Product Description

Every time Hoppy enters a town in his truck, he is greeted with delight and anticipation, showered with warmth, offered meals, and more often than not, pretty girls trying to catch more than just his eye. It's not that Hoppy is so special; it's the pitcher shows that he brings with him, the shoot-'em-ups and giddyappers that all the Ozark folk adore that have them lining up to welcome him. Hoppy's predictable routine and his struggles with his own self-loathing are challenged when a teenager succeeds in stowing away in his truck and proves to be a lot more than he seems. Together they contend with a wily traveling preacher who dogs their heels, trying to steal away their audience with his message of salvation. This peddler of the Gospel is just as bent on making money as the peddler of the motion pitcher, and in his cunning he steals all of Hoppy's cowboy pitchers. The pitcher shower has no choice but to buy the only available pitcher he can find, a strange pitcher called A Midsummer Night's Dream, and hope that it will prove popular with audiences who expect horses and Hopalong Cassidy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #931788 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 202 pages

From Publishers Weekly
A lighthearted Ozark take on Shakespeare drives the latest whimsical installment of the Stay More series. Landon "Hoppy" Boyd is a Stay More native who roams the Arkansas countryside showing early westerns from a trailer mounted on his truck, providing weekend entertainment for the locals. Boyd has no shortage of fairer sex volunteers, but takes along "Carl" Whitlow—who quickly turns out to be Sharline Whitlow, a comely admirer in disguise. Their traveling show goes swimmingly until the pair meets one Emmett Binns, a preacher who wants to hector viewers after screenings about the evils of film. The two eventually shed the erratic, annoying Binns, but not before he steals virtually their entire film collection, forcing Hoppy and Sharline to show an early Hollywood Midsummer Night's Dream. Life soon imitates art as Sharline takes up with the classy, fast-talking Arlis Faught. Hoppy gets romantic revenge with Faught's erstwhile girlfriend before the book cuts to a formulaic happy ending. Harington (With) has tackled heavier themes in previous volumes, but sly narrative commentary and winning humor make this a welcome addition to the series. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The New Yorker
In thirteen novels, Harington has created his own loopy Yoknapatawpha County in the fictional Ozark hamlet of Stay More. The hero of this installment, Landon (Hoppy) Boyd-the nickname is a nod to Hopalong Cassidy-travels from one rural town to another, showing movies to farm families who pay a dime or a dozen eggs for the privilege. Harington's stock-in-trade is a kind of fringe hayseed; he's Faulkner crossed with Tom Robbins (almost every female in the novel verges on nymphomania). His stories are best when they just jiggle along. When he tries to stop and infuse them with meaning ("It was starting to get dark, and the dark helped his illusions"), they falter.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

From Booklist
This sweet, lyrical tale of a late-blooming loner finds Harington circling back around the Ozarks town of Stay More, whose lives and times he's faithfully chronicled for a good many years now. Landon "Hoppy" Boyd is a young projectionist--or "pitcher shower," as he calls himself--and Stay More is both hometown and hub on his circuit of the pre-television era sticks. He calls himself Hoppy because he only shows Hopalong Cassidy features, plus a childhood accident left him with a limp. So he dons a 10-gallon hat and wows farm families with oaters that unspool like magic from the back of his white truck, Topper. This ultimate outsider's life changes both for better and worse when he picks up a stowaway and then loses his movies to a roving preacher. But this is a novel about the art of storytelling as much as it is about Hoppy himself. As his grandfather once told him, "They's not exactly any trick. But words is little miracles, don't ye know? If you use 'em right, you can do anything with 'em." Harington knows, and we're the luckier for it. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Cinema Paradiso meets Horse Opera
What a dear book! Also a little naughty. Reminds one of the stranger-comes-to-town lighthearted Westerns of the late 1960s and early 1970s. When Hoppy, an itinerant mountain "pitcher shower", takes on a high-voiced young lad as his apprentice, all sorts of unusual events ensue that grow downright Shakespearean in scope. Foul play robs him of his Hopalong Cassidy repertoire, leaving him with only the Bard's Midsummer Night's Dream to pacify the entertainment-starved masses. Mistaken identities run rampant and chaos -- and a truly excellent belly laugh -- rule the roost.

Great Pitcher!
This is one of the funniest pitcher shows I ever saw. Can't wait until Donald drives up in the truck again with yet another amazing pitcher show! Loved it, loved it....Thank you once again...