I received a free advance copy of this for review from NetGalley.
And I thought Thelma & Louise had a bad road trip…
Despite recently losing her job andI received a free advance copy of this for review from NetGalley.
And I thought Thelma & Louise had a bad road trip…
Despite recently losing her job and being low on cash, Jane is determined to attend her estranged sister’s wedding so she goes looking for someone headed north that she can catch a ride with. Unfortunately the only candidate she finds is a surly one-eyed woman named Henry who doesn’t seem like the kind of person you want as a traveling companion on a long trip.
With no other options, Jane and Henry set off but have one misadventure after another involving a weird assortment of oddballs like an unusual thief, a washed up country & western singer on her last tour, and redneck slavers. Will Jane be able to make it in time for the wedding? And what kind of gift she should buy?
Joe Lansdale has written several types of novels over the years ranging from horror to westerns to crime novels. This feels like something different, and I mean that in the best possible way. There are similarities to his other writings like the Hap & Leonard series in the style and characters, but things take a turn in the second half of the book. What starts off as a goofy romp with some rednecks turns into a pretty moving character story by the end.
That mainly comes from what we learn about Jane along the way. At the start Jane seems like just an aimless women in her mid-thirties with a string of failed relationships and dead end jobs behind her, and she has absolutely no idea what to do next. One thing compounding her problems is that Jane has got a stubborn streak that compels her to resist listening to anyone, especially when they’re right.
Jane also lacks basic planning skills and is extremely limited in her thinking. For example, since she had a bad bus ride in school years ago she refuses to take a bus to the wedding because she assumes every bus trip would be just as bad. It's also not very endearing that the main reason for Jane wants to go to her sister’s wedding is because she realized that nobody really wanted her there so this is all for spite at a time when she has far bigger problems like trying to make sure she keeps a roof over head.
In short, Jane seemed like the kind of moron who consistently always does the wrong thing but never understands why her life is so crappy. However, despite seeming like exactly the kind of person I've been actively avoiding for most of my life, I came to like Jane quite a bit. Through all her trials and tribulations we learn that Jane is essentially a good-hearted and honest person who can be tough as hell when need be.
Lansdale pulled off a two-part trick here in the way that Jane realizes some important things about herself, and then he also subtly shifted my perspective of her until I realized that I had been thinking of Jane as just a stereotypical red state rube because of her circumstances rather than as a complex person whose opportunities were so limited to begin with that a few bad choices left her with increasingly shitty options. It's a similar situation with Henry who comes across as unpleasant and stubborn in her own way, but she also has a story to tell.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I think it’s Lansdale’s best book since The Bottoms....more
I received a free advance copy of this from NetGalley.
Best buddies Hap and Leonard have some time to kill so they end up sparring, eating ice cream, aI received a free advance copy of this from NetGalley.
Best buddies Hap and Leonard have some time to kill so they end up sparring, eating ice cream, and generally farting around as they bullshit extensively about their past.
If this sounds more like a trip down memory lane or a clip show episode of a TV series than the fellas having a new crime adventure then you’d be right because the idea of H&L wandering around to some of their old haunts is just the framework used to string together some short stories about the good ole days which weren’t always so good. Along the way we hear about their first meeting as well as the early days of their friendship, and there’s a lot about Hap’s childhood and teen years with stories that involve his parents as well as good deal about racial issues.
Overall, there’s some interesting stuff for H&L fans, and I’d only seen a couple of the stories before. However, by sticking to their early days we don’t get much of the what I love which are the guys bumbling their way through some kind of mess as they try to play detective and usually get themselves in a whole lot of trouble. There’s still some crime elements to it, but I gotta say that Hap ran across so many dead bodies in his younger days that he probably missed his true calling of being an undertaker.
They’re all pretty decent, but it fell into a weird grey area for me where I felt like I was getting more history than I really needed or wanted about the guys rather than another one of their hilarious adventures....more
It’s a good thing I don’t like fish because I damn sure wouldn’t be eating any for a good long while after reading this.
The survivors of the first twoIt’s a good thing I don’t like fish because I damn sure wouldn’t be eating any for a good long while after reading this.
The survivors of the first two books have been stuck in the remains of the drive-in which was transported to a weird jungle where hungry dinosaurs roam. The people are living like savages in the remains of the cars and things are bad enough that eating a baby is frowned on as a minor social faux paux like burping at the dinner table. But hey, the movies are still somehow still showing at night so at least they’ve got entertainment!
Some of the folks decide to head out in an old school bus they’ve modified, and their journey leads them out on a vast sea where eventually they get swallowed by a giant catfish. That’s when things really get weird.
I didn’t like this third book in the Joe R. Lansdale’s Drive-In saga nearly as much as the others. The first book was grounded in it’s average Texas location at the start and that carried over at least a little into the second book. Here, things start out at crazy town banana pants and escalate from there. Plus, when the characters have already gone through so much it gets harder to make things worse although Lansdale gives it a mighty try by reducing them to rag clad starving wretches who have to deal with things like how best to poop out a school bus window.
Things just got a little too strange, filthy, gross, and overall bat shit (Or fish shit in this case.) crazy for my taste. This was headed for a 2 star ranking, but I did kind find some of the crazy imagery and ideas at the end interesting, and there’s still some quality Lansdale style dialogue that can be both sad, funny, and disgusting all at the same time so that bumped it up to 3....more
You gotta admire Joe Lansdale’s gumption. If you write one short crazy-ass horror novel about an entire Texas drive-in filled with people being trappeYou gotta admire Joe Lansdale’s gumption. If you write one short crazy-ass horror novel about an entire Texas drive-in filled with people being trapped in the limbo of an endless night that devolves into a frenzy of violence and cannibalism that pales in comparison to the horrors unleashed in it by the supernatural Popcorn King, then most writers might put their pencils down and not try to follow it up. So how do you top that madness? Easy. Add in some dinosaurs!
Three survivors of the first story leave the ruins of the drive-in only to find that the highway now leads through a prehistoric wilderness complete with the occasional T. Rex sighting. After some traveling and recuperating they eventually run across a woman named Grace who also lived through the terror of the never ending movie marathon but met something even worse afterwards in the guise of a deranged guy whose head has been turned into a television and calls himself Popalong Cassiday.*
* It'd been a long while since I read this, and I'd completely forgotten about Popalong Cassiday. Now I'm wondering if Brian K. Vaughan might have drawn inspiration from this for his robots with televisions for heads in Saga.
Grace is determined to return to the drive-in and stop him, and the guys agree because one of them has the hots for her and real friends don’t let a buddy go alone to confront a psychopathic guy with a TV for a head while trapped in an episode of Land of the Lost. I’m pretty sure that’s in the Guy Code somewhere, or if it’s not, it should be. Anyhow, hilarity ensues.
Like the first Drive-In this bizarre set-up sounds like it might be something meant to be comedy-horror, and there are some good laughs since Lansdale can create dialogue and descriptions to make the most awful of people, events, and circumstances funny. However, despite the goofy premises both books have a seriously dark streak of nihilism and misanthropy. The ending is a bit anti-climatic by design with Lansdale deliberately trying to stand a lot of the tropes of TV and movies on their heads. There’s a real anger and ugliness lurking just below the surface of these books, and that makes them interesting.
However, I liked this one slightly less than the first one because there the story begins with the normality of a bunch of people going to the movies and then descends into chaos. Here, the story starts off as crazy town banana pants, and then tries to take that up a notch. Once you’ve shown that people are shit who will cheerfully shed the thin veneer of civilization in the midst of a bizarro meat grinder then it’s really hard to make that any worse although Lansdale gives it a mighty effort.
It’s still a short and disturbing horror novel that will make you laugh at inappropriate times, and I’m curious to get to the third book to see how it gets wrapped up....more
With a new Hap & Leonard book out and the TV series based on their adventures coming soon it seems like Lansdale Fever is sweeping Goodreads these dayWith a new Hap & Leonard book out and the TV series based on their adventures coming soon it seems like Lansdale Fever is sweeping Goodreads these days. I blame Dan for infecting me with this particular strain of the virus.
I’d read the first two parts of The Drive-In saga way back in the ‘90s when I first discovered the Champion Mojo Storyteller, but I’d forgotten most of the story and never even gotten around to checking out the third installment. Then Dan spread his contagion all over the place, and I found myself rediscovering the gruesomeness of the Popcorn King all over again. Thanks a lot, Dan!
During the late ‘80s in Texas four young men head out to the local drive-in where they plan to spend the night watching a horror movie marathon. In the middle of their films a comet with a smile roars by, and the entire drive-in is suddenly surrounded by an inky darkness that dissolves anyone who tries to leave. With no other options the trapped patrons watch the movies over and over in an endless night as the food starts to run out. That’s when things get even weirder and more horrible.
This is a very short book, and that’s a good thing because I don’t think spinning the concept out much longer than 150 pages would actually work. (Although I’m sure Stephen King would have taken a 700 or 800 page swing at it if he would have thought of this idea first.) What really sells it is that Lansdale quickly provides the details that ground things in reality among the most mundane circumstances of people going to the movies before unleashing the batshit craziness. Then he uses the most terrible of creatures, human beings, to set the stage for the real horror show which becomes a gory supernatural B-movie spectacle.
Lansdale mainly uses two characters to represent different points of view. Our narrator Jack holds the desperately hopeful belief that there is some inherent goodness and meaning in humanity’s existence, but the counterpoint is his buddy Bob who operates under the basic assumptions that people are just bastard covered bastards with bastard filling and that believing in anything other than yourself is a waste of time. This is pretty much the same dynamic that defines the soft-hearted Hap and the pragmatic Leonard so you can almost see Jack and Bob as an early trial run at those two characters.
The part that really got to me this time was that period before things really go sideways when everyone is just stuck watching the movies over and over again while living off concession stand hotdogs and popcorn. While drive-ins were pretty much dead in my area by the time I was a teenager I’ve attended some movie marathons, and I think Lansdale really nailed that weird dreamy limbo state that sets in if you spend hour after hour staring at a screen in a theater as you shove popcorn or candy into your mouth.
Like most things Lansdale it’s got some funny stuff mixed in with some sharp edges that unsuspecting readers might cut themselves on. Overall, it’s weird and gory in ways that are different than most horror stories you’d read, but it’s also got an ugliness to it that definitely cuts into the fun factor you might expect from something this bizarre. ...more
I received a free copy from the publisher for review.
This is a good time to be a fan of Hap & Leonard with the new novel Honky Tonk Samurai being releI received a free copy from the publisher for review.
This is a good time to be a fan of Hap & Leonard with the new novel Honky Tonk Samurai being released and a TV series based on their adventures about to premiere. As a fan who has been reading H&L since the late ‘90s I have to admit to feeling a bit conflicted about all this attention. I’m glad to see Joe R. Lansdale and his creations getting their due, but I’ve also got that same kind of scornful streak that makes hipsters such a delight when they sneer at any band that more than a dozen people have heard of.
“Oh, really? You started reading Hap & Leonard? Just downloaded all their books on your e-reader this morning, did you? How nice. Of course, they were better LAST CENTURY which is when I discovered their early books in a soggy cardboard box in the basement of a used book store….”
If you don’t know about Hap & Leonard already then suffice it to say that they’re a couple of best friends living in east Texas who have an uncanny ability to put themselves in bad situations that usually require a whole lot of ass whippings and some gunfire to get out of. They’re profane and politically incorrect but don’t think that they’re your standard good old boys. Hap is a former hippie whose bleeding heart is frequently the cause of their problems while Leonard is a Vietnam veteran who is proud to be black and gay, and his favorite hobby is burning down crack houses. In the hands of Lansdale the adventures of H&L are often hilarious and frequently gross, and yet there’s a surprising amount of depth at times about the real cost of violence as well as a profound sense of melancholy that the narrator Hap has as he reflects on his life and other matters.
Even as I look down my nose at you late comers I have to admit that this collection put together to capitalize on the TV show has a lot of stuff that I haven’t read. There’s two novellas, four short stories, an ‘interview’ with the author questioning the guys, and Lansdale also wrote a brief summary of his history writing the series as an extended afterwards. Michael Koryta also provides a nice introduction.
While I’d previously read the novella Hyenas and the short story that came with it, The Boy Who Became Invisible, all the rest of this was new to me so even as a long time H&L fan I found plenty of value here. (I’d never read the other novella, Dead Aim, because I refused to pay the outrageous hardback price for it at the time although it’s since become available at a much more reasonable cost as an e-book.) I was particularly delighted to finally read the short story Veil’s Visit which is a collaboration with Andrew Vachss who is also the inspiration for the character of Veil, a lawyer who you don’t want to meet in or out of court.
If you’re someone who hasn’t read Hap & Leonard, and you’re curious then this could make for a good starting point because it is a nice variety pack that gives you a taste of what they’re all about. For those who have read some of the series then it’s a question of how much is new material to you. If you’ve read the novellas already then it may seem a bit thin, but it’d be a good buy for H&L fans who haven’t.
Update 2/23/16: It was just brought to my attention that there's an e-version of this called Hap and Leonard Ride Again which apparently has the same material with a few additional short stories....more
You’ve never heard the expression ‘hotdog crap fries’ before? That’s because it’s my new favorite exclamatHotdog crap fries! Hap and Leonard are back!
You’ve never heard the expression ‘hotdog crap fries’ before? That’s because it’s my new favorite exclamation after misreading this line in the book: "Some summers it’s so hot dog crap fries on the sidewalk." For a minute there I thought Sonic was really scraping the bottom of the barrel for new menu ideas…
But aside from that little misunderstanding it was great to get a new adventure with a couple of my favorite rednecks just in time for the premiere of their new TV show. The guys are trying to do a little quiet surveillance work for their private detective gig when they witness a dog being beaten by an abusive owner. After a much deserved ass kicking is delivered Hap has a new dog, but as usual their best intentions have unintended consequences when this leads to them getting a new client, an elderly woman who wants to hire them to look for a granddaughter who stole her money and went missing years before.
The trail leads to a car dealership that is offering a lot more than easy financing, and as usual Hap & Leonard soon find themselves at odds with various dangerous people including a biker gang. They’re also warned that the people they’re dealing with may use the services of a mysterious hitman who likes to remove the testicles of his victims.
While I always enjoy reading this series I’d found the last several books less than fully satisfactory. A large part of this was because Vanilla Ride and Devil Red were on the thin side, and the next two after that were just novellas that clocked in about a 100 pages each. This time out Champion Mojo Storyteller Joe Lansdale provides a full 340 pages of Hap & Leonard doing their thing, and it felt like finally getting a full meal after having to nibble on appetizers when you’re really hungry.
There’s all the usual factors that make for a great Hap & Leonard story with lots of humor, profanity filled crude dialogue, crazy characters, a mystery for the guys to bumble through, and plenty of threats to their well being. There's also a whole lot of violence in the form of beatings, gunfire, and the judicious use of a crowbar at one point.
Getting a full sized novel instead of a quickie also means there’s time for subplots, and we’re treated to Hap’s girlfriend Brett taking over the detective agency they work for, Leonard’s problems with his on-again-off-again boyfriend, and the appearance of a new character that promises a whole mess of new complications for Hap. There’s also the reappearance of some old friends that add a lot of spice and action to the whole adventure. (view spoiler)[Landsale also has a pretty surprising ending to this one that is sure to have Hap and Leonard fans buzzing for a while. (hide spoiler)]
Overall, this ended up being a return to form for the series, and I’d say it's the best book featuring Hap and Leonard since Bad Chili. Now I can settle back with a big order of hotdog crap fries and watch the TV show....more
At the tail end of the cowboy days in East Texas, sixteen year old Jack Parker and his sister Lula hav(I received a free copy of this from NetGalley.)
At the tail end of the cowboy days in East Texas, sixteen year old Jack Parker and his sister Lula have a helluva bad week. After their parents die in a smallpox epidemic, their grandfather is murdered by a gang of bank robbers who kidnap Lula. The only help that Jack can find is a grave digging black man named Eustace and the tiny bounty hunter Shorty. Along with a giant hog, they set out to rescue Lula. Jack tries to hold to his Christian beliefs that the gang should be caught and tried, and he is horrified at Shorty and Eustace’s willingness to kill and ignore common decency in the name of a greater good, namely their own.
As they meet more victims of the gang along the trail and see how cruel they truly are, Jack starts to realize that there’s no way to get Lula back without getting blood on his hands and that his traveling companions may have a better understanding of the world than he does. His young puritan ways are also tested when he meets Jimmie Sue, a hooker with a heart of gold who takes a liking to him.
There are elements of this story that will probably sound familiar to anyone who has read or seen one of the two film versions of True Grit with a young person venturing into a hostile wilderness with some salty frontier types, but Lansdale also adds some bizarre and violent turns that feel more like Django Unchained at times.
My favorite part was the character of Shorty. He may be the smallest member of the posse, but he’s the smartest and hell on wheels with a gun in his hand. He’s also a misanthrope who came by it honestly after a lifetime of dealing with people who treat him like a freak or a child, and he gets most of the best lines in the book.
It’s also got all the hallmarks of Joe Lansdale with a profane sense of humor that provides plenty of action but with a sense of responsibility about the damage done by all the violence. In fact, my one complaint about the novel is that it’s a little too Joe Lansdale.
If you’ve read his Hap & Leonard series, then a lot of this will seem somewhat familiar in that you’ve got some characters who while being ‘the good guys’ are perfectly content to dish out punishment if they feel it’s been earned while someone provides a softer hearted conscience that urges some compassion. In fact, this isn’t even the first Lansdale book to feature a little person involved in a vicious pistol whipping along with a strange wild animal bonding with people since he worked similar stuff into Rumble Tumble.
However, if the worst thing I can say about it is that it’s a typical Joe Lansdale story, then you know you’re still getting an entertaining tale.
Hap and Leonard are up to their usual hijinks when they get hired by a man who thThat was short and sweet.
Actually, it was very, very short and sweet.
Hap and Leonard are up to their usual hijinks when they get hired by a man who thinks his younger brother has gotten mixed up with a crew of armed robbers. The guys come up with a plan to show the young man the error of his ways, but as always they get a lot more than they bargained for.
This has all the stuff I could ask for in a Hap & Leonard novel. It’s funny, profane, action packed and generally great. Lansdale once again walks a fine line in making the violence brutal and scary but still finds the dark humor in it, too. The opening of this book finds Hap picking Leonard up from the cops after his enthusiastic self-defense during a night club brawl left a hilarious amount of damage behind, and as usual I found myself laughing out loud several times.
My complaint with this is that it’s a novella, not a novel, and it clocks in at 100 pages including a short story about an incident during Hap’s high school years. None of the books in the series have been particularly long, but the last one, Devil Red, was only about 200 pages and felt way too short for the hardback price I paid for it. So when I saw that this was a 100 page hardback for $25, I decided it could wait until I got it from the library someday. Now I see that the next one will also be another very short hardback at premium prices.
I love Lansdale’s writing, but I’m too cheap to pay these prices for books I can read in a couple of hours. I’m not sure why he’s releasing them like this, and if his only story ideas are coming to him as these shorter tales, why not collect three of them in one hardback? As someone who has purchased a pretty good stack of Lansdale’s books over the years, I can’t help but feel that the loyalty of the Hap & Leonard fans is being taken advantage of. ...more
Take a middle-aged redneck in East Texas with a mouthy gay black best friend, give them both an unerring instinct for irritating the living hell out oTake a middle-aged redneck in East Texas with a mouthy gay black best friend, give them both an unerring instinct for irritating the living hell out of dangerous people and putting themselves in shitty situations, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. And a highly entertaining crime series.
Hap and Leonard have started working part time for their friend Hanson’s detective agency, but Hap is brooding even more than usual about the violence that they always seem to attract. Hanson gets a new case with a rich woman wanting them to look into her son’s murder. The son had a crazy girlfriend that was killed with him, and she was mixed up with a cult of weirdos pretending to be vampires and was also the recipient of a large inheritance. When the guys starting looking into it, they accidentally pick up on a pattern that indicates they’ve found the trail of a vicious hired killer they name Devil Red.
It’s good to have Lansdale doing Hap and Leonard novels again. They guys are still their entertaining selves, and Lansdale has given them another brutal case to get through. As always, the dialogue is politically incorrect, profane, and completely hilarious. There’s a running joke in this one about Leonard wearing a Sherlock Holmes style deerstalker hat that made me laugh repeatedly.
However, this was only 205 pages and seemed even shorter than that. The story didn’t just seem quick, it seemed chopped off. Lansdale books generally don't have any fat on them, and he’s delivered a lot of entertaining short novels, but frankly, I felt a bit ripped off for buying this one in hardback. It’s still a lot of fun, but I would have liked another 50 pages or so of making fun of Leonard’s hat.
I’d also recommend that anyone interested in this one read the previous book Vanilla Ride first because some of the events and characters from that one come back up here. ...more
Joe Lansdale seems almost respectable these days. After a decade of writing books like The Bottoms and A Fine Dark Line which got him mainstream accolJoe Lansdale seems almost respectable these days. After a decade of writing books like The Bottoms and A Fine Dark Line which got him mainstream accolades and success, it got easy to forget that this is a guy who originally made his name doing exceptionally gory horror stories and novels. I’d gotten caught up in his Hap & Leonard series as well as the other recent novels so I’d forgotten about early bucket-o-blood books like The Drive-In and The Nightrunners.
So it was kind of a slap in the face to read this collection and have an oozing sore on elderly Elvis Presley’s penis described in graphic detail.
Despite being a huge Lansdale fan, I hadn’t read many of his short stories. This collection would be a great primer for new Lansdale fans because it shows all the phases of his career like the early horror days with graphic violence and sometimes sick (but funny) humor, a couple of tales that give the flavor of his crime fiction, and some that showcase the more literate side he’s engaged in lately.
Several of these have already had some exposure. Bubba Ho Tep has Elvis and Jack Kennedy fighting a mummy in a Texas rest home and was made into a cult favorite film starring Bruce Campbell. Incident On and Off A Mountain Road was used for Showtime’s Masters of Horror series. The story Mad Dog Summer was later expanded into The Bottoms, Lansdale’s most critically acclaimed novel.
There’s a wide variety here like the absurd tragic and funny story of Godzilla struggling with his addiction to smashing buildings and squishing people. There's the bittersweet Not From Detroit with an elderly man facing off Death himself to save his wife. We also get Lansdale doing historical fiction in The Big Blow with two boxers facing off during the hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas, in 1900. All this and lots more including zombies, alligator attacks, serial killers, visions of prehistoric fish and a racing mule who has a pig for a best friend.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll scream and you’ll fight the urge to vomit a couple of times, but this is Joe Lansdale in all his disturbing glory. ...more
Hap and Leonard go south of the border, and there hasn’t been a trip to Mexico end this badly since The Wild Bunch. As Warren Zevon once sang, they'llHap and Leonard go south of the border, and there hasn’t been a trip to Mexico end this badly since The Wild Bunch. As Warren Zevon once sang, they'll need lawyers, guns, and money to get out of this fix.
The guys have new careers as security guards at the local chicken processing plant. As Hap is leaving work one night he breaks up an attack on a young woman by a drug crazed maniac. (The fight scene is Lansdale at his best. I didn’t know whether to laugh or scream as I read it.) Usually good deeds don't go unpunished, but this time Hap is actually rewarded for his heroics with some cash and time off work so he decides to treat Leonard to a sea cruise.
Unfortunately, with their usual knack for trouble, things go badly at one of the cruise stops in Mexico, and they end up as the victims of a machete wielding gang of muggers. And since Hap & Leonard can always make a bad situation worse, they find a way to get thrown in a Mexican jail. They get out with a little help from their friends, and for once, they try to do the smart thing and return to the U.S. without getting further involved. But trouble follows them home and costs them dearly.
This was the last Hap and Leonard novel that Lansdale wrote for 8 years until the publication of Vanilla Ride, and it feels like he may have been a bit burnt out on the series. While there’s always been a bit of a melancholy tone to the H&L books, this one has several elements that are more depressing that the other ones. The humor is still there, but the guys seem worn out and sick of getting pulled into their violent adventures. Lansdale would write a lot of very good books during the break he took from Hap and Leonard, and the two would return refreshed and lively again in the next one so that makes me feel better about Captains Outrageous because I thought for years that it may have been the end of the series.
On a trivia note: Crime fiction fans might recognize the character of the lawyer Veil as Lansdale’s tribute to his friend and fellow crime writer Andrew Vachss. It’s a fun little cameo. You gotta love a lawyer with an eye patch. ...more
Hap Collins and his friend Leonard Pine seem like pure east Texas rednecks in a lot of ways. They have crappy jobs working in rose fields, shoot clay Hap Collins and his friend Leonard Pine seem like pure east Texas rednecks in a lot of ways. They have crappy jobs working in rose fields, shoot clay pigeons with their shotguns, drive worn out piece-of-shit vehicles, raise hunting dogs and listen to country music. But Leonard is black and gay, and Hap is a former damn dirty hippie who got sent to prison for refusing his induction notice during Vietnam as a protest against the war. So they aren’t exactly the Dukes of Hazard.
Years after his prison stay ended his marriage, Hap’s ex-wife Trudy still likes to come around regularly to break his heart all over again. Trudy is another former flower child who still thinks she can change the world while Hap’s time in prison took care of all his idealistic notions. When Trudy shows up again, she’s got a new proposal for Hap.
Trudy and some other old damn dirty hippies have gotten a lead on a lot of cash from a bank robbery that was believed lost. They think it’s in a sunken boat in an remote river area that Hap grew up in. Trudy wants Hap’s help, and Hap insists on cutting Leonard in, too. But both have second thoughts when they meet the old radicals they’ll be working with. Still convinced that they can revive the spirit of the ‘60s, they want the money for their pet causes while Hap and Leonard just want to be able to stop working in the rose fields.
Joe Lansdale is one of the funniest guys I’ve ever read, and he really knows about rural living and the redneck lifestyle. Every time I read one of his books, I feel like I’m sitting on a front porch in my old hometown while listening to some entertaining story teller spin a yarn about the trouble that some idiot good old boys got themselves into. The series is profane, politically incorrect, violent, and hilarious. Lansdale created a couple of my all-time favorite characters in Hap and Leonard. ...more
When Hap goes to spend Christmas Eve with his friend Leonard, he finds that Leonard’s idea of a Yule log is burning down the neighborhood crack house.When Hap goes to spend Christmas Eve with his friend Leonard, he finds that Leonard’s idea of a Yule log is burning down the neighborhood crack house. Since this is the third time Leonard has torched it, the cops are a little miffed even though he always pulls the drug dealers out of the fire. Police lieutenant Hanson offers to help get Leonard off the hook for his pyromania if the guys will look for his girlfriend, Florida, who has gone missing while poking around the story of the relative of a legendary bluesman who allegedly committed suicide while in jail.
There’s a couple of problems with this request. Florida disappeared in Grovetown, a racist hotbed of Klan-like activity that probably didn’t like a black female lawyer looking into what seems to be a classic civil rights violation. Grovetown surely won’t appreciate a guy like Leonard, who is black and gay and more than willing to fight anyone who has a problem with it. Plus, Florida dated Hap before breaking his heart to take up with Hanson so he isn’t thrilled about potentially getting killed while looking for her.
But Hap and Leonard never saw a bucket of crap they wouldn’t willingly step into so they’re off to Grovetown, which turns out to be the biggest cracker hellhole imaginable. Hap and Leonard are tough, but can they take on an entire town?
Another great entry in the Hap & Leonard series, Lansdale started to really explore the guys’ complex relationship to violence. Hap and Leonard aren’t scared of a fight and can usually hold their own, but their adventures are starting to take a serious toll on their bodies and their psyches. Lansdale has a knack for making violence and its aftermath seem genuine and horrifying while not getting bogged down in faux angst about it. ...more
Hap returns home from working a gig on an oil rig and is promptly attacked by a rabid squirrel. Thanks to crappy insurance and a grumpy doctor he has Hap returns home from working a gig on an oil rig and is promptly attacked by a rabid squirrel. Thanks to crappy insurance and a grumpy doctor he has to stay in the hospital in order to get his rabies shots paid for. While Hap is left to the mercy of the American health care system his best friend Leonard has been having problems with his boyfriend, Raul. Raul has been two-timing him with a biker, and it’s made Leonard so angry that he’s doing crazy things like beating the biker with a broom handle and shooting up bars and motorcycles. When the biker turns up dead and Raul is missing, Leonard is naturally the prime suspect.
But it isn‘t all bad news. Hap has met a hot foul-mouthed red-headed nurse named Brett, and they’ve taken a shine to each other. Once upon a time, Brett dealt with an abusive ex-husband by hitting him in the head with a shovel and setting his hair on fire. Hap may have found true love.
This was the first book by Lansdale I ever read and with the opening chapter that details the squirrel attack on Hap, I laughed so hard that I thought I did myself permanent injury. I knew then that I was going to a Joe Lansdale fan for life, and he hasn’t let me down since. This is probably still my favorite Hap & Leonard novel. Like the others books, it’s obscene, violent, politically incorrect and one of the funniest things you’ll ever read....more
My favorite rednecks, Hap & Leonard, can’t do anything without it turning into bloody mayhem. Leonard’s Uncle Chester helped raise him, but then coldlMy favorite rednecks, Hap & Leonard, can’t do anything without it turning into bloody mayhem. Leonard’s Uncle Chester helped raise him, but then coldly disowned him when Leonard told him he was gay. However, after Chester dies, he leaves Leonard his house and a decent sum of money.
Leonard never really got over the way Chester reacted to his coming out, and when the house turns out to be in terrible shape, he wants to live in it to relive a bit of his childhood while he fixes it up to get it ready to sell. Since it’s a bad part of town with a crack house next door, he asks Hap to help out and keep him company. When they make a horrible discovery underneath the floorboards, the guys get sucked into a murder mystery that the cops are ready to pin on Chester posthumously. Leonard doesn’t buy it and is determined to clear his uncle’s name. But they’ll have to do it while feuding with the neighborhood crack dealers.
I’ve seen many Lansdale fans declare this the best of the Hap and Leonard books, and it’s tough to argue with that. (Bad Chili is probably my favorite.) There’s the hilarious politically incorrect dialogue mixed with horrific violence and terrible tragedy. One thing that stands out for me on this one is the nice role reversal Lansdale did here. Since most of the story takes place in a black part of town, Hap is the minority and he often feels out of place, especially while navigating a romance with a black woman who is a little ashamed of dating a white guy.
I always enjoy Hap and Leonard’s sociological debates, too. The bleeding heart, ex-hippie Hap can’t help but make excuses for people, no matter what they’ve done. The black and gay Leonard is always hilarious in his hard-hearted arguments that everyone is responsible for what they become no matter what happens in their past, and he has zero sympathy for anyone that doesn’t meet his standards. ...more
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