Caldo Largo

Rating:
Summary: Don't care if I do die, do die . . .
Review: After reading "A Garden of Sand", I scoured the bookstores looking for more titles by Earl Thompson. Fortunately, I was able to find all four. Unfortunately, Earl died before he could write more. Perhaps, it's fitting that his books (which seem to represent a thinly veiled depiction of his actual life) died with him. I know of few people who could have survived the traumatic and dysfunctional life that Earl's main characters lived.

Caldo Largo was one of the last books that Earl wrote, however, it does not lack the verve and grit that permeate all of his novels. It tells of the life of a shrimp boat owner in Brownsville, Texas in the early 1960's.

Scenes and characters depicted in Caldo Largo seem so real you can almost taste, smell, and feel them. The plot line is nothing that fits any "formula" novel, unless you compare it with other Thompson novels. I could best describe Caldo Largo as a mix between Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath with all the dirty parts left in, lots of fajita flavoring, and a little Shakespearean introspection (or psychosocial character analysis if you will).

I only wish I had kept all my Thompson novels. They're probably worth quite a lot now. I had to throw them out when I got married since my wife insisted they were pornography. But, if you get past all the sex, drugs, and violence, you'll actually appreciate the books finer points like its wonderful descriptive writing, character development, rhythm, and strange sense of truth and justice in pithy human relations.

So for you Shakespeare fans, read it for the deeper themes. For those of you who can't stand the Bard, read it for fun and adventure.

Rating:
Summary: FUNNY, SALTY, FISHY, SEXY... WITH A SHOT OF TEQUILA
Review: Korean war vet buy a boat and becomes a shrimper in texas...his loves, his struggles, his close encounters of the sexual kind. Kind of a cross between Forrest Gump and To Have Not...but much better then both! Read it and laugh and cry. A book you will recommend but never loan out!