Told To Me: Rusty Puppy by Joe R. Lansdale, 2016, Overdrive.com download.
This is another Hap and Leonard novel by Lansdale. That is really all you need to know. That means the novel is well worth your time and that all the usual stuff happens: Hap and Leonard act like borderline idiots, Leonard gets angry and has a lousy love life, Hap gets a little maudlin at times and is lovey-dovey, most everyone insults the heroic duo, bad guys are both bad and despicable, really stupid people populate the landscape. Hap and Leonard insult most everyone including one another.
This go around has a neighbor across the street from the duo's detecting business storefront asking for help. She says her teenage son was murdered in a neighboring town and that the cops are to blame. Hap starts asking around the neighboring housing project to talk to a witness and Leonard sorta rescues Hap. They keep asking questions and start getting push back from the local cops. One of those cops is a guy who beat Leonard in a kick boxing match and Leonard is still peeved that the guy won on points.
More things happen with all the Lansdale goodness you could want. Bad cops staging bare knuckle fights and dog fights. Town Fathers and Mothers are in on things. Bad cops murdering people. Bad cops harassing women. Characters with lots of character including a foul-mouthed 10-year-old Leonard proclaims as a 400 Year Old Vampire.
Comments:
1. The plot starting point of the teen boy's death .
2. Teen boy's sister not that great a character, she seemed like more of a throwaway.
3. No big shootouts like in some Hap and Leonard books.
4. Leonard is an asshole and a half. He is always looking for a fight and always willing to insult someone. He's very judgmental as well and will rag on anyone. His volubility and criticizing the black kids in the housing project makes you wonder what we'd think of the guy if he were white.
5. For that matter what criticism has Lansdale run across? Do people read his black characters as a white guy's projections? I don't know Lansdale but have read enough of his work and commentary, and read enough about him, to know he is not a racist a-hole. He seems to not abide jerks though.
6. Good stuff. If you've not read any Hap and Leonard novels I do suggest reading them in order if only because
Monday, October 9, 2017
Finished: "Tobacco Stained Mountain Goat" by Andrez Bergen
Finished: Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat by Andrez Bergen, 2011,9780984559701.
Let me immediately come to the most important point if you decide to read this novel: There Is No Anthropomorphic Goat. The absence of such a goat - as promised to me by the cover illustration - was very disappointing. I still enjoyed the novel though.
Brief: a mix between Blade Runner and Terry Gilliam's Brazil.
Long: Floyd Maquina lives in Melbourne and works for the government as a Seeker. Seeker are sent to find fugitive Deviants, capture them - or kill them if needed, and get them sent away. At a population of 20 million people Melbourne is the biggest city in the world. Melbourne is also the only city in the world after an unexplained mini-apacolypse. There is a constant acid rain, a domed section of the city for The Rich, collapsing insfrastructure, and other dystopian stuff.
Floyd is in a bad way. His wife was struck sick by a plague and he joined the Seekers to cover his wife's Hospitalization costs. Yes, the novel capitalizes all those words. Maquina drinks A LOT, smokes too much, hates his mother, gets along with his sister, and has blacked out the memory of when he killed a Deviant.
Floyd associates most everything with old movies. He is particularly found of actor George Saunders, The Third Man, and other films running from about 1930 to 1960. Floyd ends up in trouble with his employers over his drinking but gain a sudden celebrity status when a news reporter and cameraman join him on a stake-out and the resulting half hour show is a hit. Floyd also starts getting into more trouble and has to figure out what is happening
I liked the book. It's a neat SciFi unlike the space epics and military shoot-outs I've usually read. More Philip K. Dick than David Drake. The novel is more about the character of Floyd. Missing his wife and boozing it up. Shutting himself off from the world. Mostly hating his job of taking "Devaints" and sending them to a short life in prison. Fearing his employers will mark him a Deviant. Slowly tracking down Deviants in the run-down areas of Melbourne.
Comments:
1. Purchased for the library in 2012 after a Bill Crider recommendation.
Let me immediately come to the most important point if you decide to read this novel: There Is No Anthropomorphic Goat. The absence of such a goat - as promised to me by the cover illustration - was very disappointing. I still enjoyed the novel though.
Brief: a mix between Blade Runner and Terry Gilliam's Brazil.
Long: Floyd Maquina lives in Melbourne and works for the government as a Seeker. Seeker are sent to find fugitive Deviants, capture them - or kill them if needed, and get them sent away. At a population of 20 million people Melbourne is the biggest city in the world. Melbourne is also the only city in the world after an unexplained mini-apacolypse. There is a constant acid rain, a domed section of the city for The Rich, collapsing insfrastructure, and other dystopian stuff.
Floyd is in a bad way. His wife was struck sick by a plague and he joined the Seekers to cover his wife's Hospitalization costs. Yes, the novel capitalizes all those words. Maquina drinks A LOT, smokes too much, hates his mother, gets along with his sister, and has blacked out the memory of when he killed a Deviant.
Floyd associates most everything with old movies. He is particularly found of actor George Saunders, The Third Man, and other films running from about 1930 to 1960. Floyd ends up in trouble with his employers over his drinking but gain a sudden celebrity status when a news reporter and cameraman join him on a stake-out and the resulting half hour show is a hit. Floyd also starts getting into more trouble and has to figure out what is happening
I liked the book. It's a neat SciFi unlike the space epics and military shoot-outs I've usually read. More Philip K. Dick than David Drake. The novel is more about the character of Floyd. Missing his wife and boozing it up. Shutting himself off from the world. Mostly hating his job of taking "Devaints" and sending them to a short life in prison. Fearing his employers will mark him a Deviant. Slowly tracking down Deviants in the run-down areas of Melbourne.
Comments:
1. Purchased for the library in 2012 after a Bill Crider recommendation.
2. Similarities with the setting of Sleepless got me confused. Both plots involve a civililation slowly falling apart with infrastructure and government services failing or non- existant.
3. Bergen's narrator name checks multiple actors, books, writers and films throughout the book. Bergen provides a glossary, bibliography and filmography at the end.
4. According to my magic internet box Bergen has three other novels. Tobacco was his first novel and his second One Hundred Years of Vicissitude is available from the library's digital collection.
3. Bergen's narrator name checks multiple actors, books, writers and films throughout the book. Bergen provides a glossary, bibliography and filmography at the end.
4. According to my magic internet box Bergen has three other novels. Tobacco was his first novel and his second One Hundred Years of Vicissitude is available from the library's digital collection.
Quit Listening: "In the Woods" by Tana French
Quit Listening: "In the Woods" by Tana French, 2007, Overdrive.com download.
My phone's Micro SD card stopped working which means I do not have access to the damn novel. I was at least half way through and very much enjoying the story. Either I'll get the damn Micro SD card working or I'll have to buy another Micro SD card and wait in line to check out In the Woods again.
On Saturday I went by Walgreens to just buy another Micro SD before I drove the five hours north to Hayward, WI for a mountain bike race. I found the memory card display and - Hey! That Micro SD is on sale for $17! So I grabbed the card, got in line, and picked a couple packs of gum from the impulse buyer's rack.
As the cashier rang up the sale both the gum and memory card came up at a higher price. "You'll need to enter your 'advantage' number for the sale price."
I key in my phone number and the gum price is now cheaper, but the Micro SD is still $30. Turns out the shelf labeling was poorly arranged and the $17.99 sale price is for a different brand of memory card. So, I accept that new item, pay for my stuff, and go home.
I get home, evict Boy #2 from the computer, and sit down to open the package and get the SD card working for an audiobook download. Nope. The sale item was for an SD card, not a Micro SD. I ended up buying a damn SD by mistake. An SD card, of course, is 4-5 times too large to fit. Damn it.
I did end up clearing off some of the phone's internal memory and downloaded Edgar Burrows's John Carter of Mars and Sleepless by Charlie Huston. I quite listening to Sleepless a year or two ago (Correction: three years ago) but am enjoying it now.
Still reading? Have you seen the news about those new corduroy pillows? They've been making headlines.
My phone's Micro SD card stopped working which means I do not have access to the damn novel. I was at least half way through and very much enjoying the story. Either I'll get the damn Micro SD card working or I'll have to buy another Micro SD card and wait in line to check out In the Woods again.
On Saturday I went by Walgreens to just buy another Micro SD before I drove the five hours north to Hayward, WI for a mountain bike race. I found the memory card display and - Hey! That Micro SD is on sale for $17! So I grabbed the card, got in line, and picked a couple packs of gum from the impulse buyer's rack.
As the cashier rang up the sale both the gum and memory card came up at a higher price. "You'll need to enter your 'advantage' number for the sale price."
I key in my phone number and the gum price is now cheaper, but the Micro SD is still $30. Turns out the shelf labeling was poorly arranged and the $17.99 sale price is for a different brand of memory card. So, I accept that new item, pay for my stuff, and go home.
I get home, evict Boy #2 from the computer, and sit down to open the package and get the SD card working for an audiobook download. Nope. The sale item was for an SD card, not a Micro SD. I ended up buying a damn SD by mistake. An SD card, of course, is 4-5 times too large to fit. Damn it.
I did end up clearing off some of the phone's internal memory and downloaded Edgar Burrows's John Carter of Mars and Sleepless by Charlie Huston. I quite listening to Sleepless a year or two ago (Correction: three years ago) but am enjoying it now.
Still reading? Have you seen the news about those new corduroy pillows? They've been making headlines.
Thursday, October 5, 2017
Heard: "Shoedog" by George Pelecanos.
Heard: Shoedog by George Pelecanos, 1994, Overdrive.com download and I do not recall the audio pub year.
A good book. Plenty of Pelecanos style with nihilists, family men, drifters, journeymen crooks, and guys who dig clothes, women, cars and music.
It's 1994 and Constantine is back in D.C. Constantine bolted town once he was old enough to join the Marines. His alcoholic mother was long dead and his father didn't much give a flying fuck about Constantine. After three years in the Corps Constantine hit the road. Working bar and restaurant jobs Constantine stayed in South Carolina long enough to earn B.A. After that he traveled the United States, Pacific countries, South America (or maybe not) and into Europe. It's about 15 years later and Constantine has drifted into the D.C. area. When his car breaks down Constantine hitches a ride with a guy pushing 60 and they make friends.
Constantine and the guy, Old Guy, head out to a big house in the country where Old Guy rings a bell at the entry gate, demands his $20,000 and gets the shove off - literally - by a couple goons who tell him to come back tomorrow. Old Guy is a long time heister and robber. He tells Constantine that the money is as good as in hand. When Constantine and Old Guy return the next day they got a job offer from Crime Boss to do a simultaneous pair of liquor store robberies. They accept the offer.
Meanwhile, Raymond is at work slinging shoes at a popular D.C. shoe store. Raymond is a slick salesman with regular customers. He scopes out the buyers, steals customers off other salesman, and jealously guards with regulars. Raymond is "asked" to be a wheelman by Crime Boss.
The rest of the characters are introduced: lifetime losers, guys in debt to the crime boss, lifelong crooks, Crime Boss's kept wife, so on, so forth. The focus starts with Constantine and then shifts among Raymond and a few other characters about 1/5 of the way in.
Pelecanos always seems to lay heavy on music, fashion, and pop culture of the time. Both for this novel which was contemporary and the other historical settings he uses. Men are always chasing women and usually taking them for gratned. Close friends talk about everything. Muscle, power, and prestige are very important.
Comments:
1. While searching the Google box to recall character names I saw that a movie version is listed in IMDB as pre-production with a recent update in May. But, I also read a announcement from 2011 about a production to star "P Diddy" and actors from The Wire. Who knows what is going on.
2. I do not keep track of regular characters from Pelecanos novels. I do not know where this novel fits in.
A good book. Plenty of Pelecanos style with nihilists, family men, drifters, journeymen crooks, and guys who dig clothes, women, cars and music.
It's 1994 and Constantine is back in D.C. Constantine bolted town once he was old enough to join the Marines. His alcoholic mother was long dead and his father didn't much give a flying fuck about Constantine. After three years in the Corps Constantine hit the road. Working bar and restaurant jobs Constantine stayed in South Carolina long enough to earn B.A. After that he traveled the United States, Pacific countries, South America (or maybe not) and into Europe. It's about 15 years later and Constantine has drifted into the D.C. area. When his car breaks down Constantine hitches a ride with a guy pushing 60 and they make friends.
Constantine and the guy, Old Guy, head out to a big house in the country where Old Guy rings a bell at the entry gate, demands his $20,000 and gets the shove off - literally - by a couple goons who tell him to come back tomorrow. Old Guy is a long time heister and robber. He tells Constantine that the money is as good as in hand. When Constantine and Old Guy return the next day they got a job offer from Crime Boss to do a simultaneous pair of liquor store robberies. They accept the offer.
Meanwhile, Raymond is at work slinging shoes at a popular D.C. shoe store. Raymond is a slick salesman with regular customers. He scopes out the buyers, steals customers off other salesman, and jealously guards with regulars. Raymond is "asked" to be a wheelman by Crime Boss.
The rest of the characters are introduced: lifetime losers, guys in debt to the crime boss, lifelong crooks, Crime Boss's kept wife, so on, so forth. The focus starts with Constantine and then shifts among Raymond and a few other characters about 1/5 of the way in.
Pelecanos always seems to lay heavy on music, fashion, and pop culture of the time. Both for this novel which was contemporary and the other historical settings he uses. Men are always chasing women and usually taking them for gratned. Close friends talk about everything. Muscle, power, and prestige are very important.
Comments:
1. While searching the Google box to recall character names I saw that a movie version is listed in IMDB as pre-production with a recent update in May. But, I also read a announcement from 2011 about a production to star "P Diddy" and actors from The Wire. Who knows what is going on.
2. I do not keep track of regular characters from Pelecanos novels. I do not know where this novel fits in.
Thursday, September 28, 2017
Finish: "Gun Church" by Reed Farrel Coleman
Finish: Gun Church by Reed Farrel Coleman, 2012, 9781440551703.
I really enjoyed the first part of the story but the ending was far fetched. Even more far fetched than The Complaints which I just wrote my notes about.
Former 1980s wunderkind author Kip Weiler barely survived his years long binges on cocaine, women and booze. His literary career started huger and petered out as he self destructed over several years. Kip's novels got worse, he stopped writing and he was fired from several university teaching jobs until he landed in a Nowheresville community college.
Kip has cleaned up though. The depressed mining town he lives in does not have the drugs and women and nightlife that set him off before. He has spent seven years teaching writing classes and his fame only goes as far as the bookstore remainder bin.
Kip's been killing time in Brixton County Community College. He holds no long term relationships or friendships beyond cheating wives, short term adjunct professors, and the occasional co-ed. He's been pining for the wife who left his drunken, coked up, philandering self ten years ago.
That all changes when a student pulls a handgun out at the end of Kip's class and holds everyone hostage. Kip is not gun guy but recognizes the gun from when he had to pick a gun for a character to write about. Kip engages the student in conversation, grabs the revolver, urges everyone to flee the classroom, and watches as a police sniper shoots the gun wielding student.
After those heroics Kip spends a couple weeks back in the national limelight. He goes on TV, articles are written, and Kip has reason to write again. Even more: Kip's agent calls for the first time in years. Even, even more: the super hot co-ed in Kip's class comes on to him, gives him a blowjob and takes him to Gun Church.
Hidden within a hangar on the local abandoned military base is a concrete block structure where Gun Church takes place inside a room padded against sound. On Kip's first night at Church he witnesses two men wearing Kevlar vests duel with handguns. Gun Church is like Fight Club - but with guns. Kip is an addict the rush of firearms and dueling juices him up.
Kip is also juiced up by the Hot Co-ed, who he calls St. Pauli Girl. Kip makes best friends with a 20-year-old student named Jim who runs the Church, teaches Kip to shoot, and gets Kip to start jogging every day. Kip keeps writing. Kip plays house with St. Pauli Girl. Kip's career has a chance at resurgence as his new fame makes his backlist republished.
Then things go weird. Kip moves back to New York. Kip reconects with ex-wife. Kip thinks he hears Jim's distinctly sounding F150. The book turns into an evil mastermind novel with Jim as an obsessed fan. Jim pulling the strings. Jim killing off people. Jim setting up Kip for murder. Jim thinking Kip should be the 80s gonzo that Jim sees him as.
The entire conspiracy plot was silly. I did not care too much though. I rolled my eyes at the 20-year-old Jim having a years long plan to set-up Kip. That Jim forced St. Pauli Girl to bang Kip. That Jim did all sorts of underhanded scheming. That St. Pauli Girl really did love the much older Kip and Jim forced her to do what she did. I ignored that and rolled along with the story.
Comments:
1. I just saw that this was published by Tyrus Books. Are they still around? Let me check... nope. I recalled that they were bought a while ago. Simon and Schuster was the final owner and closed them down in April of this year.
2. Ben Leroy started Tyrus and before that he began Bleak House. Both publishers put out a lot of books I enjoyed. Leroy was, maybe still is, based in Madison and Bleak House sent us something once, maybe something simple like bookmarks.
3. A few days ago someone checked out one of Coleman's books that he wrote under the Tony Spinosa name. The two Spinosa books were good fun, I liked those.
I really enjoyed the first part of the story but the ending was far fetched. Even more far fetched than The Complaints which I just wrote my notes about.
Former 1980s wunderkind author Kip Weiler barely survived his years long binges on cocaine, women and booze. His literary career started huger and petered out as he self destructed over several years. Kip's novels got worse, he stopped writing and he was fired from several university teaching jobs until he landed in a Nowheresville community college.
Kip has cleaned up though. The depressed mining town he lives in does not have the drugs and women and nightlife that set him off before. He has spent seven years teaching writing classes and his fame only goes as far as the bookstore remainder bin.
Kip's been killing time in Brixton County Community College. He holds no long term relationships or friendships beyond cheating wives, short term adjunct professors, and the occasional co-ed. He's been pining for the wife who left his drunken, coked up, philandering self ten years ago.
That all changes when a student pulls a handgun out at the end of Kip's class and holds everyone hostage. Kip is not gun guy but recognizes the gun from when he had to pick a gun for a character to write about. Kip engages the student in conversation, grabs the revolver, urges everyone to flee the classroom, and watches as a police sniper shoots the gun wielding student.
After those heroics Kip spends a couple weeks back in the national limelight. He goes on TV, articles are written, and Kip has reason to write again. Even more: Kip's agent calls for the first time in years. Even, even more: the super hot co-ed in Kip's class comes on to him, gives him a blowjob and takes him to Gun Church.
Hidden within a hangar on the local abandoned military base is a concrete block structure where Gun Church takes place inside a room padded against sound. On Kip's first night at Church he witnesses two men wearing Kevlar vests duel with handguns. Gun Church is like Fight Club - but with guns. Kip is an addict the rush of firearms and dueling juices him up.
Kip is also juiced up by the Hot Co-ed, who he calls St. Pauli Girl. Kip makes best friends with a 20-year-old student named Jim who runs the Church, teaches Kip to shoot, and gets Kip to start jogging every day. Kip keeps writing. Kip plays house with St. Pauli Girl. Kip's career has a chance at resurgence as his new fame makes his backlist republished.
Then things go weird. Kip moves back to New York. Kip reconects with ex-wife. Kip thinks he hears Jim's distinctly sounding F150. The book turns into an evil mastermind novel with Jim as an obsessed fan. Jim pulling the strings. Jim killing off people. Jim setting up Kip for murder. Jim thinking Kip should be the 80s gonzo that Jim sees him as.
The entire conspiracy plot was silly. I did not care too much though. I rolled my eyes at the 20-year-old Jim having a years long plan to set-up Kip. That Jim forced St. Pauli Girl to bang Kip. That Jim did all sorts of underhanded scheming. That St. Pauli Girl really did love the much older Kip and Jim forced her to do what she did. I ignored that and rolled along with the story.
Comments:
1. I just saw that this was published by Tyrus Books. Are they still around? Let me check... nope. I recalled that they were bought a while ago. Simon and Schuster was the final owner and closed them down in April of this year.
2. Ben Leroy started Tyrus and before that he began Bleak House. Both publishers put out a lot of books I enjoyed. Leroy was, maybe still is, based in Madison and Bleak House sent us something once, maybe something simple like bookmarks.
3. A few days ago someone checked out one of Coleman's books that he wrote under the Tony Spinosa name. The two Spinosa books were good fun, I liked those.
In My Ears: "The Complaints" by Ian Rankin
In My Ears: The Complaints by Ian Rankin, 2009, Overdrive.com download.
I am not sure how many Rankin novels I have read or heard. I did watch a couple of the Rebus movies/episodes with John WhatsHisNameFromScotlandWhoWasInTheMummyandAgentsofSHIELD. According to Rankin's web page he has published 38 novels. That is a lot of books. If he cannot find a foot ladder he could stack all those books up and reach a high shelf.
This is the first novel in the Malcom Fox series. I don't think I've met anyone named Malcolm. I heard this novel a while ago and I enjoyed the book. I also do not recall too much about the plot so I won't give a long summary like I usually do. After all, these notes are for me more than anyone else who might read it. That sure doesn't stop me from checking the statistics on the blog.
Malcolm is a single cop in Scotland working for internal affairs - The Complaints - and he is asked to help the secretive sex crimes unit from across the hall. Sex Crimes has word that a Scottish cop named Breck is involved in a online pedophile ring. Malcolm already investigated a different cop from Breck's division and Sex Crimes figures Malcolm can use that as excuse to feel out Breck without Breck getting suspicious and destroying evidence.
Breck also gets romantically interested in the Sex Crimes detective, WhatsHerFace. WhatsHerFace gives Breck plenty of information to convince Malcolm that Breck may be guilty. Malcolm also has to deal with the violent death of his sister's physically abusive partner. The abusive partner was found beaten to death at a construction site and now Malcolm, protective brother, is being investigated.
Spoiler Ahead.
Pretty soon things start to go bad for Malcolm and Breck. They are both suspended from work and it looks like they are being set-up by a higher up. The whole set-up plot is a bit far fetched. The idea being that a friend of the guy investigated by Malcolm is trying to help the guy out by fucking with Malcolm. Or something. I cannot recall exactly.
The story of Malcolm and Breck working together to unravel the conspiracy is interesting but the concept of the set-up is baloney. The conspiracy plot relies on several assumptions about Malcolm and Breck and how they'll get along, and how they'll react under certain circumstances, and how everyone else will do everything else, how how how.
Comments:
1.Still an enjoyable novel - just gloss over the nonsense bits - but after having thought about it I do feel let down by the ending.
2. Rankin gives you his usual interesting characters.
3. Narrator did pretty well except, if I recall correctly, one or two women characters were not well acted.
I am not sure how many Rankin novels I have read or heard. I did watch a couple of the Rebus movies/episodes with John WhatsHisNameFromScotlandWhoWasInTheMummyandAgentsofSHIELD. According to Rankin's web page he has published 38 novels. That is a lot of books. If he cannot find a foot ladder he could stack all those books up and reach a high shelf.
This is the first novel in the Malcom Fox series. I don't think I've met anyone named Malcolm. I heard this novel a while ago and I enjoyed the book. I also do not recall too much about the plot so I won't give a long summary like I usually do. After all, these notes are for me more than anyone else who might read it. That sure doesn't stop me from checking the statistics on the blog.
Malcolm is a single cop in Scotland working for internal affairs - The Complaints - and he is asked to help the secretive sex crimes unit from across the hall. Sex Crimes has word that a Scottish cop named Breck is involved in a online pedophile ring. Malcolm already investigated a different cop from Breck's division and Sex Crimes figures Malcolm can use that as excuse to feel out Breck without Breck getting suspicious and destroying evidence.
Breck also gets romantically interested in the Sex Crimes detective, WhatsHerFace. WhatsHerFace gives Breck plenty of information to convince Malcolm that Breck may be guilty. Malcolm also has to deal with the violent death of his sister's physically abusive partner. The abusive partner was found beaten to death at a construction site and now Malcolm, protective brother, is being investigated.
Spoiler Ahead.
Pretty soon things start to go bad for Malcolm and Breck. They are both suspended from work and it looks like they are being set-up by a higher up. The whole set-up plot is a bit far fetched. The idea being that a friend of the guy investigated by Malcolm is trying to help the guy out by fucking with Malcolm. Or something. I cannot recall exactly.
The story of Malcolm and Breck working together to unravel the conspiracy is interesting but the concept of the set-up is baloney. The conspiracy plot relies on several assumptions about Malcolm and Breck and how they'll get along, and how they'll react under certain circumstances, and how everyone else will do everything else, how how how.
Comments:
1.Still an enjoyable novel - just gloss over the nonsense bits - but after having thought about it I do feel let down by the ending.
2. Rankin gives you his usual interesting characters.
3. Narrator did pretty well except, if I recall correctly, one or two women characters were not well acted.
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Lansdale: "Fender Lizards" Joe R Lansdale
Lansdale: Fender Lizards, 2015, 9781596067172.
This is really a Young Adult novel. But, it is a Lansdale novel so that doesn't matter because the book is very good no matter the intended audience.
17-year-old Dot is a roller skating waitress at the Dairy Bob drive-in restaurant in a small East Texas town. Bob, owner of Dairy Bob's, calls the skating waitresses Fender Lizards. Or, maybe that was Dot and her co-workers - the name doesn't really matter.
Dot has left high school and lives in a trailer with her mother and grandmother. Dot works the max 6 hours a day the law allows a minor to work and then she works a few more hours under the table. Dot's sister, Raylynn, has two children, one ex-boyfriend who ran off, and a current boyfriend who is a lay-around lout. Dot still wonders what happened to her father who went out for a pack a cigarettes and never returned. Dot is still quite angry with her missing father who went for cigarettes and has been missing for 10 years.
One day a guy named Elbert shows up and declares himself the father's brother. No one knows who the fuck Uncle Elbert is, even though he claims he is the missing father's brother. He convinces Mom and Grandmom but Dot doesn't much like Elbert. Elbert ends up parking his van there and staying. Elbert wants to help out the family now that he is out of prison for bank robbery. Dot is not impressed with a failed bank robber.
Things drag on for Dot. She bashes her sister's boyfriend with a piece of lumber after the borfriend bashed Raylynn with his fist. This ends Dot up in court with a week's worth of labor at the local animal shelter (which she enjoys). Dot then reads a carnival poster announcing a cash prize for any roller derby team to play and win against the carnival's roller derby team. Well, now Dot has a goal. She talks about the idea to co-workers and they are interested. She tells Uncle Elbert who reveals his past job experience as a skating clown and roller derby fan.
Meanwhile, Dot keeps wondering about her father. She partly wants to beat him to a pulp. She partly wants to hug him as hard as she can. When she tries a simple web search she discovers he lives less than an hour away. Dot and Elbert go to visit her dad. Things happen and I won't give them away.
Another fine story by Lansdale. He always handles difficult family situations and love affairs with a rough grace. His heroes and heroins know when they've done wrong and try to do better, even though they'd rather hit someone with a piece of lumber. His characters recognize their foibles.
Foibles.
This is really a Young Adult novel. But, it is a Lansdale novel so that doesn't matter because the book is very good no matter the intended audience.
17-year-old Dot is a roller skating waitress at the Dairy Bob drive-in restaurant in a small East Texas town. Bob, owner of Dairy Bob's, calls the skating waitresses Fender Lizards. Or, maybe that was Dot and her co-workers - the name doesn't really matter.
Dot has left high school and lives in a trailer with her mother and grandmother. Dot works the max 6 hours a day the law allows a minor to work and then she works a few more hours under the table. Dot's sister, Raylynn, has two children, one ex-boyfriend who ran off, and a current boyfriend who is a lay-around lout. Dot still wonders what happened to her father who went out for a pack a cigarettes and never returned. Dot is still quite angry with her missing father who went for cigarettes and has been missing for 10 years.
One day a guy named Elbert shows up and declares himself the father's brother. No one knows who the fuck Uncle Elbert is, even though he claims he is the missing father's brother. He convinces Mom and Grandmom but Dot doesn't much like Elbert. Elbert ends up parking his van there and staying. Elbert wants to help out the family now that he is out of prison for bank robbery. Dot is not impressed with a failed bank robber.
Things drag on for Dot. She bashes her sister's boyfriend with a piece of lumber after the borfriend bashed Raylynn with his fist. This ends Dot up in court with a week's worth of labor at the local animal shelter (which she enjoys). Dot then reads a carnival poster announcing a cash prize for any roller derby team to play and win against the carnival's roller derby team. Well, now Dot has a goal. She talks about the idea to co-workers and they are interested. She tells Uncle Elbert who reveals his past job experience as a skating clown and roller derby fan.
Meanwhile, Dot keeps wondering about her father. She partly wants to beat him to a pulp. She partly wants to hug him as hard as she can. When she tries a simple web search she discovers he lives less than an hour away. Dot and Elbert go to visit her dad. Things happen and I won't give them away.
Another fine story by Lansdale. He always handles difficult family situations and love affairs with a rough grace. His heroes and heroins know when they've done wrong and try to do better, even though they'd rather hit someone with a piece of lumber. His characters recognize their foibles.
Foibles.
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