Bucky F*cking Dent: A Novel

The title is an exorcised death knell that every true baseball fan on the planet… knows the origin of. For any other person who pleads ignorance… just go right to the source and ask any Boston Red Sox fan… or for that matter to any true non-Yankee fan… anywhere on the planet (thereby giving you 99 per-cent of the remaining true baseball fans on this module we call Earth)… and ask them.

Though the title and the cleverness of the book is built around the eternal conflict between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees… boiled down to the end of the 1978 season… which culminated in a one game winner take all battle for the American League Pennant… between the two aforementioned adversaries… believe it or not… this is not a baseball book. It is an extremely clever… love story… between a son and a Father… who had both… abandoned each other… years earlier… without the slightest possibility… that one had left the other… even a miniscule life preserver.

Theodore Lord Fenway Fullilove… aka Ted Fullilove… is a semi-worthless Columbia University graduate… who constantly smokes dope… listens to the Grateful Dead… lives in a disgusting dump…drives a car… that never had better days to see… makes a ?living? as a peanut vendor at Yankee Stadium… and is always writing notes… or more words… disguised as a part of a book that never materializes… that find a resting place in no pre-conceived order in his squalid apartment. Then one night Ted gets a call from the hospital where his long estranged Father Marty is dying from lung cancer. With total disdain… Ted starts taking care of his Father… and riding a wave of clever… short-pointed-Yiddish-infused-Abbott-and-Costello-like dialogue… both son… and Father… start to discover a love for each other… that neither knew existed. The author is razor sharp with his at times rat-a-tat-tat dialogue… but he also scores literary points with periodic longer observations… such as: “Rizzuto was like an absurdist genius, a performance artist whose mind moseyed off in non-sequiturs like a kindly uncle would wander away from a family picnic to join another family of complete strangers and eat their food.”

Before the dormant love starts to blossom… some of the jabs are sharp… “Oh, Mr. Columbia makes an appearance. Guess what? I went to NYU on the GI bill. I didn’t go Ivy ‘cause I couldn’t afford it and because I had to kill Adolph Hitler with my bare hands and schtupp Himmler in the tuchus.” My favorite banter is when Ted tries to become one of the boys… when he and his Dad shuffle down to the corner newsstand to get the paper every day… and “The Gray Over-The-Hill-Gang” friends of Marty… start chirping in as if they’re all Don Rickles.

As the relationship starts to grasp each heart… Ted realizes that the only time Marty seems to have a bearable… happy day… is on the days… that the Red Sox win. So a cast of characters… orchestrated by Ted… pull out all stops to always convince Marty that his beloved Sox won that day.

The only reason I gave this book a 4-star is because of what I feel is an unpardonable mistake by the author. On page 8 and 9 the author tells of the infamous “Curse of the Bambino”… In 1918 the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees and… then the author states that from then till the 1978 time setting of this story they never won another PENNANT. THAT IS NOT TRUE! A pennant is winning the championship of your league… i.e. American or National League… the author states “NOT ONE PENNANT. SIXTY YEARS OF FUTILITY LOOKING UP IN THE STANDINGS AT THE HAIRY “BUTT” OF THE YANKEES.” The true facts are that the Boston Red Sox won the American League Pennant in 1946 – 1967 – 1975. The “Curse of the Babe” had nothing to do with not winning pennants… it had to do with not winning WORLD SERIES during that time period.

Note 1: I saw the author on a late night TV talk show last night… and he made the same incorrect statement.

Note 2: Putting aside the “Curse of the Babe” mistake… I recommend this book highly… and the author possesses a keen intellectual humorous wit.

Set against the '78 Yankee/Red Sox pennant chase, this is a story I really wanted to like. I did like the story, not necessarily the writing style, didn't flow easily for me. There were some annoying things that took away from the book, for a baseball fan at least. Listening to the Yankee radio broadcasters while sitting outside of Fenway? No matter how "green" the TV screen, no one is mistaking Yankee stadium for Fenway.

The main character is one lazy dilettante! I quickly tired of his one dimensional view of his little world...I mean throwing peanuts at baseball games is his LIFE!
Too many obscenities--found nothing to like.
The author Duchovny has a BA from Princeton and MA from Yale in English Lit---but he’s coasting from his “acting” on X-Files, and Californication. I REALLY expected more.
Hey I LOVE baseball..but now on will stick to real sports writers such as Roger Angell!

Before getting into review, I noticed some people complaining their copy wasn't signed as he'd 'promised' if pre-ordered from the store. He made it very clear he meant if you brought your copy to one of his signings & was kidding about being able to sign pre-ordered copies. Did you think he was actually going to go hang out at warehouses signing books? Even I knew he was joking & I have no measurable sense of humor. How could you not get he was kidding? Anyway, on to the important part, the review:

I purchased this in both hard copy & audio, which I highly recommend. Hearing David Duchovny tell the story himself, with his own inflections, saying the words he wrote provides a deeper, fuller understanding of the characters, as he is who created them, designed them & gave them their personalities, words, & voices.

This novel is truly from the heart & it is reflected in Duchovny's narration. Whereas his previous novel, Holy Cow, was a lovely little eccentric fable, BFD deals with much deeper issues, fathers, sons, loss, & baseball. It is both touching & funny, full of the quirky wit Duchovny has demonstrated in previous works & interviews. He is a master at allusion with a mind that makes lightning quick connections b/n multiple culturally literate references.

A common aspect in D.D.'s characters, present in his novels & scripts, which always surprises me, is the deep sensitivity & vulnerability lingering just below the surface in his characters, even the snarkiest of those he has conjured into existence. And, of course, as he is probably well aware, those characters are the ones who break our hearts the most when we see them drop their defenses & show any hurt or pain.

Listening to (& reading) BFD, at times made my heart feel exposed, or that at any given time it would be exposed, Hanuman-like, due to the intensity of feeling almost always present in the interactions b/n Marty & Ted, whether humorous, angry, or tragic. The poignant moments are particularly heightened emotionally when listening to the audiobook. I wanted to reach out to both give & receive comfort as Duchovny tells the story in his soft tones, his voice resonating with the grief, guilt, love, & regrets reflected w/in his characters.

The story takes place in 1978. Ted moves in to care for his estranged father, Marty, who is dying of cancer. Marty is rather curmudgeonly, typical of so many men of his generation. Ted is an adult, but a slacker with no real ambition. He is not a bad person, & not completely nihilistic, but he has lost any drive he may have once had & has resigned himself to the life of an underachiever. Both father & son carry heavy burdens of guilt & years of misunderstandings. Ted discovers that Marty's health & mood improve when the Red Sox win & begins, w/the help of Marty's friends (the hilarious & marvelously constructed "Gray Panthers"), to create the illusion that the Red Sox are on a winning streak. Marty & Ted, despite all appearances to the contrary, are more alike than different, demonstrated by their references, mutual knowledge, & practical telepathy when it comes to thinking of the same poets & poems triggered by the same contextual clues.

This novel is full of love, laughter, life, death, & baseball with a bit of romance thrown into the mix. It revolves around everyday people, who live everyday lives, reflecting the fears, love, relationships, wishes & dreams that perhaps everyone carries in their hearts.
(For hardcore Duchovny fans, you may recognize some particularly personal references, not only regarding NYC & it's boroughs, Ted's ethnic & educational background, and the baby with a severe respiratory infection, but also of a mother who instilled an 'almost paranoid' concern about money & a mention of an outline for a novel titled "Wherever There Are Two".

2 specific moments of note: 1) In the audiobook, the narration of Chapter 76 is particularly beautiful. 2) The scene when Ted & Marty return home after the big game painfully pricked at my heartstrings & I found myself suddenly breaking into heavy, body-shaking, wrenching sobs. I may laugh often w/a book, but it is much harder for one to bring me to tears. "All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened & after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you & afterwards it all belongs to you; the good & the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse & the sorrow, the people & the places & how the weather was." ~ Ernest Hemingway

Sorry. I was disappointed by the prose, the plot, the characters, the realllly slow start, and well, really everything.

I guess it would be a great book for people who love baseball, pot, the Grateful Dead, terminally I'll estranged fathers, and hapless sons with no direction in life.

Even though it's contrived and badly overwritten in places, I enjoyed reading it. For no obvious reason, Duchovny reminds me of the British writer Tony Parsons, whose Man and Boy was such a success. I actually laughed out loud in a few places, and have had a couple of exchanges with my son that really put me in mind of the dialogue here. My guess is that the novel is too out there for the average American, and my oh my, do those New Yorkers curse. Never catch a Texan, for example, using such language. My son says this is a book about a son's love for his father. I think it's the other way around. Not great literature, but there's a genuine feeling to a lot of what you find. Read it for the banter between generations, and the realization on all sides that your father (son) has an inner life that you may not understand too well

I did not expect this. After thoroughly enjoying "Holy Cow", I decided to give BFD a try even though I couldn't care less about baseball. Well, I have learned in a BIG way never again to judge a book by it's cover. The world of late '70's baseball is only a setting, a locale for one of the funniest and most touching novels I've ever read. So many events in the book mirrored my own life, from my dad's battle with cancer, my own lack of life direction, to the comfort and warmth of a woman that I mis-read as "love".

I admire DD so much as an actor, director, musician and novelist. The man has talent oozing out of every orifice of his body. What I wouldn't give for one drop.

Read This Book!

David Duchovny... swoon. I've loved him for years, so I was almost hesitant to read this book because I'm a picky reader and was afraid it might spoil my feelings for him. LOL. Thank goodness, that didn't happen. I was also hesitant to read it because of the heavy baseball influence. I like baseball, but it isn't like I want to spend a lot of spare time reading about it. Luckily, it really added to the story instead of feeling like it was the sole focus. The first couple of chapters were hard for me to get through. There was a lot of random stream-of-conscious craziness that didn't really need to go on for quite so long to get a good picture of Ted. The story really kicked in when Ted found out about his father's health.

I loved the parts written from the father's point of view interspersed with Ted's. It gave a deeper story and other context for the relationship between father and son. There were many poignant moments between the two, and I couldn't help but tear up at some of those, and then laugh out loud at some of their conversations/arguments.

Not having a real functional father around while I was growing up, it made me happy that the two were able to spend time together and mend some of the issues between them. It was nice to see the lengths family will go to for each other. There were a couple of little cheesy moments, but all in all the book was an enjoyable read.

This is a beautifully written story about a father and son rebuilding their relationship after his father is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Martin, the father, feels better when the Red Sox win so Ted, the son, and Martin's friends fake a Sox winning streak. By the way, Ted works at Yankee Stadium selling peanuts in the stands.

Ted learns about his dad through a journal which he initially believed to be fiction. Through this and the change in his relationship with his father. His character evolves as he learns more about his father.

This book isn't exactly literature with its cursing and the occasionally forced $0.25 word, but it is written with a lot of emotion. I could have done without the random large words thrown in with little purpose other than to show the character understands them. Overall a very good book.

I looked forward to reading this book due to some very good reviews and the subject matter. The title is a grabber for anyone old enough to remember why Bucky Dent acquired his immortal nickname. The first 100 pages or so almost made me quit reading it. The characters of Ted and Marty were not appealing or interesting to me. I kept reading after that point primarily because I wanted to see how long it took before Marty realized that the supposed Red Sox winning streak was an illusion. After another 50 or 60 pages, I skimmed through the remainder until that fateful game of Bucky Dent's heroics.

If you are offended by profanity, don't read this book. Ted and Marty are New Yorkers who, true to stereotype, use the F word frequently. There is a good deal of humor in the book, much of it bordering on black humor surrounding Marty's terminal illness. I didn't like this book overall because of the three main characters. Ted is an annoying bore. Mariana is almost non-existent, almost a filler character. Marty is the only one of the three that is remotely interesting because of how he deals with his illness.

I wouldn't say this book is bad, which would rate one star. It's somewhere between bad and good, which is not enough for me to recommend it.

So I found this book on accident, not knowing David Duchovny is a writer as well as an exceptional actor...know he’s both. The title definitely caught my attention and since I love baseball and it’s the beginning of the season I went with it and glad I did. David captures the moments perfectly with the history of baseball and finds the right places to insert plenty of humor. This book also displays a beautiful bond between father and son in its darkest moments.

I picked up this book to read because David Duchovny wrote it and at first, I wasn't sure about the story. I hung in there though and it was well worth it! I loved this book! I grew up on baseball because my own dad was a baseball fanatic! A St. Louis Cardinals man and this story reminded me of my childhood, my dad, and how funny life is. I felt like I was reading the story of my own life and how ironic that the Red Sox beat the Cardinals to break the curse! My dad was still alive and didn't give a damn about any curse. His Cardinals had lost! Thanks David, for the story and the memories. I loved it!

I enjoyed Holy Cow but this novel went to another level. The depth and wit of Duchovny's writing was refreshing and his music and literature references fit in the story line nicely. I highly recommend this novel even if you aren't a baseball fan, because this book is way more than that!

Terrific characterizations, layered, complex and utterly human. If you like to read about family relationships in their multi-dimensional reality, this book centers on a father and son, struggling to connect, with time running out and after years of bitterness, betrayal and mutual wounding. Beautifully told with humor and pathos.

Not at all what I expected. David Ducovney has written a very touching story about father and son relationships which also involves a love of baseball.particulrly the Boston Red Sox. Highly recommended

I laughed out loud at certain parts, didn’t cry but I was moved at other points as well. It’s a good book that should be made into a movie. Out of the Duchovny books that I read, this is by far his best.

I was a little disappointed David Duchovny didn't sign it like he said he would online when you preorder through the store I understand you may have a busy schedule but one reason I purchased the book to add to my David Duchovny collection and is a role model of mine although he will always be a role model of mine no matter things happen I suppose. So I still added the book to my favorite other collections on my book shelves. I haven't had time to read the book yet but I will one a busy working full time person myself.

I enjoyed Holy Cow but this novel went to another level. The depth and wit of Duchovny's writing was refreshing and his music and literature references fit in the story line nicely. I highly recommend this novel even if you aren't a baseball fan, because this book is way more than that!