Whompyjawed

The Texas Trilogy #1

by Mitch Cullin

1.Askew, out of place 2.Off-center or crooked 3. (informal) a person of eccentric or questionable character; odd....................
Football is Willy Keeler's ticket out of West Texas, but only if he can keep the explosive combination of his intellect and hormones from destroying his high-school career. Not an easy task as he also contends with the endless demands of his girlfriend, mother, coach, and college recruiters. When a startling sexual encounter with a classmate and a consuming infatuation with one of his mother's friends threaten to shatter his fragile balance, Willy discovers that simply figuring out who he is may be the greatest challenge of all.
Reminiscent of The Catcher in the Rye and The Last Picture Show, Mitch Cullin's Whompyjawed is an unforgettable coming-of-age story, told with unparalleled humor and compassion.

Genres: Fiction, Sports

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Mitch Cullin is an American writer. He is the author of seven novels, and one short story collection. He currently resides in Arcadia, California and Tokyo, Japan with his partner and frequent collaborator Peter I. Chang. His books have been translated into over 10 languages.

Reviews

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up in West Texas not far from where this book takes place. Cullin nails it--the people, the land, the culture, and most especially, the obsession with football. In my opinion, this is a much better look at small town football and its ramifications on people's lives than "Saturday Night Lights." (FYI: Odessa is NOT a small town!)

I don't know how I managed to live as long as I have and NOT heard of Cullin! One thing is for sure, I will not be forgetting him or his books anytime soon.

(The pity is that he has stopped writing.)

[Daniel Andreu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Descubrí a Mitch Cullin gracias a que Terri Gilliam adaptó su novela Tideland, que se convirtió en una de mis películas favoritas. Me leí Tideland después de ver la película y aun así me dejó fascinado, así que cuando me enteré que formaba parte de una especie de trilogía temática de Texas, me fui a por ella.
Whompyjawed es bastante diferente en cuanto a la historia pero no en el espíritu y la atmósfera. Se entra en la cabeza de Willy, el personaje principal, que habla en primera persona sobre sus pensamientos y su día a día como adolescente estrella del equipo de fútbol americano de su instituto. A través de esas historias normales como la vida misma, me sumí en una tristeza y una melancolía muy fuertes, ya que al final de lo que va el libro es de que todos tenemos nuestras miserias. Incluso el protagonista, ese jock de vida maravillosa envidiada por todos, es un ser humano capullo y con mucho que aprender. Me ha flipado la finura con la que Cullin escribe la diferencia entre lo que cuenta el protagonista desde sus pensamientos (una vida personal profunda y llena de significado) y lo que exterioriza cuando habla o escribe en su diario, que hace ver que es una persona más simple que un zapato.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Willy Keeler, small town Texas football star, tells about his last year in Claude; his often drunk mom and her friends, his smart younger brother, his falling out of love with his girl, and his close friends and teammates.

His words are true, as are Huck Finn’s, and we have the feeling that this is no adult written book about a kid learning some of the good and hard lessons growing up.

You’ll laugh and cry with Willy and by the end realize as many of us do that memories of those you knew growing up are a part of you and help make you the person you are.

This is no book about endless football games – instead, this should stand with Catcher in the Rye, but instead of having a disillusioned rich kid adrift in New York City, we have an everyday kid with an athletic gift learning what it means to be himself.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun story of high school football legend Willy Keeler, living the life in Claude, Tx, a frustrated horny guy because Hannah won't have sex, Hannah's dad hates him, his sometimes boss's son jacked him off once, and then Willy goes and falls in love with a prostitute who has been beaten, and gets stabbed by her pimp's enforcer while he sees his mom doing what he thinks is whoring too. And this seems to be in the 70s. All in all a great American tale!

[ash · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF-ing at 30% because I just can't drag myself through the goofy narrative voice anymore. It sounds like an accent you'd put on to do a minute long bit about a caricature of a southern football player and I just cannot take it seriously enough to go a single page farther.

[Debdanz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man or female, gay or straight, high school football hero or not, life sucks in small Texas towns.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like Larry McMurty's The Last Picture Show you may enjoy this.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short, highly readable novel about adolescence. I usually have little patience for the usual depictions of the (melo-)drama of adolescence, but this one didn't seem to verge too far into that territory. The characters are flawed, which makes them real and believable. Not a heck of a lot happens, but that was ok. The whole book has kind of flat affect to it, which seemed well suited to a teenage boy describing day-to-day life in a small Texas town.
I never thought that at any point in my life I would read a novel about a teenage football player from Texas. However, I was watching Tideland and though the movie honestly bored me, it seemed like it could be a really really cool book. I found cheap copies of all of Cullin's Texas Trilogy, so decided what the heck...

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read. I found myself enamored of the protagonist's viewpoint and find his voice sticks with me well after reading the book. The gay angle suggested in the summary intrigued me and I was expecting that to have a more central role. It really amounted to little more than a side note in the story and not the book's raison d'etre.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! A quick read, and somewhere between Ray Bradbury and Barry Gifford.