The Big Jiggety

<center><b>For more of Michael Kent's works please visit www.michaelkentwriterartist.com.</b></center><hr><b><i>THE BIG JIGGETY</i></b> a picaresque romantic humorous philosophical sociological (mostly autobiographical) novel relates the travels and travails of Albert Nostran. An 18-year old American born and raised in the country outside 25 miles east of Paris his quest is to find America a woman and himself. Lugging his guitar Don Pedro fleeing his cantankerous father well-meaning mother and a brother he wants to turn into a fellow musician he braves disease fatigue cold and angst to land in Big Sky University in Missoula Montana to sink his teeth into the frozen American west. <br><br> Many aspects of US/Montana life intrigue the protagonist yet Nostran retains a European sense of history and critical mind; arguably a Tocqueville of the late 1970s he never misses an opportunity to comment on the local societal oddities and contradictions.<br><br> Perhaps you were more French than you thought Damian his childhood friend tells the homesick hero in chapter one. Before they launch off in an exploration of a bleak wintery nocturnal Paris during which Nostran loses his innocence in the arms of a prostitute. After whom our hero believes he has contracted something nasty yet another little inconvenience he must face when flying back to Chicago via London. And matters do not improve in the endless yet at times magical bus ride between Salt-Lake-City and Butte and he comes close to freezing trying to hitch-hike along the wide open spaces between Butte and Missoula.<br><br> A few pills later the sex quest resumes. Undaunted Nostran in his diaspora flirts with one woman and then another with precious little of the supposed Gallic related savoir faire. Life at the university does harbor the excitement of weekends and dormitory life with its freshman friendships and na��vet�� as well the tedium and occasional enlightenment of classes. And extra curricular activities such as teaching dorm-mates how to strum a guitar. Against this background vivid characters are etched: Threats the homophobic narcissistic football player; Rotch another jock who after having learned guitar from Albert begins to ridicule his former mentor. Up in Polson Mt. we encounter Montcarlson and his wife the curious couple who originally recommended the university. In Dubois Wyoming we meet Lancelot Wolf owner of the Salamander Ranch and Jim the bisexual bartender who reveals unexpected secrets about women the eager Nostran very quickly applies to Tweets the stocky femme fatale in the blue car he more than befriends on yet another glacial return to Missoula. Bags repacked the last U.S. trek takes him and two others back east to Chicago and New York--one American city whose intensity captivates him.<br><br> If the USA experience at times mystified the adolescent returning to France in the summer proves anticlimactic. At first. What the old country appears to lack in razzle-dazzle it gradually makes up in terms of simplicity and deep-rooted friendships. Besides after a stint with translations Nostran cannot sit still for long. Driving from his boyhood home in Seine-et-Marne (a little east of Paris) first up to Amsterdam with three rambunctious of old high school mates then down to the Spanish border via the Loire valley with the equally lust-ridden Lecoq-Hasien Nostran once again rediscovers the virtues of Europe and home. At the very last minute when all sexual hope has been abandoned a young lady on the Saint-Jean-de-Luz boardwalk asks him for a light. She is not a prostitute and agrees to meet him the next day...