Virgin of the Rodeo

The search for a delinquent father drives Texas writer Bird's ( The Mommy Club ; The Boyfriend School ) waggish and wonderful novel about the Southwest rodeo circuit out of the chute and into the winners' circle. Ample-hipped, 29-year-old Sonja (for Sonja Henie) Gets knows that she's the product of a fling her tiny German-born mom Tinka had in Frankfurt in 1964 with a traveling Native American rope-twirler, who hasn't been heard from since. Sporting her multi-ethnic outfits and renaming herself Son Hozro (Navajo for ``harmony with nature''), the heroine haunts the rodeos looking for dad. When geriatric Tinka picks a doddery new mate, Son wraps up her pest-control business and hits the road with determination. She meets trick-roper Prairie James, a horny, manipulative has-been whose pompous macho attitudes Son ably punctures with plentiful feminist sass and voluble wit. When Prairie hints he might locate her parent, Son pays her own way as Prairie's fast-talking announcer on their bumpy odyssey, a partnership rife with roughhousing. The reader is treated to an insider's tour of the rodeo, including the women's, blacks' and gays' version of this bit of vibrant Americana. Bird equips Son with her own gift of twirly high-flying palaver that is as flamboyant, skillful and fun to behold as a loop-spinner's lariat. Author tour. (Sept.)