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Hard Twisted
In May of 1934, outside of Hugo, Oklahoma, a homeless man and his thirteen-year-old daughter are befriended by a charismatic drifter, newly released from the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. The drifter, Clint Palmer, lures father and daughter to Texas, where the father, Dillard Garrett, mysteriously disappears, and where his daughter Lucile begins a one-year ordeal as Palmer's captive on a crime spree-culminating in the notorious Greenville, Texas "skeleton murder" trial of 1935. C. Joseph Greaves weaves a chilling tale of survival and redemption, encompassing iconic landscapes, historic figures, America's last Indian uprising, and one of the most celebrated criminal trials of the Public Enemy era, all rooted in the intensely personal story of a young girl's coming of age in a world as cruel as it is beautiful.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
12 people are currently reading
511 people want to read
About the author
C. Joseph Greaves
5 books9 followersSee also Chuck Greaves
Charles Joseph Greaves is an honors graduate of both the University of Southern California and Boston College Law School who spent 25 years as a Los Angeles trial lawyer before turning his talents to fiction.
HARD TWISTED (Bloomsbury), Chuck's debut historical/true-crime novel, was called "a taut and intriguing thriller" (London Sunday Times) and "a gritty, gripping read, and one that begs to be put on film" (Los Angeles Times.)
TOM & LUCKY AND GEORGE & COKEY FLO (Bloomsbury), Chuck's second historical/true-crime novel, recounts gangster Lucky Luciano's colorful and controversial 1936 vice trial and was named by the Wall Street Journal to its year-end uulist of the "Best Books of 2015." Tom & Lucky was also a finalist for both the Macavity Award from Mystery Readers International and the 2016 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction.
CHURCH OF THE GRAVEYARD SAINTS (Torrey House Press), Chuck's third work of literary fiction, was selected by six U.S. cities to launch their "Four Corners/One Book" regional reading program in 2019-2020. Of its central premise, Publishers Weekly wrote: "Can one go home again? Greaves explores this question with both passion and compassion, taking readers on a lyrical, vivid tour of the West."
In addition, Chuck publishes mystery fiction as Chuck Greaves. He has been a finalist for numerous national honors including the Shamus, Lefty, Reviewers Choice, and Audie Awards, as well as the New Mexico-Arizona, Colorado, and Oklahoma Book Awards. He is also a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the book critic for the Four Corners Free Press newspaper in Colorado, where he currently lives. You can visit him at www.chuckgreaves.com.
Charles Joseph Greaves is an honors graduate of both the University of Southern California and Boston College Law School who spent 25 years as a Los Angeles trial lawyer before turning his talents to fiction.
HARD TWISTED (Bloomsbury), Chuck's debut historical/true-crime novel, was called "a taut and intriguing thriller" (London Sunday Times) and "a gritty, gripping read, and one that begs to be put on film" (Los Angeles Times.)
TOM & LUCKY AND GEORGE & COKEY FLO (Bloomsbury), Chuck's second historical/true-crime novel, recounts gangster Lucky Luciano's colorful and controversial 1936 vice trial and was named by the Wall Street Journal to its year-end uulist of the "Best Books of 2015." Tom & Lucky was also a finalist for both the Macavity Award from Mystery Readers International and the 2016 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction.
CHURCH OF THE GRAVEYARD SAINTS (Torrey House Press), Chuck's third work of literary fiction, was selected by six U.S. cities to launch their "Four Corners/One Book" regional reading program in 2019-2020. Of its central premise, Publishers Weekly wrote: "Can one go home again? Greaves explores this question with both passion and compassion, taking readers on a lyrical, vivid tour of the West."
In addition, Chuck publishes mystery fiction as Chuck Greaves. He has been a finalist for numerous national honors including the Shamus, Lefty, Reviewers Choice, and Audie Awards, as well as the New Mexico-Arizona, Colorado, and Oklahoma Book Awards. He is also a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the book critic for the Four Corners Free Press newspaper in Colorado, where he currently lives. You can visit him at www.chuckgreaves.com.
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April 19, 2022
Hard Twisted tells of a failed homesteader, Dillard Garrett and his thirteen year old daughter Lucile, known as Lottie to her friends, who fall in with a newly released felon, Clint Palmer, in the dust bowl states of 1934.
Incapacitated by alcoholism, Garrettt disappears and Palmer takes Lucile along with him, renaming her Johnny Rae, implying that Garrett has gone on the run from a major crime. Palmer feeds an ignorant and innocent Johnny Rae as they travel in search of work and money, Palmer preferring the latter to the former, though neither are in easy supply, finally ending up in sheep country, where he takes a job herding.
The drought over the continent has affected the sheep country, too, and, the sheep have to be driven to and from the watered pasture, in contention with other ranchers and farmers. It ends in murder for which Palmer, who has fathered a child on Johnny Rae, is finally tried, with the girl as a prosecution witness.
Based on a true story, in its events at least, Hard Twisted echoes a couple of novels now forty years old - Charles Portis’s True Grit (1968), and Joe David Brown’s Addie Pray (1971, which was filmed as Paper Moon with Ryan and Tatum O’Neal in 1973), both about an older man travelling with a teenage girl, the first in search of justice, the second about confidence tricksters. If nothing else, Addie Pray and Hard Twisted bring home the damage done to a struggling people by those who break the law, their victims have nothing or next to nothing.
The real Lottie Garrett survived her ordeal with Clint Palmer, raised a family in Texas, finally dying in 1991. Perhaps she would not have told her tale as Joseph Greaves has told it, but this account of bleak struggle and retribution is definitely gripping.
Incapacitated by alcoholism, Garrettt disappears and Palmer takes Lucile along with him, renaming her Johnny Rae, implying that Garrett has gone on the run from a major crime. Palmer feeds an ignorant and innocent Johnny Rae as they travel in search of work and money, Palmer preferring the latter to the former, though neither are in easy supply, finally ending up in sheep country, where he takes a job herding.
The drought over the continent has affected the sheep country, too, and, the sheep have to be driven to and from the watered pasture, in contention with other ranchers and farmers. It ends in murder for which Palmer, who has fathered a child on Johnny Rae, is finally tried, with the girl as a prosecution witness.
Based on a true story, in its events at least, Hard Twisted echoes a couple of novels now forty years old - Charles Portis’s True Grit (1968), and Joe David Brown’s Addie Pray (1971, which was filmed as Paper Moon with Ryan and Tatum O’Neal in 1973), both about an older man travelling with a teenage girl, the first in search of justice, the second about confidence tricksters. If nothing else, Addie Pray and Hard Twisted bring home the damage done to a struggling people by those who break the law, their victims have nothing or next to nothing.
The real Lottie Garrett survived her ordeal with Clint Palmer, raised a family in Texas, finally dying in 1991. Perhaps she would not have told her tale as Joseph Greaves has told it, but this account of bleak struggle and retribution is definitely gripping.
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September 10, 2022I had great hopes for this one. It’s difficult to find historical fiction about Greenville, Texas, which is where I live. A book about that area set during the Great Depression sounded intriguing.
I don’t understand the recent trend of authors choosing not to use quotation marks in their writing. That’s why I jumped ship on this one pretty quickly; it became difficult to follow the story.
I don’t understand the recent trend of authors choosing not to use quotation marks in their writing. That’s why I jumped ship on this one pretty quickly; it became difficult to follow the story.
September 8, 2014
This novel is advertised as "a chilling tale of survival and redemption" and as "the intensely personal story of a young girl's coming of age." Neither claim is true, and if you pick up this book assuming the jacket copy is accurately portraying what you'll find in this novel, you'll be sadly disappointed, or perhaps incredibly frustrated. But if you put aside the false advertising, and evaluate the story for what it is, the frustration and disappointment disappear.
"Hard Twisted" is an artistic rendering of the TRUE STORY of a thirteen-year-old girl who suffered through an INCREDIBLE amount of hardship, first at the hands of her homeless, violent, and alcoholic father, and then at the hands of her father's murderer. The story begins in 1934, and follows the protagonist, the 13-year-old Lucile "Lottie" Garrett through a year of her life in captivity with a murdering ex-con who beheaded her father, kidnapped her, and for the next year of her life, the reader witnesses this man repeatedly rape her, beat her, impregnate her, leave her to the wolves when she miscarries her baby, eventually murder two men in front of her, and then land both of them in prison soon after.
In real life, Lottie Garrett was tried as a juvenile in the state of Texas and "convicted of associating with a known criminal." It was assumed she should have been aware that this murdering psychopath was already an ex-con, even though Lottie's father was a homeless man, and he and his daughter had been homeless for two years prior to meeting this killer. No one ever told Lottie that this man had spent years in prison, nor was she ever aware that he had killed her father before landing in jail. And yet, after her year as this pedophile's victim, Lottie was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Just take that in for a moment. A child who has known nothing but hardship and abuse, and spends a year living through all kinds of horrors with her father's murderer (the killer cut off her father's head with an ax, and then hid the body)-- this girl of 14 is put in prison for SEVEN YEARS. Why? Because she told the truth about what happened to her during her year with this killer, and, as stated, it was decided she "should have known" the psychopath who abducted her was a criminal, despite the fact that he lied to her and threatened her the entire time she was with him.
Throughout the novel, we are not privy to Lottie's thoughts or emotions, which is why this book cannot be classified as a "coming of age" tale. To advertise any story as such, the protagonist must grow up in some fashion. In this novel, while Lottie does miscarry a child in the story, very few details are given about the miscarriage, and almost no details are given about her changing body. Even less information is shared concerning her thoughts and emotions throughout the entire story, and by the time she gives her testimony in court, it is clear that Lottie Garrett is as confused and childish in her thinking as she was at the beginning of the book. She has gained no new clarity about herself or her relationship with her kidnapper. She has not grown up, or come of age, in any way that I could determine. And she doesn't reflect on her prison sentence at all, whether she views this as a terrible injustice or not.
Throughout the novel, Lottie Garrett possesses the intelligence and vivacity of a cow munching grain in a slaughterhouse, waiting for her turn to be bludgeoned, skinned, and rendered to pieces. Lottie is largely a vapid shell who serves the purpose of blinking stupidly out at the world, and through her eyes, an omniscient (and infinitely more intelligent) narrator provides the reader with beautiful sentences describing the scenery. Those beautiful sentences are the reason to read the book. This author, C. Joseph Greaves, is often compared to Cormac McCarthy, and here is an example of the prose in Hard Twisted, a scene involving Lottie and her kidnapper, many days before he murders her father: "They ate corn bread and Karo syrup straight from the pan, her head floating in the amber lamplight and the whiskey and the heat from the open firebox." (p. 30)
Here is another example, this time of the killer's father: "H.P. Palmer was a superannuated facsimile of his son, cord-thin and clear-eyed, his aquiline face fissured and deeply tanned."
Suffice it to say, Lottie Garrett could never describe anyone using the words "superannuated," "facsimile," aquiline," or "fissured," as she would have NO IDEA what those words mean. She is 13 and homeless when the story begins, has been raised on the Bible, and expresses herself with the crude and stunted vocabulary and grammar of an unschooled southerner.
Lottie Garrett is a passive observer of her own story, and most of the action of the novel takes place away from her, where the narrator can't describe what is happening in scene.
It was a challenge to decide how many stars to give this book. My personal enjoyment of the tale made this novel a 2-star book for me, as vapid and passive protagonists do not inspire me to turn pages, and overall, I was frustrated by Lottie. I couldn't understand what she was thinking or what she was feeling, so her dull-witted passivity was hard to stomach.
But I think this is the very point the author was trying to communicate. Most children who are denied an education, beaten and abused throughout childhood, and then kidnapped by a pedophile rapist murderer and forced through a year of incredible cruelty, would probably react the same way Lottie does-- clinging to the lies being fed to her, and never even realizing she could run away.
I think sharing this story is a very noble intention, and the prose is beautifully written. So that is why I rounded up with my stars, and gave the book 4 stars total. I admire authors who attempt to make art from something as brutal and ugly and tragic as the life of this child.
That said, I would like to add one more comment concerning this book. On p.209, "the parson Sunshine Smith" pays a visit to Lottie, and I read in the author's note that Sunshine Smith was also a real person. In the novel, Sunshine Smith pays a visit to Lottie along with two "Navajo elders," and their weird and appalling visit prompts her miscarriage to begin. Lottie doesn't blame her miscarriage on the bizarre and frightening things these men do to her right before blood begins to pour from between her legs, but I sure did. The cause-and-effect seemed obvious, and these men seemed evil and sadistic as a result. I don't know if the author intended me to be so disgusted by these three men, but I was. They only occupy 4 pages in the book, so their presence is brief, but extremely shocking, and as horrifying to me as the fact that Lottie was sentenced to seven years in prison by the state of Texas.
"Hard Twisted" is an artistic rendering of the TRUE STORY of a thirteen-year-old girl who suffered through an INCREDIBLE amount of hardship, first at the hands of her homeless, violent, and alcoholic father, and then at the hands of her father's murderer. The story begins in 1934, and follows the protagonist, the 13-year-old Lucile "Lottie" Garrett through a year of her life in captivity with a murdering ex-con who beheaded her father, kidnapped her, and for the next year of her life, the reader witnesses this man repeatedly rape her, beat her, impregnate her, leave her to the wolves when she miscarries her baby, eventually murder two men in front of her, and then land both of them in prison soon after.
In real life, Lottie Garrett was tried as a juvenile in the state of Texas and "convicted of associating with a known criminal." It was assumed she should have been aware that this murdering psychopath was already an ex-con, even though Lottie's father was a homeless man, and he and his daughter had been homeless for two years prior to meeting this killer. No one ever told Lottie that this man had spent years in prison, nor was she ever aware that he had killed her father before landing in jail. And yet, after her year as this pedophile's victim, Lottie was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Just take that in for a moment. A child who has known nothing but hardship and abuse, and spends a year living through all kinds of horrors with her father's murderer (the killer cut off her father's head with an ax, and then hid the body)-- this girl of 14 is put in prison for SEVEN YEARS. Why? Because she told the truth about what happened to her during her year with this killer, and, as stated, it was decided she "should have known" the psychopath who abducted her was a criminal, despite the fact that he lied to her and threatened her the entire time she was with him.
Throughout the novel, we are not privy to Lottie's thoughts or emotions, which is why this book cannot be classified as a "coming of age" tale. To advertise any story as such, the protagonist must grow up in some fashion. In this novel, while Lottie does miscarry a child in the story, very few details are given about the miscarriage, and almost no details are given about her changing body. Even less information is shared concerning her thoughts and emotions throughout the entire story, and by the time she gives her testimony in court, it is clear that Lottie Garrett is as confused and childish in her thinking as she was at the beginning of the book. She has gained no new clarity about herself or her relationship with her kidnapper. She has not grown up, or come of age, in any way that I could determine. And she doesn't reflect on her prison sentence at all, whether she views this as a terrible injustice or not.
Throughout the novel, Lottie Garrett possesses the intelligence and vivacity of a cow munching grain in a slaughterhouse, waiting for her turn to be bludgeoned, skinned, and rendered to pieces. Lottie is largely a vapid shell who serves the purpose of blinking stupidly out at the world, and through her eyes, an omniscient (and infinitely more intelligent) narrator provides the reader with beautiful sentences describing the scenery. Those beautiful sentences are the reason to read the book. This author, C. Joseph Greaves, is often compared to Cormac McCarthy, and here is an example of the prose in Hard Twisted, a scene involving Lottie and her kidnapper, many days before he murders her father: "They ate corn bread and Karo syrup straight from the pan, her head floating in the amber lamplight and the whiskey and the heat from the open firebox." (p. 30)
Here is another example, this time of the killer's father: "H.P. Palmer was a superannuated facsimile of his son, cord-thin and clear-eyed, his aquiline face fissured and deeply tanned."
Suffice it to say, Lottie Garrett could never describe anyone using the words "superannuated," "facsimile," aquiline," or "fissured," as she would have NO IDEA what those words mean. She is 13 and homeless when the story begins, has been raised on the Bible, and expresses herself with the crude and stunted vocabulary and grammar of an unschooled southerner.
Lottie Garrett is a passive observer of her own story, and most of the action of the novel takes place away from her, where the narrator can't describe what is happening in scene.
It was a challenge to decide how many stars to give this book. My personal enjoyment of the tale made this novel a 2-star book for me, as vapid and passive protagonists do not inspire me to turn pages, and overall, I was frustrated by Lottie. I couldn't understand what she was thinking or what she was feeling, so her dull-witted passivity was hard to stomach.
But I think this is the very point the author was trying to communicate. Most children who are denied an education, beaten and abused throughout childhood, and then kidnapped by a pedophile rapist murderer and forced through a year of incredible cruelty, would probably react the same way Lottie does-- clinging to the lies being fed to her, and never even realizing she could run away.
I think sharing this story is a very noble intention, and the prose is beautifully written. So that is why I rounded up with my stars, and gave the book 4 stars total. I admire authors who attempt to make art from something as brutal and ugly and tragic as the life of this child.
That said, I would like to add one more comment concerning this book. On p.209, "the parson Sunshine Smith" pays a visit to Lottie, and I read in the author's note that Sunshine Smith was also a real person. In the novel, Sunshine Smith pays a visit to Lottie along with two "Navajo elders," and their weird and appalling visit prompts her miscarriage to begin. Lottie doesn't blame her miscarriage on the bizarre and frightening things these men do to her right before blood begins to pour from between her legs, but I sure did. The cause-and-effect seemed obvious, and these men seemed evil and sadistic as a result. I don't know if the author intended me to be so disgusted by these three men, but I was. They only occupy 4 pages in the book, so their presence is brief, but extremely shocking, and as horrifying to me as the fact that Lottie was sentenced to seven years in prison by the state of Texas.
December 24, 2012
Hard Twisted by C. Joseph Greaves is an impressive fictional account of the real people Clint Palmer and Lottie Garrett. It is 1934 when 13 year old Lottie and her father, Dillard, meet Clint, a charming drifter, they both end up moving to Texas with him where Dillard suddenly disappears and Lottie is essentially kidnapped and left to depend on Clint, a psychopathic killer and sexual predator, during a year long ordeal. The narrative is told from Lottie's point of view as she and Clint end up traveling together across the southwest and subsequently covers what may have happened in the John’s Canyon Murder and the “skeleton murder trial” of the Depression Era. Excerpts from a fictional trial are interspersed with Lottie's story.
In the Author's Note and Acknowledgements, Greaves notes: "Hard Twisted, although based upon real people and true events, is entirely a work of fiction. My first exposure to the saga of Clint Palmer and Lottie Garrett came in somewhat dramatic (Location 2770-2773)....That chance discovery began a personal odyssey that would play out in fits and starts over fifteen-odd years, setting me onto the trail of what I would come to regard as one of the great, untold stories of the American West. (Location 2776-2777).
When researching for the book, Greaves notes something that Lottie and her father didn't know: "Clint Palmer was a sexual predator and a career criminal who, when he first encountered young Lottie Garrett in May of 1934, was only four months removed from his latest incarceration, a three-year stint in the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, for kidnapping, statutory rape, and violating the Mann Act. (Location 2854-2856)"
While still in manuscript, Hard Twisted was named Best Historical Novel in the Southwest Writers 2010 International Writing Contest, a well deserved honor. Hard Twisted is clearly a very atmospheric novel and the setting plays a role in Lucille's isolation and dependence on Clint. Although the reader knows from the beginning that something is going to go very wrong, the suspense grows as Lucille begins to figure out Clint's true nature while totally dependent upon him. Greaves does a great job with the historical setting and placing Lucille in the period.
Alas, there is nothing new under the sun. While we tend to think people are worse now, there were always those among us who are sociopaths and do not follow societal rules and norms. It is chilling to know that this is based on a true story. I also personally found the fictional trial questioning Lottie as some sort of femme fatale rather depressing. I would hope and pray that we have come a long way beyond blaming a victim.
Highly recommended - especially if you enjoy historical fiction set in the Depression.
http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/
Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Bloomsbury and Netgalley for review purposes.
In the Author's Note and Acknowledgements, Greaves notes: "Hard Twisted, although based upon real people and true events, is entirely a work of fiction. My first exposure to the saga of Clint Palmer and Lottie Garrett came in somewhat dramatic (Location 2770-2773)....That chance discovery began a personal odyssey that would play out in fits and starts over fifteen-odd years, setting me onto the trail of what I would come to regard as one of the great, untold stories of the American West. (Location 2776-2777).
When researching for the book, Greaves notes something that Lottie and her father didn't know: "Clint Palmer was a sexual predator and a career criminal who, when he first encountered young Lottie Garrett in May of 1934, was only four months removed from his latest incarceration, a three-year stint in the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, for kidnapping, statutory rape, and violating the Mann Act. (Location 2854-2856)"
While still in manuscript, Hard Twisted was named Best Historical Novel in the Southwest Writers 2010 International Writing Contest, a well deserved honor. Hard Twisted is clearly a very atmospheric novel and the setting plays a role in Lucille's isolation and dependence on Clint. Although the reader knows from the beginning that something is going to go very wrong, the suspense grows as Lucille begins to figure out Clint's true nature while totally dependent upon him. Greaves does a great job with the historical setting and placing Lucille in the period.
Alas, there is nothing new under the sun. While we tend to think people are worse now, there were always those among us who are sociopaths and do not follow societal rules and norms. It is chilling to know that this is based on a true story. I also personally found the fictional trial questioning Lottie as some sort of femme fatale rather depressing. I would hope and pray that we have come a long way beyond blaming a victim.
Highly recommended - especially if you enjoy historical fiction set in the Depression.
http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/
Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Bloomsbury and Netgalley for review purposes.
December 6, 2012
very nice dust bowl noir, reminiscent of thompson Pop. 1280 and thompson and franklin Smonk among others. so desperatly poor folks, looking for a solution or at least a square meal perhaps let their hunger twist right and wrong, and if you eat when you are hungry, what's wrong with that, even if you have to hoodwink, rob, murder, for your beans. so pyschopath, his 13 year old "wife", and on the lam, end up in evertt ruess country, herding sheep, of all things. Everett Ruess: His Short Life, Mysterious Death, and Astonishing Afterlife . so what do you do when you've run out of road? well, go cross-country! fun murders, chickenfights, decapitated skeleton murder trials, indian horse races, being on the road with the joads! this fast-reading and true-to-life novel has lots to enjoy. Waltzing With the Ghost of Tom Joad: Poverty, Myth, and Low-Wage labor in OklahomaBig Wheat: A Tale of Bindlestiffs and Blood (2nd thompson cite from above)
well, blast, my citations got all twinned up, here is another good evertt ruess book
Finding Everett Ruess: The Life and Unsolved Disappearance of a Legendary Wilderness Explorer
well, blast, my citations got all twinned up, here is another good evertt ruess book
Finding Everett Ruess: The Life and Unsolved Disappearance of a Legendary Wilderness Explorer
October 8, 2014
It's 1934, and 13 year old Lottie Garrett and her father run into Clint Palmer, charismatic and seductive, but bad through and through. Palmer convinces them to join him as he travels to Texas, but after several misadventures he informs Lottie that her father has left town and that they should do likewise, in order to meet up with him.
Alongside this history is the evidence Lottie is giving in a case against Clint Palmer for murder.
These are the two main threads of the story, both heading towards each other further on in the book, but this is not all the book is about. To me it is the story of a naïve girl, brought up with limited education, no maternal influence, a bullying father who uses the bible to tell her what she shouldn't do in life, and no ability to defend herself against the men who continually take advantage of her, whether it be sexually, emotionally, or as an outlet for their aggression.
A sorry story indeed, but one that is told with a lyrical, authentic sounding voice, and in a style that gathers momentum as the fugitives find themselves travelling from state to state, as Clint would have it, like Bonnie and Clyde. A gripping read that is more than just a crime spree novel, or a thriller, a western or a social commentary.
Alongside this history is the evidence Lottie is giving in a case against Clint Palmer for murder.
These are the two main threads of the story, both heading towards each other further on in the book, but this is not all the book is about. To me it is the story of a naïve girl, brought up with limited education, no maternal influence, a bullying father who uses the bible to tell her what she shouldn't do in life, and no ability to defend herself against the men who continually take advantage of her, whether it be sexually, emotionally, or as an outlet for their aggression.
A sorry story indeed, but one that is told with a lyrical, authentic sounding voice, and in a style that gathers momentum as the fugitives find themselves travelling from state to state, as Clint would have it, like Bonnie and Clyde. A gripping read that is more than just a crime spree novel, or a thriller, a western or a social commentary.
July 13, 2013
On vacation in Durango, CO, this summer. Any small town with a book store is a great small town, and I spent some time in Marie's Bookshop, talking to staff members. When I travel west I look for western literature. The staff member directed me to a number of authors and books unfamiliar to me, but she kept coming back to Hard Twisted by Joseph Greaves. I'm glad she twisted my arm. This is a fictionalized account of a true story of kidnapping and murder in the 1930's, ranging from New Mexico, to Colorado, Texas and Utah. Beautifully written but a tough subject of murder and mayhem. After researching the facts of the case, Greaves does a remarkable job of trying to describe the personalities and motivations of the characters. His descriptions of the landscapes are breathtaking.
August 16, 2017
Very enjoyable and easy read.
January 21, 2013
This book was recommended to me by my fiance, who won it in a Goodreads drawing. He highly recommended it and I will pay it forward by offering my review and recommendation here.
Hard Twisted is the story of 13-year-old Lottie and her father, two people just barely scraping by in the 1930's. They have a chance encounter with Clint, who unbeknownst to Lottie and her father, has a less-than-savory past. Initially, Clint appears to be able to offer Lottie experiences that her own father can't offer her, which is one reason her father allows her to spend time with Clint unchaperoned. In addition, Clint is a con man and thus able to gain Lottie's father's trust quickly.
I won't give away much in my review but I will say that although the book is a work of fiction based on a true story, the entire book rings true. It's told from Lottie's perspective, a perspective that is naive and wary at the same time. Clint appeals to the young girl in her, the girl who wants to have another girl to play with and to ride horses with but quickly reveals himself to be not at all who he seems to be. Lottie's perspective is believeable, tragic, and sad. The reader is privvy to more experience and knowledge and from the reader's perspective it's difficult to understand how she could fall into her situation so seamlessly. On one hand, the reader wonders how Lottie can so easily accept Clint's explanations for events and on the other hand the reader wonders what else Lottie could have done, given her isolation and inexperience. The author does a good job of getting in Lottie's head, for lack of a better phrase, and telling us the story from the perspective of someone who was once innocent but had her innocence shattered by a man who had dark motives in life.
The author provides description of the land that Lottie and Clint pass through and evokes images from an old Western movie. He also evokes some feeling of what a day-to-day existence might have felt like back in that time, hoboing and camping at will and never knowing where the next meal might come from.
Hard Twisted is a dark novel, one that reminds the reader that there are always people like Clint, people who will manipulate and lie for their own gain. Knowing that the novel is based on events that actually happened makes the story that much more chilling.
Hard Twisted is the story of 13-year-old Lottie and her father, two people just barely scraping by in the 1930's. They have a chance encounter with Clint, who unbeknownst to Lottie and her father, has a less-than-savory past. Initially, Clint appears to be able to offer Lottie experiences that her own father can't offer her, which is one reason her father allows her to spend time with Clint unchaperoned. In addition, Clint is a con man and thus able to gain Lottie's father's trust quickly.
I won't give away much in my review but I will say that although the book is a work of fiction based on a true story, the entire book rings true. It's told from Lottie's perspective, a perspective that is naive and wary at the same time. Clint appeals to the young girl in her, the girl who wants to have another girl to play with and to ride horses with but quickly reveals himself to be not at all who he seems to be. Lottie's perspective is believeable, tragic, and sad. The reader is privvy to more experience and knowledge and from the reader's perspective it's difficult to understand how she could fall into her situation so seamlessly. On one hand, the reader wonders how Lottie can so easily accept Clint's explanations for events and on the other hand the reader wonders what else Lottie could have done, given her isolation and inexperience. The author does a good job of getting in Lottie's head, for lack of a better phrase, and telling us the story from the perspective of someone who was once innocent but had her innocence shattered by a man who had dark motives in life.
The author provides description of the land that Lottie and Clint pass through and evokes images from an old Western movie. He also evokes some feeling of what a day-to-day existence might have felt like back in that time, hoboing and camping at will and never knowing where the next meal might come from.
Hard Twisted is a dark novel, one that reminds the reader that there are always people like Clint, people who will manipulate and lie for their own gain. Knowing that the novel is based on events that actually happened makes the story that much more chilling.
September 28, 2013
Hmm....This happens with a lot of novels, I've been noticing: they start out with force, a distinctive voice, an intriguing story and characters, then stall. The plot isn't the problem but whatever inspired the author to put these story and characters together--whatever world he wanted to invoke. He doesn't entirely.
"Hard Twisted" mixes the 1930s outlaw story (a la Bonnie and Clyde) with "Lolita." The love between the girl Lottie and her "protector"-abductor Palmer is occasionally touching. It is more complicated, anyway, than the trial that frames their story can possibly make out. But Greaves wastes too much of our attention on the cause of the trial--the murdering and pillaging --which doesn't ultimately matter. Palmer is nuts whether he's hacking people's heads off or not. Greaves ends the novel with an amazing assessment of the species of love: spiritual, familial, carnal. It gobsmacked me with its wisdom and unexpectedness. But why didn't he do more with it before then? Until the end, Lottie's faith seemed more compulsive than anything else, like saying "please" and "thank you" as you've been brought up. Her regard toward her father, whose appearance in the novel is spotty, is polite, and Greaves kindly does not tell us much about the man and girl's carnal relations except that you know it's happening (she ends up pregnant). But these are all part of the popular imagination of the 1930s : the fact that poor, rural Americans were more likely to take on Christian faith than not; that the relationship with the father was formal and distant; that a girl would be at the mercy of older men if she didn't have a family and/or money to protect her. To make it interesting--to make it justify the novel's last sentences--the story would have had to weave this wisdom into itself, thus rise out of its movieland common notions about the period. It doesn't quite. But I didn't mind reading it, either. Greaves is good at capturing the inadvertent wisdom of the innocent--Lottie.
"Hard Twisted" mixes the 1930s outlaw story (a la Bonnie and Clyde) with "Lolita." The love between the girl Lottie and her "protector"-abductor Palmer is occasionally touching. It is more complicated, anyway, than the trial that frames their story can possibly make out. But Greaves wastes too much of our attention on the cause of the trial--the murdering and pillaging --which doesn't ultimately matter. Palmer is nuts whether he's hacking people's heads off or not. Greaves ends the novel with an amazing assessment of the species of love: spiritual, familial, carnal. It gobsmacked me with its wisdom and unexpectedness. But why didn't he do more with it before then? Until the end, Lottie's faith seemed more compulsive than anything else, like saying "please" and "thank you" as you've been brought up. Her regard toward her father, whose appearance in the novel is spotty, is polite, and Greaves kindly does not tell us much about the man and girl's carnal relations except that you know it's happening (she ends up pregnant). But these are all part of the popular imagination of the 1930s : the fact that poor, rural Americans were more likely to take on Christian faith than not; that the relationship with the father was formal and distant; that a girl would be at the mercy of older men if she didn't have a family and/or money to protect her. To make it interesting--to make it justify the novel's last sentences--the story would have had to weave this wisdom into itself, thus rise out of its movieland common notions about the period. It doesn't quite. But I didn't mind reading it, either. Greaves is good at capturing the inadvertent wisdom of the innocent--Lottie.
February 22, 2013
As usual I received this book from GoodReads as part of a giveaway. Also as usual, despite the very kind and generous consideration of getting a free book, I give my candid opinions below.
Hard Twisted is a wonderfully dark, gritty and true-to-life portrait of a young girl fallen in with the wrong crowd in the 1930s west. She is taken on a forced trip from town to town, one step ahead of the law until.... the ultimate resolution which I will not be so unkind as to reveal.
Greaves' novel combines several wonderful aspects of the historical novel. He is truthful as he draws from real events and paints with a brush which includes much local color and language. This all adds quite nicely to the keen and simmering hatred the reader builds for the antagonist over the book's 300 pages.
Our author's writing is, admittedly, at times very dense and I found myself starting over after 50 pages just to begin again and give the book more focused attention. This is not a novel to be read in tiny sessions. Give it two solid hours or don't bother until tomorrow. Greaves' prose is delicious, dense and satisfying but should be savored in large chunks that let you immerse yourself rather than in fits and starts.
Pondering to whom to pass this book next, I bumped it quickly to the top of the pile of books I designate as recommended to my fiancee to read next. Its delightful language and sympathetic characters are, I hope, a perfect choice for her literary tastes. Any reader who delights in deep and meaningful writing that takes a bit of effort will enjoy this work.
To summarize, Hard Twisted is a fictional account of a difficult time in American history that rings true in a way that few novels of the type do. While sometimes dense it is none the less a deeply satisfying and entertaining example of the genre.
Hard Twisted is a wonderfully dark, gritty and true-to-life portrait of a young girl fallen in with the wrong crowd in the 1930s west. She is taken on a forced trip from town to town, one step ahead of the law until.... the ultimate resolution which I will not be so unkind as to reveal.
Greaves' novel combines several wonderful aspects of the historical novel. He is truthful as he draws from real events and paints with a brush which includes much local color and language. This all adds quite nicely to the keen and simmering hatred the reader builds for the antagonist over the book's 300 pages.
Our author's writing is, admittedly, at times very dense and I found myself starting over after 50 pages just to begin again and give the book more focused attention. This is not a novel to be read in tiny sessions. Give it two solid hours or don't bother until tomorrow. Greaves' prose is delicious, dense and satisfying but should be savored in large chunks that let you immerse yourself rather than in fits and starts.
Pondering to whom to pass this book next, I bumped it quickly to the top of the pile of books I designate as recommended to my fiancee to read next. Its delightful language and sympathetic characters are, I hope, a perfect choice for her literary tastes. Any reader who delights in deep and meaningful writing that takes a bit of effort will enjoy this work.
To summarize, Hard Twisted is a fictional account of a difficult time in American history that rings true in a way that few novels of the type do. While sometimes dense it is none the less a deeply satisfying and entertaining example of the genre.
February 12, 2013
Greaves writes very descriptively of the Depression and the historical figures associated with it. What he seems to lack is an empathy for his own characters. This makes sense since he was a lawyer and parts of the book are written in trial format. It is a bit too harsh for me but then again that reflects the time it is supposed to be depicting! I can see why it won an award for historical novel however the main characters of Lucille, Dillard Garrett are not fleshed out enough for me. The ruthlessness of Clint Palmer is shown well by his raping and kidnapping Lottie (Lucille) away from her father. It is obvious Greaves visited the places he describes for his descriptions of places are done much better than that of people. Considering he had to dig long and deep to find out about the real live case it is no wonder he does not show the characters in more detail. For my part though that is a huge disappointment. The one bit where he seems to give Lucille more a sense of humanity is near the end of the book when she is pregnant at the age of thirteen due to her rape by Palmer. She is paging through the Montgomery ward catalog and sees a doll. Folding over the page like a child wishing for a toy she could never have she exclaims: "I sure would like me a doll someday."
October 20, 2013
I'm a descendant of the men who were killed in Utah. I read this book, knowing it was fiction but very interested to put some kind of face to my great, great grandfather's murderer. I think Greaves did a fine job of creating that face. I enjoyed that the story surrounded Lottie's journey and that the story didn't really focus on Palmer's crimes.
After ruminating for a day about what I read, I've been wondering if this really was who Lottie was. It's nice to think of her as a naive, sweet, little girl who had her innocence stollen but I'm wondering if that really was the case. I don't know. I don't know that it matters.
The book was an interesting read. I enjoyed the dust bowl view and when the journey turned to Colorado and Utah, I found quite a few words I needed to look up. I always enjoy learning new words, so that was fun!
After ruminating for a day about what I read, I've been wondering if this really was who Lottie was. It's nice to think of her as a naive, sweet, little girl who had her innocence stollen but I'm wondering if that really was the case. I don't know. I don't know that it matters.
The book was an interesting read. I enjoyed the dust bowl view and when the journey turned to Colorado and Utah, I found quite a few words I needed to look up. I always enjoy learning new words, so that was fun!
October 20, 2013
Hard Twisted, by C. Joseph Greaves, is the riveting tale of a young girl and an amoral older man set during the depression era. The story takes place in desolate small towns, camps and outposts in the southwest and west and is told through a combination of trial transcripts and through the eyes of the different characters in the story.
The book is a work of fiction, but it's based on actual events. The author's haunting writing style lays out the story slowly and the horror of the events the book memorializes come more clearly into focus with each passing chapter.
Hard Twisted is an ambitious, beautifully written book that tells a chilling story. Highly recommended.
The book is a work of fiction, but it's based on actual events. The author's haunting writing style lays out the story slowly and the horror of the events the book memorializes come more clearly into focus with each passing chapter.
Hard Twisted is an ambitious, beautifully written book that tells a chilling story. Highly recommended.
September 14, 2015
oud Amerikaanse schrijfstijl en soms zeer onduidelijk door gebrek aan namen (he did this. maar wie "he" is). ook doordat er " ontbraken en nog andere redenen. verhaal opzich was wel zeer goed, maar moeilijk om te doorgronden.
January 12, 2022
In an imaginary and brief bit of court transcript from the trial of Clint Palmer at the start of Hard Twisted, C. Joseph Greaves zooms in on a critical issue. Was 14-year-old Lottie Lucille Garrett married to Palmer? Did they not live together for several months? Between the lines of the lawyer’s questions, it’s easy to tell what he’s thinking: was she only a victim?
And then he asks Lottie: Did you “cohabitate?”
“Did what?” replies Lottie on the stand.
“Cohabitated,” says the lawyer. “Lived under the same roof.”
“Well,” replies Lottie. “There weren’t no roof to speak of.”
Indeed. The vast majority of Hard Twisted is outdoors, on the move—a hardscrabble, meandering route through the Dust Bowl and tough times of Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. We’re in the 1930’s.
After the opening excerpt from the trial (the first of many throughout the novel), Greaves immediately set us down on the roadside with Lottie and her father and paints the scene with this gorgeous paragraph:
“They followed the Frisco tracks with their bodies bent and hooded, the pebbling wind audible on the back of her father’s old mackinaw. To the west, a line of T-poles stretched to a dim infinity before a setting sun that melted and bled and blended its sanguinary light with the red dirt and with the red dust that rose up like Hell’s flame in towering streaks and whorls to forge together earth and sky.”
We are smack into the moment. Harsh conditions, campfires, cockfighting, scavenging for food and hope. Greaves gives us casual introductions to father and daughter and they quickly hitch a ride from a guy named Palmer who, Lottie thinks, looks “fiercely defiant.”
Lottie is not wrong. First impressions, in this case, do not lie.
Drawn on the famous “Skeleton Murder” trial of 1935, and all the events that led up to Clint Palmer’s trial, Hard Twisted takes us on a suspenseful, taut trip that puts Lottie and her captor Clint Palmer on the edge of survival. And, given Palmer’s fiercely defiant nature, moments of confrontation, violence, and murder.
Hard Twisted is earthy, rough, raw, and rugged. Once Dillard is out of the picture, the vast majority of the novel is Lottie and Palmer on the move. The states and cities change, but not the feeling of restlessness, lawlessness, and searching for food, shelter, and trouble.
“Oklahoma City, Shamrock, Amarillo. Long and flat horizons. Vast plains shrouded in dust clouds that billowed and raged and swallowed the Buick, dimming their headlamps and forcing them to the side of the road. Then, clear nights with cow towns and Okie campfires twinkling like starlight to the farthest edge of nothing.”
Palmer takes what he wants, brutalizes or bullies those in his way, and is always looking to take advantage. Palmer understands himself all too well.
He tells Lottie: “I’ve been in some hard places in my life and I seen some things no man ought to have seen. I know that don’t excuse what I’ve done, but a dog that’s been kicked too much, well, he’s liable to bite and scratch when he ought to be a’ lickin and a’ waggin his tail. And that’s me right there in a nutshell.”
Is Lottie trapped? Could she have tried harder to escape, to signal for help? Lottie’s got her head down, focused on the next meal or next situation and it’s hard to say that life beyond Palmer’s grim world is any less unscrupulous. Or mean. In the context of the times, and the wide open spaces of the American West, where civilization is a loose notion, Lottie’s options are few. The search for the spot where she might have crossed the line into Palmer’s sociopathic, amoral life is very much like a search for that dim infinity.
Hard Twisted is a finely wrought and downright memorable read.
And then he asks Lottie: Did you “cohabitate?”
“Did what?” replies Lottie on the stand.
“Cohabitated,” says the lawyer. “Lived under the same roof.”
“Well,” replies Lottie. “There weren’t no roof to speak of.”
Indeed. The vast majority of Hard Twisted is outdoors, on the move—a hardscrabble, meandering route through the Dust Bowl and tough times of Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. We’re in the 1930’s.
After the opening excerpt from the trial (the first of many throughout the novel), Greaves immediately set us down on the roadside with Lottie and her father and paints the scene with this gorgeous paragraph:
“They followed the Frisco tracks with their bodies bent and hooded, the pebbling wind audible on the back of her father’s old mackinaw. To the west, a line of T-poles stretched to a dim infinity before a setting sun that melted and bled and blended its sanguinary light with the red dirt and with the red dust that rose up like Hell’s flame in towering streaks and whorls to forge together earth and sky.”
We are smack into the moment. Harsh conditions, campfires, cockfighting, scavenging for food and hope. Greaves gives us casual introductions to father and daughter and they quickly hitch a ride from a guy named Palmer who, Lottie thinks, looks “fiercely defiant.”
Lottie is not wrong. First impressions, in this case, do not lie.
Drawn on the famous “Skeleton Murder” trial of 1935, and all the events that led up to Clint Palmer’s trial, Hard Twisted takes us on a suspenseful, taut trip that puts Lottie and her captor Clint Palmer on the edge of survival. And, given Palmer’s fiercely defiant nature, moments of confrontation, violence, and murder.
Hard Twisted is earthy, rough, raw, and rugged. Once Dillard is out of the picture, the vast majority of the novel is Lottie and Palmer on the move. The states and cities change, but not the feeling of restlessness, lawlessness, and searching for food, shelter, and trouble.
“Oklahoma City, Shamrock, Amarillo. Long and flat horizons. Vast plains shrouded in dust clouds that billowed and raged and swallowed the Buick, dimming their headlamps and forcing them to the side of the road. Then, clear nights with cow towns and Okie campfires twinkling like starlight to the farthest edge of nothing.”
Palmer takes what he wants, brutalizes or bullies those in his way, and is always looking to take advantage. Palmer understands himself all too well.
He tells Lottie: “I’ve been in some hard places in my life and I seen some things no man ought to have seen. I know that don’t excuse what I’ve done, but a dog that’s been kicked too much, well, he’s liable to bite and scratch when he ought to be a’ lickin and a’ waggin his tail. And that’s me right there in a nutshell.”
Is Lottie trapped? Could she have tried harder to escape, to signal for help? Lottie’s got her head down, focused on the next meal or next situation and it’s hard to say that life beyond Palmer’s grim world is any less unscrupulous. Or mean. In the context of the times, and the wide open spaces of the American West, where civilization is a loose notion, Lottie’s options are few. The search for the spot where she might have crossed the line into Palmer’s sociopathic, amoral life is very much like a search for that dim infinity.
Hard Twisted is a finely wrought and downright memorable read.
April 30, 2020
There are many parallels to Lolita in this story. We have the unsavoury man and the girl, who just left her preteen years, going on an American road trip after the death/killing of the teen's parent. A road trip which is described in great detail with all the sights, smells, colours, sunsets/rises, and so on, in such drawn out detail, that you can tell that the authors of both books had travelled those roads personally and documented every step.
As grandiose as the writing was in this book, it does become tedious to read that much detail and occasionally have to stop to look up a word, but, in other parts of the book the writing does lift the scene and make the dreadful setting of depression-era USA and the awful character of Clint Palmer interesting to read about. The writing alone almost makes this a perfect book, but the obvious similarities to Nabokov's Lolita only forces the comparison which highlights its inferiority to the classic.
As grandiose as the writing was in this book, it does become tedious to read that much detail and occasionally have to stop to look up a word, but, in other parts of the book the writing does lift the scene and make the dreadful setting of depression-era USA and the awful character of Clint Palmer interesting to read about. The writing alone almost makes this a perfect book, but the obvious similarities to Nabokov's Lolita only forces the comparison which highlights its inferiority to the classic.
September 15, 2018
Incredible prose and a breathtaking view into a time and event that is mindboggling, terrible, and intriguing all at once.
September 24, 2018
Dark.. edgy
Good
Good
January 31, 2013
The Great Depression is one of those eras in history that has been depicted in books and movies over and over again. Perhaps it's the obvious case of the more dire the circumstances in which people must find a way to survive, the more opportunity there is to explore those extremes, to consider how it is that the best and worst in people can emerge at times of great distress. It's also a period that lends itself to a certain style of cinematic portrayal, dark, dirty, deprived, depressed, it's hard not to think grey and bleak.
There is something cinematic about HARD TWISTED which incorporates lyrical passages of writing and descriptions, creating a sense of that grey bleakness. It provides a very realistic feeling of a dire world in which lives are lived on the extremes of hardship and people struggle with the endless grind of hunger and homelessness with no obvious way out. It's a story that resonates through lots of hard economic times.
Winner of the Best Historical Novel of 2010 in the South West Writers International Writing Contest, there are strong echoes here of other classic depression and hard-times based fiction with dysfunctional worlds, people on the move, on the lookout constantly for a way out, some relief from the inevitability. Told mostly from the viewpoint of 13-year-old Garrett, HARD TWISTED is the story of an ex-con, hustler, charismatic charmer who is really a dangerous, murderous psychopath. It's also the story of a 13-year-old girl in an impossible situation.
The book employs a number of different viewpoints and timeframes. Much of it is the direct relating of current day events, mostly from Garrett's viewpoint, interspersed with the voices of other characters. Parts of the book are introduced by snippets of testimony at what is obviously a trial, the nature of which is revealed as the book progresses.
There is much to admire about this book, and yet, there were problems which meant that this reader often found herself lost and fighting a growing sense of disinterest. Which confounded me completely. Whilst there is absolutely no doubt that the word pictures being drawn were beautifully done, there was something indistinguishable about the character's voices, not helped at all by a total lack of quotation marks to indicate what was / wasn't dialogue. No idea why, all it did was make me toil backwards a lot - checking what / who / said / observed / saw / did / didn't. Confused... moi... frequently.
That confusion meant that whilst the multiple questions of why - why he did what he did / why she stayed - the interesting and instructive bits, especially as you knew who, and what wasn't that hard to work out, kept disappearing. It was disappearing into beautiful, dense, poetic, lyrical writing no doubt about that, but it was there, just out of reach, for so much of the book whilst this reader worked backwards and forwards through the text, trying to get focus.
Maybe it was ultimately that I came away from HARD TWISTED feeling like I'd been invited to a party where everybody else spoke in a different language. Beautiful to listen to, lovely to watch people interact, no idea why I was there. I got so bored with the constant tracking backwards and forwards, with the low-key, laid back glacial advancement, with the cleverness of the structure that I got frustrated with myself. It's doubtful that anybody else is going to have that reaction - the authority with which the time period is described, the way that the life is so beautifully drawn, undeniably mean it's going to be a book that other readers are just going to get. As much as I kept thinking I should be loving this book, I didn't loathe it, but I certainly obviously didn't get it.
http://www.austcrimefiction.org/revie...
There is something cinematic about HARD TWISTED which incorporates lyrical passages of writing and descriptions, creating a sense of that grey bleakness. It provides a very realistic feeling of a dire world in which lives are lived on the extremes of hardship and people struggle with the endless grind of hunger and homelessness with no obvious way out. It's a story that resonates through lots of hard economic times.
Winner of the Best Historical Novel of 2010 in the South West Writers International Writing Contest, there are strong echoes here of other classic depression and hard-times based fiction with dysfunctional worlds, people on the move, on the lookout constantly for a way out, some relief from the inevitability. Told mostly from the viewpoint of 13-year-old Garrett, HARD TWISTED is the story of an ex-con, hustler, charismatic charmer who is really a dangerous, murderous psychopath. It's also the story of a 13-year-old girl in an impossible situation.
The book employs a number of different viewpoints and timeframes. Much of it is the direct relating of current day events, mostly from Garrett's viewpoint, interspersed with the voices of other characters. Parts of the book are introduced by snippets of testimony at what is obviously a trial, the nature of which is revealed as the book progresses.
There is much to admire about this book, and yet, there were problems which meant that this reader often found herself lost and fighting a growing sense of disinterest. Which confounded me completely. Whilst there is absolutely no doubt that the word pictures being drawn were beautifully done, there was something indistinguishable about the character's voices, not helped at all by a total lack of quotation marks to indicate what was / wasn't dialogue. No idea why, all it did was make me toil backwards a lot - checking what / who / said / observed / saw / did / didn't. Confused... moi... frequently.
That confusion meant that whilst the multiple questions of why - why he did what he did / why she stayed - the interesting and instructive bits, especially as you knew who, and what wasn't that hard to work out, kept disappearing. It was disappearing into beautiful, dense, poetic, lyrical writing no doubt about that, but it was there, just out of reach, for so much of the book whilst this reader worked backwards and forwards through the text, trying to get focus.
Maybe it was ultimately that I came away from HARD TWISTED feeling like I'd been invited to a party where everybody else spoke in a different language. Beautiful to listen to, lovely to watch people interact, no idea why I was there. I got so bored with the constant tracking backwards and forwards, with the low-key, laid back glacial advancement, with the cleverness of the structure that I got frustrated with myself. It's doubtful that anybody else is going to have that reaction - the authority with which the time period is described, the way that the life is so beautifully drawn, undeniably mean it's going to be a book that other readers are just going to get. As much as I kept thinking I should be loving this book, I didn't loathe it, but I certainly obviously didn't get it.
http://www.austcrimefiction.org/revie...
November 20, 2013
I really liked Hard Twisted; it's a cross between Egan, The Worst Hard Time (a great book about the 30s Dust Bowl) and when Zach De La Rocha in Rage Against the Machine sings, The Ghost of Tom Joad, because there are so many levels going on here.
In real life, the author found some skulls lying in the desert, and then after years of research, he based this book on his retelling of the facts of a 1935 murder case.
Mostly, this story is the story of the life of a young woman. In that sense, it reminds me of Camus, The Stranger, or Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis, because the life of a young woman in America in 1935 was sort of like digging yourself out of Dante's seventh circle of hell, but more of an existentialist hell. You may just assume that if you bend over to wash the clothes, there will be an available man there to rape you, and another relative nearby to beat you with a belt for being a whore. Just growing up female looked to me like it made cowboys, indians, and farmers look weak, in comparison.
Rated PG-13 for extreme, nonchalant violence and torture.
In real life, the author found some skulls lying in the desert, and then after years of research, he based this book on his retelling of the facts of a 1935 murder case.
Mostly, this story is the story of the life of a young woman. In that sense, it reminds me of Camus, The Stranger, or Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis, because the life of a young woman in America in 1935 was sort of like digging yourself out of Dante's seventh circle of hell, but more of an existentialist hell. You may just assume that if you bend over to wash the clothes, there will be an available man there to rape you, and another relative nearby to beat you with a belt for being a whore. Just growing up female looked to me like it made cowboys, indians, and farmers look weak, in comparison.
Rated PG-13 for extreme, nonchalant violence and torture.
December 8, 2012
RECEIVED FREE FROM GOODREADS. this impressive fictional recounting of Depression-era drifter Clint Palmer's real-life killing spree, told largely from the limited perspective of his 13-year-old girlfriend, Lottie Lucile Garret. Soon after the homeless Lottie meets him on the road in Oklahoma, her father disappears, and Lottie finds herself traveling alone with Clint through the American Southwest, gradually realizing that the ex-con is not just a charismatic, amoral hustler but a murderous psychopath. Their aimless, often harrowing odyssey sketches out a picture of 1934 — 1935 America struggling to cling to bedrock Christian values in the face of a precarious daily existence. , this crime tale at times too closely recalls antecedents, from Horace McCoy to Cormac McCarthy, but otherwise shows Greaves as a strong literary voice who can render period with authority and violence without sensationalism.
October 8, 2013
I received this book from Goodreads First Reads giveaway. This book was a little strange for me. The writing was different than anything I had read before. But since I had recently taken a road trip through Monument Valley, Mexican Hat, Blanding and through southern Colorado, the events really hit home with me. The setting and places in the book were very vivid in my mind. The story was very intriguing. I also agree with some of the other reviewers. It is not a "start and stop" book. The tone loses effect if you don't keep with it. 4 stars. Thank you Goodreads for the opportunity to read and review this book.
June 9, 2013
Disturbing story based on real-life events that played out in America's dusty Four Corners area in 1934-5.
Excellent writing, although at times Lottie and Palmer's endless travelling becomes tedious. As a non-American reader I struggled with some of the references, and I really didn't enjoy the lack of quote marks to indicate dialogue.
But that was all I didn't like. America in the Great Depression was a harsh place and my heart broke for Lottie - simultaneously cowed and innocent - and her suffering at the hands of the men in her life.
Clint's character was best drawn by the events around the gold tooth... The sinister blend of caring, revenge and opportunism took my breath away.
Excellent writing, although at times Lottie and Palmer's endless travelling becomes tedious. As a non-American reader I struggled with some of the references, and I really didn't enjoy the lack of quote marks to indicate dialogue.
But that was all I didn't like. America in the Great Depression was a harsh place and my heart broke for Lottie - simultaneously cowed and innocent - and her suffering at the hands of the men in her life.
Clint's character was best drawn by the events around the gold tooth... The sinister blend of caring, revenge and opportunism took my breath away.
February 18, 2014
I liked this book- if it were possible to give a 3.5 stars, I would. C. Joseph Greaves is a talented writer, and I had never heard an account of the true story this book is based on.
The only thing I really felt lacking was the exploration of the feelings the characters had for each other. In the end, the heroine gives testimony against her captor, with whom she had conceived and lost a child. Was she kidnapped? Held against her will? Did she love him? None of that really ever felt very clear to me, and in the end it sort of felt like a shift (I care, but now I'd like to see him hang).
So, in the end, it was a good book and I enjoyed it.
The only thing I really felt lacking was the exploration of the feelings the characters had for each other. In the end, the heroine gives testimony against her captor, with whom she had conceived and lost a child. Was she kidnapped? Held against her will? Did she love him? None of that really ever felt very clear to me, and in the end it sort of felt like a shift (I care, but now I'd like to see him hang).
So, in the end, it was a good book and I enjoyed it.
September 19, 2015
Living in the area where this all happened, it was an interesting read due to the historical content. However, I found the writing itself to be too simplistic, as if the author was toning it down for those who had a basic reading skill.
With Lottie, at first I pitied what was happening to her; as the story progressed though, I felt she became a willing participant, not the victim of "Stockholm Syndrome" as some have thought. It was the conversations with the prosecuting attorney that showed an underlying intelligence she had developed, and how to get out of the situation without being tried for murder.
With Lottie, at first I pitied what was happening to her; as the story progressed though, I felt she became a willing participant, not the victim of "Stockholm Syndrome" as some have thought. It was the conversations with the prosecuting attorney that showed an underlying intelligence she had developed, and how to get out of the situation without being tried for murder.
January 7, 2013
This book started a bit slowly but turned out to be an enjoyable and exciting read. It became even more interesting after reading the author's notes at the end of the book and finding out that most of it is true. The book is a fictionalized account of an actual murder kidnapping case that took place during the 1930's.
One fact that was particularly interesting to me was the potential relationship of this case to the disappearance of Everett Ruess, a young artist and explorer who was never found. (see the book Finding Everett Ruess).
One fact that was particularly interesting to me was the potential relationship of this case to the disappearance of Everett Ruess, a young artist and explorer who was never found. (see the book Finding Everett Ruess).
January 14, 2013
Based on a true story from the dirty thirties, this fictional account is so well-researched, so well-written that I recommend it highly. It concerns the crimes of one Clint Palmer and the young girl that he abducted/coerced into travelling with him throughout the west on his crime spree. Even though it is a fictionalization of their travels, it has the ring of truth throughout. You can easily imagine yourself as thirteen year old Lottie, hard-scrabble poor, alone with this psychotic killer. A magnificent achievement.
May 25, 2015
The author was a trial lawyer, so this book is written in a way that you need to use more brain power to comprehend what is happening. Not everything is spelled out for you and if you add to it the change of the main character names, it makes it harder to scan if you don’t have a lot of time, but still want to know how the story ends.
For those who oppose language and situations true to the characters and time, you might not appreciate the story as much. With that being said, it is a great read for those who like mysteries and historical fiction with Utah roots.
For those who oppose language and situations true to the characters and time, you might not appreciate the story as much. With that being said, it is a great read for those who like mysteries and historical fiction with Utah roots.
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