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El senyor de les tenebres
En Joe Market és rei i esclau alhora. Esclau perquè la seva família sap quina mena de justícia reserven els blancs per als negres. Rei perquè, després de l’assassinat de la mare, el pare funda una religió de negres per a negres en què en Joe serà l’escollit, el Deixeble Nu. Junts recorren el sud dels Estats Units exhibint la seva fe, entregant el seu cos en sacrifici. Fugint de la traïció i la violència, Joe Market reneix al nord, on lliurarà una lluita existencial contra si mateix i contra el món.
El senyor de les tenebres és la més gran de les novel·les ocultes nord-americanes del segle XX. La seva lectura és frenètica, indòmita i plena de revolts: ara drama, ara sàtira, més enllà novel·la bèl·lica, pornogràfica, d’intriga. Va carregada d’esvorancs morals i punts de no retorn estremidors, del tot inconcebibles. Al capdavall, «El senyor de les tenebres» és una tragèdia grega —una tragèdia negra— en temps de linxaments, disturbis racials, els assassinats de Kennedy, Malcom X i Luther King. L’època del Vietnam. També és el revers obscur i delirant de la vida de Crist.
El lector que gosi abocar-se a aquest abisme tenebrós descobrirà una veritat ambivalent, terrible. I descobrirà Hal Bennett, l’oblidat autor d’aquest llibre, un escriptor a l’altura de Ralph Ellison, Jean Genet i Louis-Ferdinand Céline.
El senyor de les tenebres és la més gran de les novel·les ocultes nord-americanes del segle XX. La seva lectura és frenètica, indòmita i plena de revolts: ara drama, ara sàtira, més enllà novel·la bèl·lica, pornogràfica, d’intriga. Va carregada d’esvorancs morals i punts de no retorn estremidors, del tot inconcebibles. Al capdavall, «El senyor de les tenebres» és una tragèdia grega —una tragèdia negra— en temps de linxaments, disturbis racials, els assassinats de Kennedy, Malcom X i Luther King. L’època del Vietnam. També és el revers obscur i delirant de la vida de Crist.
El lector que gosi abocar-se a aquest abisme tenebrós descobrirà una veritat ambivalent, terrible. I descobrirà Hal Bennett, l’oblidat autor d’aquest llibre, un escriptor a l’altura de Ralph Ellison, Jean Genet i Louis-Ferdinand Céline.
376 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
20 people are currently reading
2814 people want to read
About the author
Hal Bennett
18 books16 followersGeorge Harold "Hal" Bennett (1936 – 2004),[1][2] was an author known for a variety of books. His 1974 novel Lord of Dark Places was described as "a satirical and all but scatological attack on the phallic myth",[3] and was reprinted in 1997. He was Playboy's most promising writer of the year [1]. He has also written under the pen names Harriet Janeway and John D. Revere (the Assassin series). His books are sometimes compared to Mark Twain's style of satire, but contain a much stronger sexual tone.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews
April 23, 2023
This book was hilarious.
Hal Bennett is one of the most fearless afro-american writers. Too bad that he didn't get the recognition he deserved.
I understand that this book is obscene, but it is hard to accept that such talent got lost in the 70s.
Hal Bennett is one of the most fearless afro-american writers. Too bad that he didn't get the recognition he deserved.
I understand that this book is obscene, but it is hard to accept that such talent got lost in the 70s.
May 21, 2023
Blimey… what to say about this book?!
Firstly, if you’re easily offended (by pretty much anything!) then probably best to stay away. (Or perhaps not! As Clifford Sargent said on YouTube, you’ll probably get the most out of it!)
Racism, homophobia, misogyny, blasphemy, pornography, incest, even bestiality… they’re all here. And I’m only just touching the surface.
Hal Bennett, I think, uses all these shock tactics to comment on humanity and the state of society in 1960s United States. A time of change, protests and riots.
It is a deeply intense read. But one that I think is worth it, if you can stomach it. Every reader is bound to be upset, a little shocked, at some point, by something - even from our modern, jaded perspectives.
And it isn’t all bad. Bennett has a wicked sense of wit, and if you can see the humour in the darkness then you’re gonna have a much better time!
I definitely think this work deserves more recognition. I discovered it via Better Than Food YouTube reviews. I’ve not even seen much said about it on GoodReads.
Tread with caution, but do read it!
Firstly, if you’re easily offended (by pretty much anything!) then probably best to stay away. (Or perhaps not! As Clifford Sargent said on YouTube, you’ll probably get the most out of it!)
Racism, homophobia, misogyny, blasphemy, pornography, incest, even bestiality… they’re all here. And I’m only just touching the surface.
Hal Bennett, I think, uses all these shock tactics to comment on humanity and the state of society in 1960s United States. A time of change, protests and riots.
It is a deeply intense read. But one that I think is worth it, if you can stomach it. Every reader is bound to be upset, a little shocked, at some point, by something - even from our modern, jaded perspectives.
And it isn’t all bad. Bennett has a wicked sense of wit, and if you can see the humour in the darkness then you’re gonna have a much better time!
I definitely think this work deserves more recognition. I discovered it via Better Than Food YouTube reviews. I’ve not even seen much said about it on GoodReads.
Tread with caution, but do read it!
Want to read
May 11, 202212/10/21 How I found this book. I check in with the Video Blogger "Better Than Food" pretty frequently and have for years. The guy who runs the site gave this book the strongest review I've ever seen. Which you can view here: The Most Intense Book I've Ever Read.
This is the same reviewer who turned me onto Hard Rain Falling which I loved.
He doesn't review new books. He just looks for the most impactful books from present day to the back of beyond. Both of these books are in that second category. Both are fairly undiscovered, especially Hal Bennet.
This is the same reviewer who turned me onto Hard Rain Falling which I loved.
He doesn't review new books. He just looks for the most impactful books from present day to the back of beyond. Both of these books are in that second category. Both are fairly undiscovered, especially Hal Bennet.
September 22, 2023
Hal Bennett is an African American who stands alongside with the giants of this medium, like Ralph Ellison. This year I read a historical fantasy novella called Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark. The author of that work is a historian who specializes in comparative slavery and emancipation in the Atlantic World. Though that work tackles Jim Crow, the KKK, and the film The Birth of a Nation, it conveys the black experience and real-life struggles they went through, which is the beauty of fiction being transported into this era and seeing it through the lens of the characters. It almost feels like Hal Bennett took that Jim Crow archetype and created one of the most uncomfortable characters you will ever read about. It almost feels like he wrote a character of what white folks thought of black people, but it goes so extremely to the point of being a black satire.
Despite its 285-page length, it explores many genres that it could feel overwhelming (yet handled wonderfully): A black comedy, detective story, Southern Gothic, Vietnam story and its obvious religious allegory of the birth of Christ. It's a book I can recognise is a masterpiece and explores everything the author intends to his utmost ability. As Ronald Walcott states:
So, I will do my best to talk about this novel: First, you will be reading about Joe's phallus a lot of the time. This aspect is polarising and very deliberate, ironically, this carries a lot of meaning throughout the text. It isn't exaggerating to say it's a character of its own. His phallus is named differently for each monumental phase in his life. It simply represents death. It's interesting as it's in juxtaposition with being regarded as a black messiah, a new Jesus Christ. This is part of the cleverness of Hal Bennett, he takes an absurdist approach in the novel, but it's a framework to explore deeper questions, hence the title of the book:
How does a black man interpret the Bible, where they live in a world of such oppression, inferiority, brutality, and so much more. There's a reason for all the black preachers, because how do you rationalise it? This book questions it, and surprisingly, there are a lot of intelligent debates throughout. It’s probably part of the reason why this book tackles so many genres, to convey the black experience in its entirety through one man instead of depicting one stage of a black man's life.
Another element in which this book excels is the exploration of addiction and a mentally ill individual. Joe’s addiction to sex and drugs the latter, I felt, could have been explored more deeply, but still, the point felt it came across. Joe is using drugs to ease his pain. Though in general, it’s just a brilliant exploration of a man where everything went wrong for him, and he often made the wrong choices in life (even when he had the opportunity to turn a new leaf). Certain dramatic events scarred him for life. which is mainly shown in the beginning stages of the book: the death of his mother, the time he played the infant Jesus in a church play with the Virgin Mary (people who read the book will know what I mean), and sadly, rape. Those 3 events are forever imbedded in his mind and shape the way he views the world, as well as his own self-perception as the black messiah.
My favourite element of the book would have to be the Vietnam portion, the author handled it rather tastefully, and how Joe regards America as a country. It’s one of the most defining moments of his life. It’s so immersive and lived in, it’s like you in the middle of this chaos, not understanding the purpose of one's duty.
As a whole, the book felt like a lived-in experience, I’m doubtful Hal Bennett is a messed up individual like Joe, but a lot of it was probably based on his observations of the South as he lived during that period and had parents who were direct witnesses to that experience. Hal had a lot to say, and I think he wrote a powerful novel to explore what he wanted to say and spread. If there’s one element that was a miss for me, it would be the comedy, and that’s mainly after part 2, prior to which it was a dark comedy, but after one specific event, I found it tough to laugh or smile. Some surprisingly poignant scenes and discussion happened after Part 2, sure, but Joe as a whole, I felt disgust. I’m glad the novel is a short one as I couldn’t take being in the mind of Joe for longer. That said, it never felt random, it was all in character, there’s a rhyme and reason for all his actions, it was just super disturbing.
In conclusion, this is technically a masterpiece, though I can’t rate it that. However, it's a book that is worth reading. It’s a great read and an intriguing experience, it’s tough to recommend one casually, but if you're interested in digging deeper into African American literature, its status as a cult classic is for good reason. I don’t regret reading this book, and thank you to the friend who bought it for me, as I probably wouldn’t have read this book otherwise.
8/10
Despite its 285-page length, it explores many genres that it could feel overwhelming (yet handled wonderfully): A black comedy, detective story, Southern Gothic, Vietnam story and its obvious religious allegory of the birth of Christ. It's a book I can recognise is a masterpiece and explores everything the author intends to his utmost ability. As Ronald Walcott states:
"[Hal Bennett] one of the most original and gifted black satirists to come along since Wallace Thurman” (Black World and Contemporary Literary Criticism).
So, I will do my best to talk about this novel: First, you will be reading about Joe's phallus a lot of the time. This aspect is polarising and very deliberate, ironically, this carries a lot of meaning throughout the text. It isn't exaggerating to say it's a character of its own. His phallus is named differently for each monumental phase in his life. It simply represents death. It's interesting as it's in juxtaposition with being regarded as a black messiah, a new Jesus Christ. This is part of the cleverness of Hal Bennett, he takes an absurdist approach in the novel, but it's a framework to explore deeper questions, hence the title of the book:
When the Bible says black, I say white. When it says good, I say evil. When it says, Behold, Jehovah is a God of Light, I say, Behold, He is the Lord of dark places, for his children gnash their teeth and cry unto Him and are not heard."
How does a black man interpret the Bible, where they live in a world of such oppression, inferiority, brutality, and so much more. There's a reason for all the black preachers, because how do you rationalise it? This book questions it, and surprisingly, there are a lot of intelligent debates throughout. It’s probably part of the reason why this book tackles so many genres, to convey the black experience in its entirety through one man instead of depicting one stage of a black man's life.
Another element in which this book excels is the exploration of addiction and a mentally ill individual. Joe’s addiction to sex and drugs the latter, I felt, could have been explored more deeply, but still, the point felt it came across. Joe is using drugs to ease his pain. Though in general, it’s just a brilliant exploration of a man where everything went wrong for him, and he often made the wrong choices in life (even when he had the opportunity to turn a new leaf). Certain dramatic events scarred him for life. which is mainly shown in the beginning stages of the book: the death of his mother, the time he played the infant Jesus in a church play with the Virgin Mary (people who read the book will know what I mean), and sadly, rape. Those 3 events are forever imbedded in his mind and shape the way he views the world, as well as his own self-perception as the black messiah.
My favourite element of the book would have to be the Vietnam portion, the author handled it rather tastefully, and how Joe regards America as a country. It’s one of the most defining moments of his life. It’s so immersive and lived in, it’s like you in the middle of this chaos, not understanding the purpose of one's duty.
As a whole, the book felt like a lived-in experience, I’m doubtful Hal Bennett is a messed up individual like Joe, but a lot of it was probably based on his observations of the South as he lived during that period and had parents who were direct witnesses to that experience. Hal had a lot to say, and I think he wrote a powerful novel to explore what he wanted to say and spread. If there’s one element that was a miss for me, it would be the comedy, and that’s mainly after part 2, prior to which it was a dark comedy, but after one specific event, I found it tough to laugh or smile. Some surprisingly poignant scenes and discussion happened after Part 2, sure, but Joe as a whole, I felt disgust. I’m glad the novel is a short one as I couldn’t take being in the mind of Joe for longer. That said, it never felt random, it was all in character, there’s a rhyme and reason for all his actions, it was just super disturbing.
In conclusion, this is technically a masterpiece, though I can’t rate it that. However, it's a book that is worth reading. It’s a great read and an intriguing experience, it’s tough to recommend one casually, but if you're interested in digging deeper into African American literature, its status as a cult classic is for good reason. I don’t regret reading this book, and thank you to the friend who bought it for me, as I probably wouldn’t have read this book otherwise.
8/10
June 5, 2024
He saw very clearly now that the basic conflict in America is between her people and her government, and that much of the hostility between blacks and whites is a direct result of the government's practice of reducing democracy to the level of nonsense in order to raise big business to the level of government.
This 1970 novel, which only recently came to my attention, is outrageous, provocative, daring, insightful, over-the-top, salacious, wise, pornographic, spiritual, shocking, and pretty damn funny. It has serious moments and lots of sex, most of which play out stereotypes concerning black men. The entire novel should have a trigger warning, and seems to have been written in order to amuse some segments of the population and outrage or discomfort others.
Sprinkled among the sexual situations, are extensive ruminations on spirituality (the protagonist as a young man is presented as a naked prophet, being the embodiment of the divine) and race relations in 1960s America (as in the quote extracted above).
One discouraging element in novels from the 1960s and 1970s is how little things have changed in the last 50 or 60 years.
If this novel were published today, it would be a satirical sensation and a controversial bestseller. Many times I wondered — could such an outrageous novel even be published today? Instead, it was published in 1970 and has been largely forgotten.
Thanks to someone here on Goodreads who brought this novel to my attention. Let me rephrase that—thanks to everyone here on Goodreads!
This 1970 novel, which only recently came to my attention, is outrageous, provocative, daring, insightful, over-the-top, salacious, wise, pornographic, spiritual, shocking, and pretty damn funny. It has serious moments and lots of sex, most of which play out stereotypes concerning black men. The entire novel should have a trigger warning, and seems to have been written in order to amuse some segments of the population and outrage or discomfort others.
Sprinkled among the sexual situations, are extensive ruminations on spirituality (the protagonist as a young man is presented as a naked prophet, being the embodiment of the divine) and race relations in 1960s America (as in the quote extracted above).
One discouraging element in novels from the 1960s and 1970s is how little things have changed in the last 50 or 60 years.
If this novel were published today, it would be a satirical sensation and a controversial bestseller. Many times I wondered — could such an outrageous novel even be published today? Instead, it was published in 1970 and has been largely forgotten.
Thanks to someone here on Goodreads who brought this novel to my attention. Let me rephrase that—thanks to everyone here on Goodreads!
February 13, 2013
Without a doubt one of the strangest books I have ever read. It sort of like Faulkner meets Iceberg Slim with Gay overtones. Also I can't believe that this book is not better known. It's comes from a dark place - so the title is not off at all. Not at all.
January 5, 2022
One of the best if not THE best book I’ve ever read.
Powerful. Deliberate. Intensely gripping.
Also criminally unknown. Those who have read it seem to sing praises about it yet it goes largely unseen to many readers. I owe my knowledge of this book to Clifford Lee Sargent (forgive me if I misspelled your name sir) and his YouTube channel Better Than Food Book Reviews.
I really struggle now to express how much of an impact this book has on me. It’s use of prose, setting, detailed characters, humour, drama and sheer intensity sets this book apart from many other southern gothic books in ways that really need to be experienced and felt rather than described.
You owe it to yourself to read this underground masterpiece. Truly, TRULY, this is a work of art. I can’t wait to reread this in the future and be in awe all over again.
Powerful. Deliberate. Intensely gripping.
Also criminally unknown. Those who have read it seem to sing praises about it yet it goes largely unseen to many readers. I owe my knowledge of this book to Clifford Lee Sargent (forgive me if I misspelled your name sir) and his YouTube channel Better Than Food Book Reviews.
I really struggle now to express how much of an impact this book has on me. It’s use of prose, setting, detailed characters, humour, drama and sheer intensity sets this book apart from many other southern gothic books in ways that really need to be experienced and felt rather than described.
You owe it to yourself to read this underground masterpiece. Truly, TRULY, this is a work of art. I can’t wait to reread this in the future and be in awe all over again.
November 5, 2025
One of the best books I’ve ever read. The reason is simple: Mr. Bennett’s fingers never trembled on the keys.
It’s brutal, fearless, and written with the kind of conviction that makes you flinch and smile at once.
Joe isn’t just a character — he’s a reflection of the worst in each of us, the parts we’d rather laugh at than face.
Joe Joe Joe Joe Joe!!!
It’s brutal, fearless, and written with the kind of conviction that makes you flinch and smile at once.
Joe isn’t just a character — he’s a reflection of the worst in each of us, the parts we’d rather laugh at than face.
Joe Joe Joe Joe Joe!!!
March 30, 2022
This might be the only book that’s ever made me involuntarily say “Holy fuck” out loud
August 14, 2022
Not much is known about African-American author Hal Bennett. His most well-known, yet still obscure, novel is titled Lord of Dark Places. Despite rave reviews from almost everyone who has ever read it, it is still off the radar for most bibliophiles. Maybe it is too transgressive, too ugly, too gut-wrenching for most readers. Maybe some people are too weak to follow a story in which the main character is a villain, an anti-hero, albeit with a certain kind of charm, who is also a Black man struggling with the turmoil of his inner-mind, a psychological space that is neither comforting nor inviting. Maybe those critics and scholars who set themselves up as gatekeepers of intellectualism don’t want us to see this side of the African-American experience. Those kinds of people should be ignored, or at least sidelined enough so that they don’t steal the thunder that Hal Bennett and this novel deserve.
As the story begins, we are taken into the deep south where the twelve year old Joe Market is fishing in a creek. The prose is rooted in the Southern Gothic style and immediate comparison to William Faulkner is legitimate, but that elder statesman of Southern fiction never dragged his readers into the gutters of perversion the way Hal Bennett does. Comparisons with Jean Genet also spring to mind as Joe’s father Titus comes to tell him that his mother just died while he was having sex with her. The father goes on to rape Joe, and, to the reader’s probable surprise, Joe admits that he secretly enjoyed it. Throughout the course of the novel, Joe repeatedly returns to this memory along with one other memory, the time he played the infant Jesus in a church play with the Virgin Mary, acted by a prostitute who he would later sleep with.
While those three events had a powerful impact on the development of Joe Market’s mind, there is something else that permanently shapes and ruins his self-perception. His father declares himself the prophet of a new African-American religious movement and takes his son with him. The two of them travel around the South, preaching in revival tents until the spectacle at the end of each meeting is revealed: Joe takes off his clothes, stands naked in front of the audience, showing them his enormous penis while Titus tells the audience that, for a small fee, anybody can have some private time with the young boy to bask in his divine glory. In actuality, this means Titus is pimping his twelve year old son who has sex with every customer be they young old, male, female, gay, straight, or anything else. The long term effect of this is that Joe grows into adulthood thinking his sexuality has a divine special purpose (I’m not sure if Steve Martin lifted this joke in The Jerk from Hal Bennett or not), and even worse, Joe deludes himself into thinking he is a black messiah, a new Jesus Christ.
Semiotically speaking, Joe’s phallus is a signifier that carries a lot of meaning with it throughout the entire novel. During childhood, Joe’s father teaches him to call it by the name “Willy”. After Joe settles in New Jersey, he re-christens it with the more northern and more adult-sounding name “Dick”. Finally, around the time he meets his bride-to-be, he renames it “Christopher” after the Catholic saint. He also names his son “Christopher” after his own penis. Through the use of male names and name-changes, Joe’s penis is personified, taking on a personality of its own, a centralized object in his life, almost becoming an entire character in itself. The name changes represent stages of growth in Joe’s life and as the novel progresses, it becomes obvious that the erect phallus connotes and associates itself with death. The life-giving, creative force of masculinity is, when wielded by Joe Market, inverted into a tool of destruction, slaughtering all who come into contact with it like a machine gun gone out of control.
In terms of semiotics, another key observation to make at this point is the absence or presence of boundaries. Within the confines of African-American sexuality, and within the Black community in general, Joe Market lives without boundaries. He has sex with anybody who pays for it and goes even farther by having sex with his father on a routine basis. In one graphic scene, father and son have male on male on female sex with a prostitute. But when encountering the white community, Joe is confronted with boundaries that humiliate and confuse him. In New Orleans, he encounters a white woman who insists on having sex with him, but she will only allow him to penetrate her through the barrier of a metal fence, a boundary he is able to see through but not cross. The fence is a barrier he can partially penetrate but it also restrains him at the same time. Afterwards, Joe goes away feeling frustrated, confused, and scared especially because the white woman threatens to call up a lynch mob if he reuses to have sex with her. The world he sees on her side of the fence, and what she says and does on that side, is one he can not fully comprehend, let alone participate in. Between the white woman and her fence, he feels accepted and unaccepted in her world simultaneously.
The other significant encounter Joe has with the white world is when Tony Brenzo enters the scene. While Joe is working as a gay street hustler in New Jersey, Tony, a vice squad cop, decides to arrest him. After pleading for mercy, Tony agrees not to book him if he enrolls in school and finishes his high school education. This is done and the two go on to become best friends. Tony’s main concern is that nobody has ever respected Joe for his mind, only taking interest in his body, particularly his penis. Tony may seem like an angel at this point, but as the story goes on, he becomes a little more complicated. As a cop he is honest when it comes to arresting murderers, robbers, and other hard criminals, but when it comes to smoking pot and having sex with prostitutes, quite often in threesomes with Joe, his morals are a little bit lax. Hal Bennett had a true talent for portraying the complexities of his characters’ minds; everyone in the book has inner conflicts and moral ambiguities like Tony’s and this goes a long way in making each one of them take on a distinct life of their own. By the end of the book, you feel as if Joe, his friends, and the people in his neighborhood are people you actually know.
While in nigh school, Joe meets his future wife Odessa, a pretty, morally upright church-going girl under the strict domination of her mother. Joe sees her as an opportunity to go straight, in more ways than one, and they later have a son together.
During Odessa’s pregnancy. Joe joins the army with his closeted gay friend Lamont. They get sent off to the war in Vietnam which turns out to be a traumatic experience for Joe. But before joining the army, Joe was getting lost on the straight and narrow path he had undertaken. He began smoking more marijuana than anyone could imagine a man being able to handle and he begins losing his mind. He hatches a bizarre scheme to kidnap and kill his boss’s pet turkey in order to convince Lamont to join the army with him (trust me, it makes more sense when you read the book for yourself), but when he is holding the dead turkey in his arms, he begins to think of it as a crucified messiah. It is at this point that the author begins to plummet the depths of Joe’s twisted psyche.
The war is traumatic for two reasons. One is that he sees an African-American airplane pilot die after being shot in the crotch. Joe is bothered by this because he sees a Black man entering death in a state without sex, neither man nor woman; the wound where his genitals used to be is neither penis nor vagina. From then on, Joe becomes obsessed with his own penis and struggles internally with his own sexuality, especially in his attraction to men. Then during a combat operation, Joe shoots a Vietnamese man. Here we see how he begins to suppress his emotions and embrace his identity as a dealer of death. At first he feels guilty and sick to his stomach, but he suppresses these feelings. From that point on, he goes through the same cycle every time his behavior results in someone else’s pain or death: killing then guilt then stoic unemotionalism. His constant pot-smoking and sexual intercourse help him to escape from anything negative he might feel.
After Joe returns from the war, his infant son Christopher ends up dead in his crib. Joe blames Odessa for this and begins abusing her physically and emotionally in some of the most heartbreaking passages of the novel. But nobody ever said this was going to be a cheerful read. Other bad things happen too. Tony asks Joe to be an informer a heroin dealing case that might involve Joe’s boss, neighbor, and sometimes sexual partner China Doll. Tony and Joe also grow closer together as romantic partners while other people die and Joe’s life continues to spiral out of control. Finally, China Doll has an orgy at her house on Halloween night that turns into the wildest ending you might ever read in a novel. It is at this orgy that we get the deepest insight into the confusion of Joe Market’s mind and once we get these insights we can also see there is a twisted moral code, shocking in its revelation, that Joe follows. In his mind, he does terrible things to people because he wants to save them from the world. He hurts people to help them. When he kills, he thinks he is saving people from the agony of life. Note that Sethe in Toni Morrison’s Beloved has a similar motivation when she murders her own daughter. When Joe beats Odessa, he does so because he loves her; he thinks he is no good for her and he wants her to leave him for a husband who is better. Joe is the Divine Redeemer and Savior who does terrible things to good people for the sake of liberation from the horrible world we live in, or so Joe tells himself in the tumultuous haze of his inner mind. This is sad because Joe’s friends all love him. He is charming, fun, and charismatic; the people around him see a lot of potential that he is unable to see in himself. And they are not entirely wrong. As a reader you will find him to be a monster, but through understanding his tortured soul, you still might find an ounce of sympathy for him despite yourself.
Lord of Dark Places has its share of flaws. Some passages are sloppy, some events seem haphazard and improbable. There are a couple loose threads in the story lines. But the strengths of the book are so powerful that these minor problems have little impact in the end. Bennett takes a lot of chances, almost too many it might seem. As a life story and character study of Joe Market, it is hard to pinpoint what the maain theme of the book actually is. It combines pornography and transgression with commentaries on race relations, gender issues, psychology, the atrocity of war and violence, and the general existential dread you might feel when confronting the bigger picture of the world. It examines identity in relation to sexuality, masculinity, bisexuality, and the African-American community. It takes a nuanced look at police relations with Black people. It addresses the issue of what it means for members of any race to be American. There is even a noir-like murder-mystery subplot that comes in more than half way through the novel. The writing isn’t really about just one thing; it brings all these elements together in a way that should have resulted in an overblown mess. But thanks to Bennett’s unique talent, it doesn’t. If the novel is trying to deliver one single message, it might be that the hyper-sexualization of African-American men can have destructive consequences if their sexuality is not guided by a strong, developed mind. But Bennett doesn’t write like the kind of author who wants to preach. He lays out all the blood, guts, and semen on the table so you can make of it what you will.
Other great things about this book are the well-drawn, ultimately unforgettable characters that harmonize so well with each other in the narrative. Joe’s friends explain sides of himself in ways that he can’t see and he does the same for them. The complexity of Joe’s character comes close to perfection; as a reader you want him to overcome his insanity no matter how bad or brutal he gets. The way the developmental events of his childhood keep resurfacing also works well as a narrative device and as a psychological indicator of Joe’s mental association and motivations. There is also the humor. This book is hilarious at times like Joe’s plot to kidnap the turkey, what Cheap Mary makes Joe do when she blackmails him, and the scene where Odessa’s mother walks in while Joe and Tony are double penetrating China Doll. Finally, there is the plot twists and the harrowing emotional turmoil. As the story goes on, corner after corner after corner gets turned in rapid succession, making your head spin. The unpredictability factor and shock value are high and by the end of the book, you might feel as if you have taken about fifty succeeding punches to the head. You might as if you’ve just spent a round or two in the ring with Mike Tyson. The ending might make you have a nervous breakdown. Is that good? Anything that can make you feel so emotionally drained at the end is great art no matter how unpleasant the experience might be. Writers of garbage like John Grisham or Ayn Rand will never make you feel anything this emotionally potent. That is why they aren’t true artists and Hal Bennett is.
Hal Bennett, it’s unfortunate you aren’t alive today to receive all the accolades you deserve for Lord of Dark Places. It is like the Mt. Everest of transgressive literature and reading it is like climbing to that peak. It is a hidden peak that only few have approached but maybe it is better for us to hold such a repulsive, grotesque, and beautiful secret for ourselves. There is no other book like this and there never will be again. Congratulations and all hail to the King Hal Bennett, whoever it was that you were.
https://gravitysrainbowbookseller.blo...
As the story begins, we are taken into the deep south where the twelve year old Joe Market is fishing in a creek. The prose is rooted in the Southern Gothic style and immediate comparison to William Faulkner is legitimate, but that elder statesman of Southern fiction never dragged his readers into the gutters of perversion the way Hal Bennett does. Comparisons with Jean Genet also spring to mind as Joe’s father Titus comes to tell him that his mother just died while he was having sex with her. The father goes on to rape Joe, and, to the reader’s probable surprise, Joe admits that he secretly enjoyed it. Throughout the course of the novel, Joe repeatedly returns to this memory along with one other memory, the time he played the infant Jesus in a church play with the Virgin Mary, acted by a prostitute who he would later sleep with.
While those three events had a powerful impact on the development of Joe Market’s mind, there is something else that permanently shapes and ruins his self-perception. His father declares himself the prophet of a new African-American religious movement and takes his son with him. The two of them travel around the South, preaching in revival tents until the spectacle at the end of each meeting is revealed: Joe takes off his clothes, stands naked in front of the audience, showing them his enormous penis while Titus tells the audience that, for a small fee, anybody can have some private time with the young boy to bask in his divine glory. In actuality, this means Titus is pimping his twelve year old son who has sex with every customer be they young old, male, female, gay, straight, or anything else. The long term effect of this is that Joe grows into adulthood thinking his sexuality has a divine special purpose (I’m not sure if Steve Martin lifted this joke in The Jerk from Hal Bennett or not), and even worse, Joe deludes himself into thinking he is a black messiah, a new Jesus Christ.
Semiotically speaking, Joe’s phallus is a signifier that carries a lot of meaning with it throughout the entire novel. During childhood, Joe’s father teaches him to call it by the name “Willy”. After Joe settles in New Jersey, he re-christens it with the more northern and more adult-sounding name “Dick”. Finally, around the time he meets his bride-to-be, he renames it “Christopher” after the Catholic saint. He also names his son “Christopher” after his own penis. Through the use of male names and name-changes, Joe’s penis is personified, taking on a personality of its own, a centralized object in his life, almost becoming an entire character in itself. The name changes represent stages of growth in Joe’s life and as the novel progresses, it becomes obvious that the erect phallus connotes and associates itself with death. The life-giving, creative force of masculinity is, when wielded by Joe Market, inverted into a tool of destruction, slaughtering all who come into contact with it like a machine gun gone out of control.
In terms of semiotics, another key observation to make at this point is the absence or presence of boundaries. Within the confines of African-American sexuality, and within the Black community in general, Joe Market lives without boundaries. He has sex with anybody who pays for it and goes even farther by having sex with his father on a routine basis. In one graphic scene, father and son have male on male on female sex with a prostitute. But when encountering the white community, Joe is confronted with boundaries that humiliate and confuse him. In New Orleans, he encounters a white woman who insists on having sex with him, but she will only allow him to penetrate her through the barrier of a metal fence, a boundary he is able to see through but not cross. The fence is a barrier he can partially penetrate but it also restrains him at the same time. Afterwards, Joe goes away feeling frustrated, confused, and scared especially because the white woman threatens to call up a lynch mob if he reuses to have sex with her. The world he sees on her side of the fence, and what she says and does on that side, is one he can not fully comprehend, let alone participate in. Between the white woman and her fence, he feels accepted and unaccepted in her world simultaneously.
The other significant encounter Joe has with the white world is when Tony Brenzo enters the scene. While Joe is working as a gay street hustler in New Jersey, Tony, a vice squad cop, decides to arrest him. After pleading for mercy, Tony agrees not to book him if he enrolls in school and finishes his high school education. This is done and the two go on to become best friends. Tony’s main concern is that nobody has ever respected Joe for his mind, only taking interest in his body, particularly his penis. Tony may seem like an angel at this point, but as the story goes on, he becomes a little more complicated. As a cop he is honest when it comes to arresting murderers, robbers, and other hard criminals, but when it comes to smoking pot and having sex with prostitutes, quite often in threesomes with Joe, his morals are a little bit lax. Hal Bennett had a true talent for portraying the complexities of his characters’ minds; everyone in the book has inner conflicts and moral ambiguities like Tony’s and this goes a long way in making each one of them take on a distinct life of their own. By the end of the book, you feel as if Joe, his friends, and the people in his neighborhood are people you actually know.
While in nigh school, Joe meets his future wife Odessa, a pretty, morally upright church-going girl under the strict domination of her mother. Joe sees her as an opportunity to go straight, in more ways than one, and they later have a son together.
During Odessa’s pregnancy. Joe joins the army with his closeted gay friend Lamont. They get sent off to the war in Vietnam which turns out to be a traumatic experience for Joe. But before joining the army, Joe was getting lost on the straight and narrow path he had undertaken. He began smoking more marijuana than anyone could imagine a man being able to handle and he begins losing his mind. He hatches a bizarre scheme to kidnap and kill his boss’s pet turkey in order to convince Lamont to join the army with him (trust me, it makes more sense when you read the book for yourself), but when he is holding the dead turkey in his arms, he begins to think of it as a crucified messiah. It is at this point that the author begins to plummet the depths of Joe’s twisted psyche.
The war is traumatic for two reasons. One is that he sees an African-American airplane pilot die after being shot in the crotch. Joe is bothered by this because he sees a Black man entering death in a state without sex, neither man nor woman; the wound where his genitals used to be is neither penis nor vagina. From then on, Joe becomes obsessed with his own penis and struggles internally with his own sexuality, especially in his attraction to men. Then during a combat operation, Joe shoots a Vietnamese man. Here we see how he begins to suppress his emotions and embrace his identity as a dealer of death. At first he feels guilty and sick to his stomach, but he suppresses these feelings. From that point on, he goes through the same cycle every time his behavior results in someone else’s pain or death: killing then guilt then stoic unemotionalism. His constant pot-smoking and sexual intercourse help him to escape from anything negative he might feel.
After Joe returns from the war, his infant son Christopher ends up dead in his crib. Joe blames Odessa for this and begins abusing her physically and emotionally in some of the most heartbreaking passages of the novel. But nobody ever said this was going to be a cheerful read. Other bad things happen too. Tony asks Joe to be an informer a heroin dealing case that might involve Joe’s boss, neighbor, and sometimes sexual partner China Doll. Tony and Joe also grow closer together as romantic partners while other people die and Joe’s life continues to spiral out of control. Finally, China Doll has an orgy at her house on Halloween night that turns into the wildest ending you might ever read in a novel. It is at this orgy that we get the deepest insight into the confusion of Joe Market’s mind and once we get these insights we can also see there is a twisted moral code, shocking in its revelation, that Joe follows. In his mind, he does terrible things to people because he wants to save them from the world. He hurts people to help them. When he kills, he thinks he is saving people from the agony of life. Note that Sethe in Toni Morrison’s Beloved has a similar motivation when she murders her own daughter. When Joe beats Odessa, he does so because he loves her; he thinks he is no good for her and he wants her to leave him for a husband who is better. Joe is the Divine Redeemer and Savior who does terrible things to good people for the sake of liberation from the horrible world we live in, or so Joe tells himself in the tumultuous haze of his inner mind. This is sad because Joe’s friends all love him. He is charming, fun, and charismatic; the people around him see a lot of potential that he is unable to see in himself. And they are not entirely wrong. As a reader you will find him to be a monster, but through understanding his tortured soul, you still might find an ounce of sympathy for him despite yourself.
Lord of Dark Places has its share of flaws. Some passages are sloppy, some events seem haphazard and improbable. There are a couple loose threads in the story lines. But the strengths of the book are so powerful that these minor problems have little impact in the end. Bennett takes a lot of chances, almost too many it might seem. As a life story and character study of Joe Market, it is hard to pinpoint what the maain theme of the book actually is. It combines pornography and transgression with commentaries on race relations, gender issues, psychology, the atrocity of war and violence, and the general existential dread you might feel when confronting the bigger picture of the world. It examines identity in relation to sexuality, masculinity, bisexuality, and the African-American community. It takes a nuanced look at police relations with Black people. It addresses the issue of what it means for members of any race to be American. There is even a noir-like murder-mystery subplot that comes in more than half way through the novel. The writing isn’t really about just one thing; it brings all these elements together in a way that should have resulted in an overblown mess. But thanks to Bennett’s unique talent, it doesn’t. If the novel is trying to deliver one single message, it might be that the hyper-sexualization of African-American men can have destructive consequences if their sexuality is not guided by a strong, developed mind. But Bennett doesn’t write like the kind of author who wants to preach. He lays out all the blood, guts, and semen on the table so you can make of it what you will.
Other great things about this book are the well-drawn, ultimately unforgettable characters that harmonize so well with each other in the narrative. Joe’s friends explain sides of himself in ways that he can’t see and he does the same for them. The complexity of Joe’s character comes close to perfection; as a reader you want him to overcome his insanity no matter how bad or brutal he gets. The way the developmental events of his childhood keep resurfacing also works well as a narrative device and as a psychological indicator of Joe’s mental association and motivations. There is also the humor. This book is hilarious at times like Joe’s plot to kidnap the turkey, what Cheap Mary makes Joe do when she blackmails him, and the scene where Odessa’s mother walks in while Joe and Tony are double penetrating China Doll. Finally, there is the plot twists and the harrowing emotional turmoil. As the story goes on, corner after corner after corner gets turned in rapid succession, making your head spin. The unpredictability factor and shock value are high and by the end of the book, you might feel as if you have taken about fifty succeeding punches to the head. You might as if you’ve just spent a round or two in the ring with Mike Tyson. The ending might make you have a nervous breakdown. Is that good? Anything that can make you feel so emotionally drained at the end is great art no matter how unpleasant the experience might be. Writers of garbage like John Grisham or Ayn Rand will never make you feel anything this emotionally potent. That is why they aren’t true artists and Hal Bennett is.
Hal Bennett, it’s unfortunate you aren’t alive today to receive all the accolades you deserve for Lord of Dark Places. It is like the Mt. Everest of transgressive literature and reading it is like climbing to that peak. It is a hidden peak that only few have approached but maybe it is better for us to hold such a repulsive, grotesque, and beautiful secret for ourselves. There is no other book like this and there never will be again. Congratulations and all hail to the King Hal Bennett, whoever it was that you were.
https://gravitysrainbowbookseller.blo...
February 2, 2022
Es sin duda el libro mas salvaje, cruel y descorazonador que me he leído en mi vida. Increíble. De alguna forma funciona.
June 8, 2023
Hal Bennett, I salute you. I'd qualify this as the evil twin of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. That's doing this novel a disservice as it is completely subversive and, honestly, unlike anything I have read before. This novel, written in the 1970's, will wallow you in scenes that will make you blush more than Chuck Palahniuk attempts to do while absolutely nailing it's hard hitting message. Following Joe, an African American from the south in the 1950's, Bennett deals with the uncertain nature of being a black man during this time period, blind religious subservience, sexuality, political discourse, social oppression, and much more. Bennett does ALL of this plus remains entertaining, shocking, and genuinely hilariously satirical. Truly a forgotten gem.
September 28, 2007
Impossible to put this book down. Very intense, graphic, fast-moving but vigorous. Probably the book I read in grad school that was everyone's favorite in the class (the class was called "Immoral Fiction").
January 30, 2025
El llibre més hardcore ever. És una muntanya russa d'emocions, rollo dragon-khan però amb abús infantil, sexe explícit, racisme i assassinat.
El recomano molt, però no a tothom, si ets molt sensible o massa empàtic és possible que ho passis malament.
Feia molt que un llibre no m'impactava així, per tant, 5 estrelles.
El recomano molt, però no a tothom, si ets molt sensible o massa empàtic és possible que ho passis malament.
Feia molt que un llibre no m'impactava així, per tant, 5 estrelles.
July 24, 2022
Video review https://youtu.be/x0xuKsZGHHc
February 7, 2024
I can’t remember how I became aware of this book, but I’m extremely glad that I found it. It’s one of the best novels I’ve read in my life.
Hal Bennett writes with no fear, with humor and ideas that seem to come directly from the subconscious. Nothing is sacred in this story, and even readers as desensitized as myself will find certain scenes hard to stomach. There is a sense of such darkness throughout this book - despite how funny it is, it feels so viciously angry at every turn. The overwhelming mood and intensity were unlike anything I’ve encountered until now.
It’s difficult to give this a quick pitch or explain what it’s about - there’s a lot of religion, race, sex, some war, a bit of mystery, family drama… it almost feels like a new book every 50 pages, and somehow it manages to wrap itself up in a perfect finale, a moment so unhinged it makes the rest feel tame. The use of sexuality as identity is a major theme here, and Bennett does a fantastic job of allowing readers to understand some of the protagonist’s very horrific decisions through his traumatic upbringing. It’s truly uncomfortable to be in this character’s shoes, to develop some type of sympathy with someone so twisted.
I can’t recommend this easily, as it’s a very brutal read, but I can say that it’s a tragedy more people haven’t read it. Bennett is almost entirely out of print, so I’m hoping that I’ll be able to track down a few of his other novels soon, because this affected me more than anything I’ve read in years.
Hal Bennett writes with no fear, with humor and ideas that seem to come directly from the subconscious. Nothing is sacred in this story, and even readers as desensitized as myself will find certain scenes hard to stomach. There is a sense of such darkness throughout this book - despite how funny it is, it feels so viciously angry at every turn. The overwhelming mood and intensity were unlike anything I’ve encountered until now.
It’s difficult to give this a quick pitch or explain what it’s about - there’s a lot of religion, race, sex, some war, a bit of mystery, family drama… it almost feels like a new book every 50 pages, and somehow it manages to wrap itself up in a perfect finale, a moment so unhinged it makes the rest feel tame. The use of sexuality as identity is a major theme here, and Bennett does a fantastic job of allowing readers to understand some of the protagonist’s very horrific decisions through his traumatic upbringing. It’s truly uncomfortable to be in this character’s shoes, to develop some type of sympathy with someone so twisted.
I can’t recommend this easily, as it’s a very brutal read, but I can say that it’s a tragedy more people haven’t read it. Bennett is almost entirely out of print, so I’m hoping that I’ll be able to track down a few of his other novels soon, because this affected me more than anything I’ve read in years.
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November 10, 2024Quin llibre més dur, feréstec i passat de voltes. No apte per les ànimes més pures i càndides
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February 20, 2024Not sure how to rate this book… Whilst there were moments that left me feeling disgusted and that definitely got a reaction, I found that the way anger and pain was written began feeling surface level, maybe down to it becoming repetitive? At points, within the space of a few sentences, the thoughts and opinions of Joe switched so quickly from one extreme to the other that they didn’t feel like a natural reaction, instead too dramatised, unconvincing and in some ways (I hate to say it) badly written. The story was intense from start to finish and didn’t let up at all. The never ending descriptions of sexual content became irritating to me rather than effective, it took something away from the story although I’m not sure what. Looking at the many 5 star reviews makes me think that I didn’t grasp the message this book was conveying… definitely didn’t hate it but wouldn’t read it again. Not sure what rating to give so will leave blank for the meantime…
May 25, 2025
Estic encara una mica descol·locat per aquesta lectura. És una novel·la que t'exposa a situacions extremes. Hi ha moments que la voldries deixar per com t'ha colpejat una escena. Però és alhora addictiva. És la cosa més transgressora que he llegit mai, però és que crec que està tan ben escrita... És molt difícil que un llibre m'afecte com m'ha passat amb aquest. Difícil de recomanar, perquè és molt bèstia, això sí. Però és que la considero tan bona! Ha sigut una lectura brutal. Els escrits de Bukowski al costat d'açò són redaccions infantils.
August 28, 2022
I fell like that there was a great book trapped in here. The characters are rememberable the things that it touches upon are interesting and the way it goes about talking about them is as un-PC as I can remember reading in a book, which is great. But it never comes together to truly be meaningful as it should.
December 30, 2025
This book is not for the faint of heart or the weak of the stomach. This book is shocking, horrific and violent while also being brutally honest and emotional as well. The writing is fearless and gripping even now fifty plus years after it was first published. Totally worth staying up until midnight to finish it. Lord of Dark Places is unlike any other book I've read this year
September 15, 2022
It’s intense. It’s vicious. It’s an American tragedy.
From the beginning, Lord of Dark Places lets you know it’s going to be painful. The lynching of the main character’s grandfather hangs over the rest of the book like a shadow, dooming the grandson Joe Market to a Greek tragedy-level fate.
Bennett forces us to endure a gauntlet of experience through Joe Market. The extremes are what he is interested in. Joe is a fundamentally damaged person who is defined by psychotic egotism and rage. For every friend he makes or positive event that occurs in his life, he manages to eclipse them with acts of depravity and narcissism.
As a literary character, Joe is fantastic, and I had a back and forth of feeling sympathy and downright despising him. I don’t know how conscious Bennett was of this, but Joe felt like a ruthless version of Whitman’s Song of Myself character, living free but dealing more in pain than love. Or maybe Nietzsche is a better comparison: A superman of America. He struts from scene to scene with all his desires stretched before him and possesses no guilt whatsoever. And being an “anti-christ” may be Joe’s real identity: this is a character from a family who try to replace Christianity with a new religion serving the destitute of black America, but with an emphasis on the material and in defiance of the Christian church. As Joe’s father says in his speech that bears the title of the book, “if no provision has been made for our souls, we are perfectly free to seek salvation any way we can…when the Bible says black, I say white”. Joe’s that rich, character-wise.
Religion, sex, violence, war, drugs, and death. And Lord of Dark Places still manages to be laugh out loud funny from time to time.
There are flaws to be sure – the detective sections of the book felt tacked on, and Joe does a bit too much explaining of the metaphors of the book – but it’s an exciting, gruesome ride.
From the beginning, Lord of Dark Places lets you know it’s going to be painful. The lynching of the main character’s grandfather hangs over the rest of the book like a shadow, dooming the grandson Joe Market to a Greek tragedy-level fate.
Bennett forces us to endure a gauntlet of experience through Joe Market. The extremes are what he is interested in. Joe is a fundamentally damaged person who is defined by psychotic egotism and rage. For every friend he makes or positive event that occurs in his life, he manages to eclipse them with acts of depravity and narcissism.
As a literary character, Joe is fantastic, and I had a back and forth of feeling sympathy and downright despising him. I don’t know how conscious Bennett was of this, but Joe felt like a ruthless version of Whitman’s Song of Myself character, living free but dealing more in pain than love. Or maybe Nietzsche is a better comparison: A superman of America. He struts from scene to scene with all his desires stretched before him and possesses no guilt whatsoever. And being an “anti-christ” may be Joe’s real identity: this is a character from a family who try to replace Christianity with a new religion serving the destitute of black America, but with an emphasis on the material and in defiance of the Christian church. As Joe’s father says in his speech that bears the title of the book, “if no provision has been made for our souls, we are perfectly free to seek salvation any way we can…when the Bible says black, I say white”. Joe’s that rich, character-wise.
Religion, sex, violence, war, drugs, and death. And Lord of Dark Places still manages to be laugh out loud funny from time to time.
There are flaws to be sure – the detective sections of the book felt tacked on, and Joe does a bit too much explaining of the metaphors of the book – but it’s an exciting, gruesome ride.
August 8, 2022
One of the most grotesque, sexually explicit, stomach-churning books I've ever read. But it's also quite possibly one of the most moving, complex, and compelling. That dichotomy is what Bennett strived for when writing about a young black man who was a victim of sexual assault, incest, violent racism, and a god complex to boot.
I've seen Bennett labeled as a satirist, and the way he handles American and racial myths as well as playing with racial and gender stereotypes, this label is not unearned. With it, he creates one of the deepest narratives I've ever experienced moving from societal to religious to political with an ease unmatched.
I wonder why this novel and Bennett himself are not talked about. Like at all. I had to find information from random sources about him and I had to update his Wikipedia page because there was nothing written about him. The fact that Gravity's Rainbow is considered one of the greatest novels of all time when it came out the same time that this one did and has the same amount of disgusting imagery and language (most of it in GR for the laughs, for Bennett there's an ethos) it's wild that this is forgotten and OOP while Gravity's Rainbow is considered a classic and it's writer a God. Not hating on Pynchon, I love Pynchon, but I'm just questioning the reasoning.
Most likely because Bennett was black and wrote about disturbing things in sickening ways and often diagnosed what ails America correctly. Guess it takes a crazy motherfucker from Newark to do that.
Can't recommend this enough, it may take a second to calibrate to the explicit nature, but this might be one of the great forgotten American novels. An underrated treasure.
I've seen Bennett labeled as a satirist, and the way he handles American and racial myths as well as playing with racial and gender stereotypes, this label is not unearned. With it, he creates one of the deepest narratives I've ever experienced moving from societal to religious to political with an ease unmatched.
I wonder why this novel and Bennett himself are not talked about. Like at all. I had to find information from random sources about him and I had to update his Wikipedia page because there was nothing written about him. The fact that Gravity's Rainbow is considered one of the greatest novels of all time when it came out the same time that this one did and has the same amount of disgusting imagery and language (most of it in GR for the laughs, for Bennett there's an ethos) it's wild that this is forgotten and OOP while Gravity's Rainbow is considered a classic and it's writer a God. Not hating on Pynchon, I love Pynchon, but I'm just questioning the reasoning.
Most likely because Bennett was black and wrote about disturbing things in sickening ways and often diagnosed what ails America correctly. Guess it takes a crazy motherfucker from Newark to do that.
Can't recommend this enough, it may take a second to calibrate to the explicit nature, but this might be one of the great forgotten American novels. An underrated treasure.
June 19, 2022
Truth is confusion
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July 31, 2011Keep reading... it took me 1/3 of this book before I realized that there was more to the story than an effective attempt to shock and offend. Turned out to be a nuanced allegorical tale of race, america and love and anger in the post-vietnam age, as viewed through dislocated folktales and grotesque stereotype. Brutal.
April 15, 2022
Yes. The condemned man does have last words. The very fact of being human panics us into the most grotesque play-acting imaginable; and we deal in absurdities to keep life from being a total waste, like one constant jacking-off party. Now please suck my dick. All you slimy motherfuckers, black and white alike.
July 25, 2025
livro perfeito pra se ler enquanto me recupero de uma ruptura testicular timing perfeito
sinistro...
sinistro...
November 4, 2022
This is a strange, incredible, thought provoking book. It's probably one of the greatest books I've ever read yet at the same time I don't know if I can recommend it due to its intense, messed up scenes. Right away this book shows you how twisted and disturbing this book is going to be and it doesn't stop until the last page. The story is about a man named Joe Market and how messed up his life is and that's pretty much it. The style is a mixture Cormac MacCarthy and Iceberg Slim with a lot of lustful themes thrown in.
However not everything is all doom and gloom in this book. It can be loving, hilarious, sincere and the author try to bridge the divide between races, sexes, politics and religion. What really stuns me is that the book goes into so many different genres within a snap of a finger. comedy, detective murder mystery, romantic fatalism, southern gothic, a Vietnam story, and even a buddy comedy. The characters are well written even though most of them are jaded, warped characters they are still fascinating. Then there's the actual writing itself which is perfect. This book is filled with powerful quotes that left me reeling. Without a doubt this is the greatest transgressive novel I've ever read. There is no other book like this and this story will stay with me for the rest of my life.
"The human condition sometimes it carries us to salvation in strange ways. And it requires so many sacrifices, so many. it's the only proof that we love, when we sacrifice. If sacrifice is strange enough, great enough, we say that a man or a woman is a hero. Are you a hero, my son?"
"I found out a long time ago that the duty of the church is not to save sinners, but to make a man sin. It is a fear of the example of Christ that causes good men to turn bad. Follow the example of this man, the church says, and you'll wind up on the cross just like he did. The promise of heaven is pale indeed when a man has to die in order to achieve it."
However not everything is all doom and gloom in this book. It can be loving, hilarious, sincere and the author try to bridge the divide between races, sexes, politics and religion. What really stuns me is that the book goes into so many different genres within a snap of a finger. comedy, detective murder mystery, romantic fatalism, southern gothic, a Vietnam story, and even a buddy comedy. The characters are well written even though most of them are jaded, warped characters they are still fascinating. Then there's the actual writing itself which is perfect. This book is filled with powerful quotes that left me reeling. Without a doubt this is the greatest transgressive novel I've ever read. There is no other book like this and this story will stay with me for the rest of my life.
"The human condition sometimes it carries us to salvation in strange ways. And it requires so many sacrifices, so many. it's the only proof that we love, when we sacrifice. If sacrifice is strange enough, great enough, we say that a man or a woman is a hero. Are you a hero, my son?"
"I found out a long time ago that the duty of the church is not to save sinners, but to make a man sin. It is a fear of the example of Christ that causes good men to turn bad. Follow the example of this man, the church says, and you'll wind up on the cross just like he did. The promise of heaven is pale indeed when a man has to die in order to achieve it."
March 2, 2025
This book really can be broken up into 2 distinct stories, with one overarching theme.
The first (which makes up less than 25% of the book) occurs in the south & Deep South and follows a renegade new religious movement. I would give this portion of the book 4/5 stars - I really loved it. If you love southern gothic, this is right up your alley.
The second portion of the book (which makes up 75% of the book) takes place in & around Newark, New Jersey - with a brief stent in Vietnam. I would give this portion 2/5 stars. It felt aimless & pointless, with some brief glimpses of profound depth.
Nevertheless, Hal Bennetts prose is phenomenal. Can’t wait to find more of his books.
The first (which makes up less than 25% of the book) occurs in the south & Deep South and follows a renegade new religious movement. I would give this portion of the book 4/5 stars - I really loved it. If you love southern gothic, this is right up your alley.
The second portion of the book (which makes up 75% of the book) takes place in & around Newark, New Jersey - with a brief stent in Vietnam. I would give this portion 2/5 stars. It felt aimless & pointless, with some brief glimpses of profound depth.
Nevertheless, Hal Bennetts prose is phenomenal. Can’t wait to find more of his books.
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