RARA-AVIS: Muscle for the Wing

From: Michael Robison ( miker_zspider@yahoo.com)
Date: 26 Feb 2007


Just finished this one by Daniel Woodrell. It takes skill to effectively combine humor with the dark side, and Woodrell has a talent for it. The plot didn't have any big surprises, but the narration and the characters are great. The story involves a tough cop in a rough little backwater town in bayou country. Here's a few excerpts:

"This was Frogtown, where the sideburns were longer, the fuses shorter, the skirts higher, and the expectations lower, and he loved it."

"Jerry Lee Lewis, a regional hero, was booming from the speakers, "The Killer" singing a vigorously sad song about bad love gone worse, and beating the piano like he was married to it."

"She slipped on a sky-blue camisole with a ragged hem that reached to the bottom of her ribs, then pulled on a pair of shiny white satin shorts that seemed wetted onto her ass like hot breath on a cold jewelry window."

"Ronnie told her the news that bad luck had been circling his block his whole life long and once again it had found a parking place right outside his door."

I've also read Woodrell's Tomato Red and Give Us a Kiss, the latter being absolutely wonderful.

miker

 
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