For Redneck noir books I would nominate James Crumley's books
especially the later ones. Mexican Tree Duck features
Crumley's great Sughrue, an alcoholic, drug-addicted private
detective in a small Montana town, but originally from Texas,
who first takes on, then befriends a biker gang that lives in
a burned out school bus. Then Sughure rounds up a team of
burned-out Vietnam vets who seem to enjoy reliving the war,
and who happily stay in an old hippie commune in rural Texas
while working the case. Sughrue would happily classify
himself as a "redneck." All of Crumley's books are solid
noir.
I also suggest Stephen Hunter's Dirty White Boys, which is
more heavy on the redneck than the noir. Sure, Bud Pewtie (a
truly great redneck name) is a Sheriff of a rural town, but
he's an alcoholic cop, having an affair with his partners
wife while his life swirls out of is control, which qualifies
as noir. Bud takes on a twisted redneck escaped convict named
Lamar Pye and his deranged, apparently inbred brother Odell,
The book turns into a Terminator-esque series of shoot-outs
at the end, but in the early parts when the book focuses on
Lamar's prison story it's entertaining and very noir.
Chan
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 24 Mar 2006 EST