GIVE US A KISS

Rating:
Summary: Humdinger noir kicks some downhome butt
Review: Can't get much better than this Woodrell guy--not when it comes to fusing violence with country living. Dag nabbit, they just go together like spittle on a backy-chewin geezer's whiskers. Woodrell is somethin' fresh and mean and lonesome and true in the land of the hardboiled. He takes you down a crick with Doyle Redmond, his protagonist, all cozied up with 19-year old Niagra, the daughter of Doyle's big brother Smoke, and when them two drift down that flowing water, heat just naturally gets turned up. Cause Niagra has flames lickin' up her legs--her sexy red boots--and Doyle's first look at 'em does him in. He's hooked.

Smoke's woman, Big Annie, cottons to Doyle in a sisterly/motherly way since he's her beau's brother and also after her daughter. The four of them harvest their dope (i.e., marijuana) cash crop which a pack of nasties, the Dollys, try to weasel in on. Take over, in fact. And, yes, it is a backwoods legendary feudin' thing--the Redmonds vs. the Dollys. The noir-ness of the book is not just this feud; it's Doyle's and Smoke's tendencies to feel things in the extreme.

This is a great read cause Woodrell is a mighty fine writer. He knows how to sling the right words, blend them smooth as you please in an eminently readable way. Most entertaining. A genuine pleasure, if you ask me.

Pick it up and have a dang good time.

Rating:
Summary: First get rid of all the other books!
Review: This guy is that good. Burke, Grisham, Norden, Hegwood, all you southern noir types go home. Woodrell is that good. This guy is a real writer's writer. A-1 on the jukebox and nowhere on the charts I guess. Give Us a Kiss displays a voice and style that harkens back to Faulkner, James M. Caine and Walker Percy. A true gem.

Rating:
Summary: A good time will be had by all. Read it!
Review: When our book club chose this book as part of its new author day, I thought "what kind of trash is this." But like a good shot of moonshine, it was revolting enough to leave its mark and tasty enough to make me want more. HOnestly, why hasn't this guy gotten his due? There is more slick writing, quirky characters and raunchy adventure i nthis book then many books twice its length. And with the lead character a sort of hillbilly writer/philosopher (that is not a contradiction in terms!) one has a narrator throughout the book who never fails to make you laugh. THe book centers around the adventures of Redmond Doyle, a hack writer who returns home to the Ozarks from a more "high falutin" environment, only to find out that you cannot escape your past or your roots. As he gets pulled into the inevitable feuds and violence that is part of Ozark lore, he wonders why he ever left in the first place.With plenty of fights, sex, hillbilly weirdness and the ramblings of the main character, the book is liike a canoe ride down the river in Deliverance. It will make you squeal like a pig!

Rating:
Summary: Country noir: A good one to start with
Review: With this novel Woodrell, author of the Shade detective books and a fantastic historical novel called WOE TO LIVE ON, really moved into a great, seldom explored terrain. Doyle and the rest of his clan are what some would call [bad people]. Hillbillies. Rednecks. Whatever. Any such simplistic term could be easily applied, but what these characteres really are is human beings. And this is certainlyu to Woodrell's credit.

If you've never read Woodrell before, I'd say start here. This book is a kind of half-way mark between his older crime novels and his more recent and absolutely amazing TOMATO RED and THE DEATH OF SWEET MISTER. Imagine if Jim Thompson had written more books like POP. 1280, HEED THE THUNDER, and NOW AND ON EARTH and you might be hitting close to what Woodrell's up to.

Doyle is a writer who, after ditchinghis old life, stealing his ex-wife's car (complete with bad makeshift paintjob), ends up in the Ozarks working on a cash crop scheme...with his brother Smoke and Smoke's lady friend Big Annie and, I wouldn't dare forget, Big Annie's daughter, Niagra. What ensues is lust, blood, and more than a few good twists to keep you hooked in right up to the end.

Now, this is not Woodrell's best. Since I'm not Woodrell I can only guess that with this novel he was still testing out this new territory. By the time TOMATO RED came along, hellfire, the guy was smokin'! Read this, then go on and read everything that's come along since, but also be sure to go back and check out WOE TO LIVE ON for a take on the Civil War that those history teachers would've hated to relate.

One last night, for just a plain old good time, check out the three Rene Shade novels. It's fun to see a writer develope from just good to downright spectacular.

Rating:
Summary: Country noir: A good one to start with
Review: With this novel Woodrell, author of the Shade detective books and a fantastic historical novel called WOE TO LIVE ON, really moved into a great, seldom explored terrain. Doyle and the rest of his clan are what some would call [bad people]. Hillbillies. Rednecks. Whatever. Any such simplistic term could be easily applied, but what these characteres really are is human beings. And this is certainlyu to Woodrell's credit.

If you've never read Woodrell before, I'd say start here. This book is a kind of half-way mark between his older crime novels and his more recent and absolutely amazing TOMATO RED and THE DEATH OF SWEET MISTER. Imagine if Jim Thompson had written more books like POP. 1280, HEED THE THUNDER, and NOW AND ON EARTH and you might be hitting close to what Woodrell's up to.

Doyle is a writer who, after ditchinghis old life, stealing his ex-wife's car (complete with bad makeshift paintjob), ends up in the Ozarks working on a cash crop scheme...with his brother Smoke and Smoke's lady friend Big Annie and, I wouldn't dare forget, Big Annie's daughter, Niagra. What ensues is lust, blood, and more than a few good twists to keep you hooked in right up to the end.

Now, this is not Woodrell's best. Since I'm not Woodrell I can only guess that with this novel he was still testing out this new territory. By the time TOMATO RED came along, hellfire, the guy was smokin'! Read this, then go on and read everything that's come along since, but also be sure to go back and check out WOE TO LIVE ON for a take on the Civil War that those history teachers would've hated to relate.

One last night, for just a plain old good time, check out the three Rene Shade novels. It's fun to see a writer develope from just good to downright spectacular.