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Title: A Fine Dark Line by Joe R. Lansdale ISBN: 0-446-69167-4 Publisher: Mysterious Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (21 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Champion Joe has done it again
Comment: While this book is very good and very well written, it almost feels like the family from the Bottoms picked up and moved to a drive-in. Don't get me wrong there are big differences between the families, but this is another coming of age story by Champion Joe that involves gruesome murders.
I guess you could call this a sequel in tone to the Bottoms. Once again our hero is a young lad spending his time investigating a couple of grisly murders. What sets this book apart from the Bottoms is that this family is a little more affluent, and live in a nicer town. Also aside from the basic premise of a young man solving murders the stories and characters are completely different.
I enjoyed the fact that the father in A Fine Dark Line is not a perfect man. He has a temper that can go off at any second. He has no qualms about "slapping a teenager smart," or beating on a man who abuses both Stanley's and his own family.
I liked that we actually witnessed the hero, Stanley Jr., getting smarter as the book progressed. I felt the writing style got a little better as the book went on, and since it was written in the first person from Stanley Jr.'s point-of-view, I thought the writing style reflected the protagonist getting smarter.
My one complaint is that this book lacked much of that famous Lansdale dialog. You know the kind. The dialog scenes that would have you belly laughing. Those kinds of dialog.
To be kind, there is a great dialog near the end of the book between Stanley Jr. and one of his family's tormentors. I won't say any more.
"The worm has spoken."
Rating: 3
Summary: Coming of Age in America
Comment: Joe Lansdale, who started his career as a horror writer, is now best known for his hard-biting, hard-edged and very dark mystery and thrillers. The last few years has a offered a softer version of Lansdale who, although still writing mysteries, has decided to deal more with the pains and fears of growing up. A Fine Dark Line is another addition to this lot and, although it is genuine Lansdale, the whole still left me a bit disappointed. This one felt more like the outline for a greater novel than anything else.
Stanley is a thirteen year old boy who, during the summer of 1958, moves with his family to a new town. His father has bought the town's drive-in as a family business and that's where Stan will see himself live with his parents and sister. Soon enough, he uncovers a box full of old letters, which will lead him to discover a mystery that has just been waiting to be unearthed.
The mystery deals with a couple of young girls who were killed nearly thirty years ago. Their deaths are still unresolved and Stanley, with the help of his sister and the old projectionist, decides to figure things out by himself.
Since the book is set in the 50s it will, of course, deal with sexuality, with the black revolution and with movies of the era. Lansdale tries to deal with too much in too little time. There are great echoes of To Kill a Mockingbird in this one (even a Boo Radley-like character appears in A Fine Dark Line), which just shows the kind of thing Lansdale was striving to achieve. The book is barely 300 pages long and yet, it has more to deal with than most books twice its size. It really saddens me to say that this one feels more like an outline Lansdale didn't feel he had to courage to see through.
I still enjoyed reading A Fine Dark Line. The book has great characters and some very chilling situation. But the whole thing left me thirsting for more. This is the rare case where the story could have used a little more flesh on its skeleton. As it stands, A Fine Dark Line is an average book by an author capable of much better (like his great book The Bottoms, one of the best mystery to ever see print).
Rating: 4
Summary: My first time with Lansdale
Comment: I liked very much the book. I've just finished American Pastoral and I was looking for something different. It was my first time with Joe R. Lansdale. I like the town's descriptions, the plot and the characters. In a way I found too many issues put together (the racial one, the discovery of hate and lust, the sexual education) but very well mixed up. It's a very good draw of fifties America and I could visualize every situation described. I will surely buy the other Lansdale's book available in Italy even if I think the original version is surely better to read.
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Title: Sunset and Sawdust (LANSDALE, JOE R) by JOE R. LANSDALE ISBN: 0375414533 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 16 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Captains Outrageous by Joe R. Lansdale ISBN: 0446679631 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale ISBN: 0446677922 Publisher: Mysterious Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: High Cotton: Selected Stories of Joe R. Lansdale by Joe R. Lansdale ISBN: 1930846177 Publisher: Golden Gryphon Pr Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Freezer Burn by Joe R. Lansdale ISBN: 0446608823 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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