Tuxes by Scott Fivelson is the story of the Bundleworth family's quest for fortune and glory and the all-mighty dollar in the great state of Texas. This satirical take on the wealthy family owners of Tuxaco, the largest tuxedo company in the world, is a send-up of high society with some interesting cameo appearances by pop culture figures past and present.
Scott Fivelson is a screenwriter and author with publications in the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and the The L.A. Weekly. He is the author of Guess What's Coming to Dinner? The Extraterrestrial Etiquette Guide and screenwriter for the film American Reel.
The plot follows the stories of Price, Cad, and B.C. Bundleworth as Price and B.C. vie for control of the Tuxaco Company and how that struggle affects the people in their lives, from Price's wife, Mavin, and Cad's sister Avaris to the chauffer Stein. B.C.'s return after hundreds of years gives him control of the company thanks to Price's recent change in the company manifesto allowing the oldest male member of the family to control Tuxaco.
The 170-page novel is full of witty language and clever word play that will make you chuckle at points at the absurdity of the situations and characters in the story. The author's predilection for poking fun at the upper echelon, the movie stars, and the appearance-obsessed, make for an entertaining night or two of diversion.
However clever the book is, it does have some shortcomings. The main character, B.C., is billed as the unfrozen caveman and patriarch of the wealthy Bundleworth clan, but his scenes in the book are few and far between. The other two main characters, Price and Cad, take up considerably more space in the book and their stories, particularly Price's, dominate the book.
The supporting cast, while well-crafted, is another weakness of the novel. There are too many characters that appear throughout the book, some introduced only once and never heard from again. This gives the book a real sense of too much going on as you move closer to the end.
My personal pet peeve with the book is the error a great number of writers make, the viewpoint shift. The viewpoint shift occurs when you have two characters in a scene, one providing the viewpoint of the scene and then the writer shifting that point of view to another character inexplicably. This happens a few times too many, but as I said, that's my pet peeve, not necessarily everyone else's.
Tuxes is a fun and light-hearted romp despite some of the above technical problems. Fans of satire will enjoy this short diversion.
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