NICE
Review by Gail Cooke, Arizona Daily Star
Is there such a thing as being too nice, too selfless, too
accommodating? There most certainly is in the fertile,
funny, sometimes frenetic imagination of author Charles
Holdefer (Apology For Big Rod, 1997).
With "Nice," protagonist, Jerry Renfrow, isn't a garden
variety Mr. Good Guy who helps doddering ladies across
the street, but a hapless anti-hero whose limitless
generosity would stupefy a saint. So great is his concern for
the total satisfaction of his wife, Barbara, that when he
returns home to find her "...spread-eagled on the couch,
her chin on a bony shoulder, bobbing...," his only regret is
that he interrupted her pleasure with the pizza delivery boy.
For his ailing mother's 66th birthday celebration he
arranged a reunion of her old basketball team, the
Pantherettes, 1949 Iowa State Champions. The "girls" sank
a few in the basket above his mother's driveway.
Jerry's largesse was not limited to family and friends, it
extended to his professional life - he operates Home-Made
Services, Inc., a company dedicated to doing nice things for
others. Subscribers to his service knew that no anniversary,
birth, death, graduation or any life event would pass without
recognition. For clients he drafted letters of "comfort or
praise or condolence" and sent cards on dates registered
in his Forget-Me-Not computer.
"He did one-shot gigs, too........in one of his higher priced
performances, Mr. Nice Guy jumped out of a darkened
stairwell, wearing a ski-mask and flashing a knife, and
engaged in hand-to-hand combat with a client who was
trying to impress his girlfriend." After losing the struggle as
prearranged, Jerry got $800 plus a few contusions.
His business is not only booming but it appears headed for
the big time with a commission to stage a birthday gala for
the daughter of a Sheik. For this occasion he has rented a
restaurant and three floors of a hotel. Upon learning that
the girl had been forced to leave behind her beloved apricot
Labrador when she came to college in the States, Jerry
arranges to gift her with 20 pure-bred apricot Labrador
puppies.
Prior to the festive event the puppies have been placed in
the care of Jerry's employee, Garson, Anything having to do
with Garson can be problematic as he has a proclivity for
consuming pepper vodka then shooting out all his lights
and windows. But, as always, Jerry is kindly patient, hoping
that Garson will have a change in attitude.
No such luck. Garson again proves unreliable and Jerry is
convicted of animal cruelty.
Regrettably, Jerry's unflagging compassion has not earned
him a chair in the heavenly choir, but rather incarceration in
a hellish cell where his only companion is James, a
religious zealot, a Keeper of the Word.
Yet even in jail Jerry's benevolence doesn't wane as he
attempts to understand James's rants and writes letters of
apology to his client list until Fate takes an unexpected
hand in prison life.
Sound zany? It is. "Nice" is also a rollicking, smile
provoking read.
Is there such a thing as being too nice, too selfless, too
accommodating? There most certainly is in the fertile,
funny, sometimes frenetic imagination of author Charles
Holdefer (Apology For Big Rod, 1997).
With "Nice," protagonist, Jerry Renfrow, isn't a garden
variety Mr. Good Guy who helps doddering ladies across
the street, but a hapless anti-hero whose limitless
generosity would stupefy a saint. So great is his concern for
the total satisfaction of his wife, Barbara, that when he
returns home to find her "...spread-eagled on the couch,
her chin on a bony shoulder, bobbing...," his only regret is
that he interrupted her pleasure with the pizza delivery boy.
For his ailing mother's 66th birthday celebration he
arranged a reunion of her old basketball team, the
Pantherettes, 1949 Iowa State Champions. The "girls" sank
a few in the basket above his mother's driveway.
Jerry's largesse was not limited to family and friends, it
extended to his professional life - he operates Home-Made
Services, Inc., a company dedicated to doing nice things for
others. Subscribers to his service knew that no anniversary,
birth, death, graduation or any life event would pass without
recognition. For clients he drafted letters of "comfort or
praise or condolence" and sent cards on dates registered
in his Forget-Me-Not computer.
"He did one-shot gigs, too........in one of his higher priced
performances, Mr. Nice Guy jumped out of a darkened
stairwell, wearing a ski-mask and flashing a knife, and
engaged in hand-to-hand combat with a client who was
trying to impress his girlfriend." After losing the struggle as
prearranged, Jerry got $800 plus a few contusions.
His business is not only booming but it appears headed for
the big time with a commission to stage a birthday gala for
the daughter of a Sheik. For this occasion he has rented a
restaurant and three floors of a hotel. Upon learning that
the girl had been forced to leave behind her beloved apricot
Labrador when she came to college in the States, Jerry
arranges to gift her with 20 pure-bred apricot Labrador
puppies.
Prior to the festive event the puppies have been placed in
the care of Jerry's employee, Garson, Anything having to do
with Garson can be problematic as he has a proclivity for
consuming pepper vodka then shooting out all his lights
and windows. But, as always, Jerry is kindly patient, hoping
that Garson will have a change in attitude.
No such luck. Garson again proves unreliable and Jerry is
convicted of animal cruelty.
Regrettably, Jerry's unflagging compassion has not earned
him a chair in the heavenly choir, but rather incarceration in
a hellish cell where his only companion is James, a
religious zealot, a Keeper of the Word.
Yet even in jail Jerry's benevolence doesn't wane as he
attempts to understand James's rants and writes letters of
apology to his client list until Fate takes an unexpected
hand in prison life.
Sound zany? It is. "Nice" is also a rollicking, smile
provoking read.
ISBN 1579620388