Topsy Dingo Wild Dog

Aspiring actress Mary Jane Shady, the heroine of Carr's raunchy, overdone, sometimes crude comedy, was nicknamed Topsy Dingo Wild Dog by her high-school boyfriend Bobby Henderson after he forced her to have sex with a dog, then ditched her. Now 35, Mary Jane is returning to Uncertain, her hometown in west Texas, for her 20th high-school reunion, full of lust for married Bobby, obsessive guilt over her sexual secret and trepidation because the townies think she's a Hollywood star--when in fact she does peanut-butter commercials. She is unaware that Ralph Painter, her obnoxious agent, and Arabella du Noir, black model turned advertising honcho, will soon arrive in Uncertain for an on-location shoot. In her first novel, playwright and producer Carr lampoons small-town tackiness, crass materialism, anti-Semitism and racism. Uncertain's unconventional residents include Baby Flowers, who takes striptease strolls through town; Mary Jane's mother, who runs a funeral parlor; and her 75-year-old Aunt Lottie, deflowered on a car top by her hubby Leo, who sports a Garfield the Cat tattoo on his chest. (Oct.)