It Ain't Me, Babe

Fanfiction
Title:	It Ain't Me, Babe
Author(s):	Joy Mancinelli
Date(s):	1981
Length:
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Starsky & Hutch
External Links:
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It Ain't Me, Babe is a gen Starsky & Hutch story by Joy Mancinelli .

It was published in the zine Zebra Three #6.

Summary

"Hutch's disintegrating marriage affects his performance as a cop when he goes undercover in a gay bar to track down the city's largest heroin supplier."

Reactions and Reviews

The improvement thish is almost entirely due to Joy Mancinelli's ‘It Ain't Me, Babe’. It's marked by literate prose, good dialogue and a well-constructed plot. (Interesting Side Note; this story was edited by Dotty Barry, who nowhere receives credit for her work. Not to mention thanks.) What could — and in lesser hands would — have been merely another trashing of Vanessa-the-lousy-bitch here becomes a sensitive and well-balanced study of the end of the Hutchinson marriage. This Hutch is no innocent victim; he resents his wealthy in-laws and takes that resentment out on his wife he can be cruelly inconsiderate he substitutes sex for real communication. Van herself is a spoilt child in a woman's body, vain and self-indulgent. And, oddly, sympathetic. She returns her husband's love, but can find no way of coping with the life he's making for them — the danger, the worry, the fascination with violence, Starsky. Step by step, Mancinelli shows us the deliberate choices that lead to their separation, and how each has prepared for that end. Starsky here is more catalyst than actor, but his generosity and his caring comes through clearly. As does the milieu of street and bar, and the hint that Vanessa's family may not be quite so impeccable after all. If I'm reading Mr. P correctly, there's also a nice bit of foreshadowing toward "Murder One". This piece would be a bright spot in any zine; here it looks like the Koh-i-Noor diamond in a rhinestone factory.

It Ain't Me, Babe provides an interesting trip through the mind of our favorite blond cop set against an intriguing undercover case.