[In "Ruby Red"] William Price Fox has tried to do for Nashville what Balzac did for France…. And Mr. Fox, with his sharp eye for the honky-tonk scene and his good ear for Southern rural dialogue, has gotten it all down: the hick-town girls dropping peanuts into their bottles of Dr. Pepper; the farmers standing in line for Saturday night's show at the Grand Ole Opry in their undershirts (with laundered outer shirts tucked under their arms to be put on once the show begins); the songwriters sucking tired tunes from burned-out brains; the whole tawdry, pearl-buttoned scene. Why, if Mr. Fox knows any detail that might tell you just a bit more about Nashville and environs, he'll work it in whether it belongs to his story or not.

And that's basically the trouble with "Ruby Red." It's as much an insider's guide to the C & W [country...