never has the worldview of Golf Digest columnist Jenkins (Slim and None, 2005, etc.) been pettier than in this cliche-ridden, boorish and brief exploration of the newly sexualized world of the LPGA tour. Sports Magazine writer Jack Brannon, 47, hits every 1970s-era formula branch on his way down. Twice-divorced with a penchant for four-olive martinis, Brannon sleeps with the well-worn PR nymphs on the circuit and picks restaurants Sinatra frequented. Weary of a men's game that focuses only on the legendary player he dubs "Black Jesus," Jack turns his attentions to the "Lolitas": the sexy and talented younger women gaining ground on the women's circuit in tournaments like the Firm Chick Classic. He zeroes in on a rising star, an ingenue shooter with model looks named Ginger Clayton, the titular "Franchise Babe" whose numerous gifts promise big-ticket endorsement deals (of Ginger the narrator says: " . . . it was a good guess she could kick a hole in the ceiling of a motel room if she was on her back doing what it looked like she could do best"). After Ginger is nearly poisoned by a rival and subsequently brained on the links on her way to the toilet-and Jack makes a pitiful but successful pass at her hot-to-trot mother, Thurlene-he starts investigating who might have it out for the feisty wunderkind. Jenkins makes some salient, well-worn points about the commercialization of sports and the exploitation of young athletes. Unfortunately, they're punctuated by sexist remarks, as well as juvenile taunts aimed indiscriminately at lesbians, Hollywood liberals, the French and others. The golf, meanwhile, is just as exciting as it is on television. The same old story, written by someone who shouldknow better.

Book Details

Published
June 1, 2009
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Pages
240
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780767925280

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