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Title: The Death of Sweet Mister by Daniel Woodrell ISBN: 0-452-28330-2 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: July, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.69 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Rural Oedipus Rex & a bit of James Ellroy
Comment: Daniel Woodrell's last novel, Tomato Red, was about classism experienced by poor whites in the author's native Missouri Ozarks. Woodrell's latest, his seventh novel, The Death of Sweet Mister, has a tighter focus--more psychological, less sociological--that yields a jewel of a literary noir: Think of Oedipus Rex set in the backcountry, seasoned with a bit of James Ellroy. This is not an easy story to tell. Themes about incest among poor whites can easily lapse into the degrading stereotypes of genetic insufficiency attacked in Jim Goad's The Redneck Manifesto, and elsewhere. No, Woodrell has all the compassion for his characters that any literary master knows they need to live on the page. Although excellent, be warned, however, this is one of those "and they didn't live happily ever after" tales.
With Shuggie Akins, a obese, lonely, thirteen-year-old adrift among adult misfits, Woodrell again creates a first-person voice that convinces: The people, the place come alive wholly from inside--moreover, because of--Shuggie's language: "Our house looked as if it had been painted with jumbo crayons by a kid with wild hands who enjoyed bright colors but lost interest fast." Inventive linguistic genius of this sort goes on page after page and if at first a surfeit of these gems seems to slow the reading, don't worry: The voice creeps up on you and stays as an agreeable companion. Like a "Thunderbird (that) seemed to instantly comb the bumps from the road ahead to keep the ride always gentle," The Death of Sweet Mister reads smoothly.
At first, Shuggie's story seems about the rite of passage a teenage boy takes to manhood. But opportunities for Shuggie to bond with his petty criminal and abusive dad, Red, seem invariably to have two outcomes: stupefying disillusionment or, worse, schooling for a desperate life of crime. A fishing outing with Dad ends when Shuggie sent to wade in the river sees Red and girlfriend Patty engage in some "nasty clutching" inside the truck cab. And Shuggie's legal standing as a juvenile makes him Red's pawn for a series of burglaries to steal prescribed narcotics from the sick and doctors' offices.
Woodrell's fitting metaphorical logic for this tale of doom makes Shuggie and Mom Glenda the working caretakers of a cemetery. Shuggie steals "dope" from the sick, who later end up in his "bone orchard." With no real role models to make his transition to manhood a success, Shuggie falls into misdeeds on his own. We see character corruption, we see "the death of Sweet Mister"--Glenda's nickname for the son whose failed male bonding appears to seal his Oedipal fate.
Compared to Tomato Red, The Death of Sweet Mister is a darker tale because the characters do not dream a better life for them exists elsewhere. If the dream of escape kept characters in Tomato Red moving, for Shuggie, it's life with no exit. His only dream of another place, oddly enough, is Norway because that is where Vikings live. Certainly he was thinking of violent, berserkr Vikings, the sort that he already, in his own way, knew. When Shuggie grasps what cards life has dealt him, he lets out a primal scream for things held back. And then he goes about greeting the doom that is, at once, as inevitable as the cemetery where he and his mom live.
Rating: 5
Summary: Innovative use of the English language
Comment: "The Death of Sweet Mister" is one of the best books I've read this year. It's the dark story of one Shug Akins (whose real name is Morris), a fat thirteen-year-old boy with a ditzy, tartish mother and a reprehensible, low-life stepfather named Red who forces Shug to steal drugs for him. They live in a cemetery. These are fascinating characters and, even though abusive fathers or stepfathers are overdone as a subject for fiction, Daniel Woodrell has a unique and original approach to this subject matter. Unlike some current writers, he can convey much in a few (very interesting) words. "The Death of Sweet Mister" is the first book I've read by Daniel Woodrell, and I plan to seek out his other books. I highly recommend it for the serious reader interested in current American literature. It gives you a chance to see how good it can be.
Rating: 5
Summary: Astonishing
Comment: This book is excellent. A short book and a quick read, it packs a wallop. Woodrell is good, but this book was a real surprise. One of the best books I've read in a while.
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Title: Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell ISBN: 0452281946 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: 03 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Ride with the Devil by Daniel Woodrell ISBN: 0671036483 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: November, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Give Us a Kiss: A Country Noir by Daniel Woodrell ISBN: 0671025031 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: August, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Night Dogs by Kent Anderson ISBN: 0553578774 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 06 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Robbers: A Novel by Christopher Cook ISBN: 0425183467 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 02 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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