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The Best of Joe R. Lansdale
By turns absurd, hilarious, and terrifying, this outrageous collection features the best writings of the high priest of Texan weirdness. Odd-ball detectives, malicious rocks, spectral prehistoric fish, and vampire hunters permeate these vividly detailed stories. Featuring cult-classic award-winning tales such as Night They Missed the Horror Show and Mad Dog Summer, along with nonfiction forays into drive-in theaters and low budget films, this dynamic retrospective represents the broad spectrum of Lansdales career. Bubba Hotepthe tale of Elvis, John F. Kennedy, and a soul-sucking mummy, which was made into an award-winning filmis included along with the acclaimed novella, On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks, and never before collected works. Original, compelling, and downright odd, this unforgettable compilation is essential reading for fans of horror, mystery, and southern gothic.
384 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2010
73 people are currently reading
1957 people want to read
About the author
Joe R. Lansdale
818 books3,891 followersChampion Mojo Storyteller Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over forty novels and numerous short stories. His work has appeared in national anthologies, magazines, and collections, as well as numerous foreign publications. He has written for comics, television, film, newspapers, and Internet sites. His work has been collected in more than two dozen short-story collections, and he has edited or co-edited over a dozen anthologies. He has received the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker Awards, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award, the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy, and many others. His novella Bubba Ho-Tep was adapted to film by Don Coscarelli, starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis. His story "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" was adapted to film for Showtime's "Masters of Horror," and he adapted his short story "Christmas with the Dead" to film hisownself. The film adaptation of his novel Cold in July was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Sundance Channel has adapted his Hap & Leonard novels for television.
He is currently co-producing several films, among them The Bottoms, based on his Edgar Award-winning novel, with Bill Paxton and Brad Wyman, and The Drive-In, with Greg Nicotero. He is Writer In Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University, and is the founder of the martial arts system Shen Chuan: Martial Science and its affiliate, Shen Chuan Family System. He is a member of both the United States and International Martial Arts Halls of Fame. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife, dog, and two cats.
He is currently co-producing several films, among them The Bottoms, based on his Edgar Award-winning novel, with Bill Paxton and Brad Wyman, and The Drive-In, with Greg Nicotero. He is Writer In Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University, and is the founder of the martial arts system Shen Chuan: Martial Science and its affiliate, Shen Chuan Family System. He is a member of both the United States and International Martial Arts Halls of Fame. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife, dog, and two cats.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
July 3, 2015
This is one of the best and most diverse story collections I've ever read. Period.
I've heard all kinds of great things about Lansdale's work and I had read a few of his short stories and enjoyed them quite a bit. But then I got caught up in this reading slump that I couldn't shake and I had this collection on hand. I picked it up, and WHABAM, I'm a Lansdale convert. More than that...I'm a Lansdale proselytizer!
These stories vary widely, there's some flat out humor, brilliantly combined with horror, as in Bubba Ho-Tep. This is a wild story about a guy in a nursing home who thinks he's Elvis along with a black man who thinks he's JFK and their attempt to stifle a soul sucking mummy. Hilarious, poignant and a bit scary all at once. That has to be hard to pull off.
The Big Blow which takes place in 1900 is about a boxing match during a hurricane. It doesn't sound like much, but this story was so full of detail and richness that I felt as if I were there.
The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance was flat out funny. What a great story that went nowhere near where I thought it was going to go.
White Mule, Spotted Pig is about some mule races. And a guy that fucked a goat. "Okay", Leroy said. "Okay, I fucked a goddamn goat. What of it?"
Cowboy A short, sweet tale of a black boy that wants to be a cowboy.
Fish Night I believe this is my favorite story of the collection. It's whimsical and fun, but those things hide the teeth within.
A few more things-this book will not be for everyone. It is NOT politically correct in any way whatsoever. A lot of these tales took place during times in this country where racism was rampant, and the language and actions vividly depict that history. There are also nuns dressed like hookers. There is the previously mentioned goat fucking. There is death and destruction and the n word. Lots of n words, really. This book is definitely not for the easily offended or for those of delicate sensibilities.
I think this book is for lovers of American history, but also lovers of stories. That's it. If you love stories of a wide and diverse nature, this might be the book for you. If you're not offended by the snippets I've posted above, I think you should give this collection a shot. You can hit me with it, if you don't like it, but I think you will.
My highest recommendation!
I've heard all kinds of great things about Lansdale's work and I had read a few of his short stories and enjoyed them quite a bit. But then I got caught up in this reading slump that I couldn't shake and I had this collection on hand. I picked it up, and WHABAM, I'm a Lansdale convert. More than that...I'm a Lansdale proselytizer!
These stories vary widely, there's some flat out humor, brilliantly combined with horror, as in Bubba Ho-Tep. This is a wild story about a guy in a nursing home who thinks he's Elvis along with a black man who thinks he's JFK and their attempt to stifle a soul sucking mummy. Hilarious, poignant and a bit scary all at once. That has to be hard to pull off.
The Big Blow which takes place in 1900 is about a boxing match during a hurricane. It doesn't sound like much, but this story was so full of detail and richness that I felt as if I were there.
The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance was flat out funny. What a great story that went nowhere near where I thought it was going to go.
White Mule, Spotted Pig is about some mule races. And a guy that fucked a goat. "Okay", Leroy said. "Okay, I fucked a goddamn goat. What of it?"
Cowboy A short, sweet tale of a black boy that wants to be a cowboy.
Fish Night I believe this is my favorite story of the collection. It's whimsical and fun, but those things hide the teeth within.
A few more things-this book will not be for everyone. It is NOT politically correct in any way whatsoever. A lot of these tales took place during times in this country where racism was rampant, and the language and actions vividly depict that history. There are also nuns dressed like hookers. There is the previously mentioned goat fucking. There is death and destruction and the n word. Lots of n words, really. This book is definitely not for the easily offended or for those of delicate sensibilities.
I think this book is for lovers of American history, but also lovers of stories. That's it. If you love stories of a wide and diverse nature, this might be the book for you. If you're not offended by the snippets I've posted above, I think you should give this collection a shot. You can hit me with it, if you don't like it, but I think you will.
My highest recommendation!
January 13, 2020
What can I say? It's Lansdale!
March 31, 2016
Joe Lansdale seems almost respectable these days. After a decade of writing books like The Bottoms and A Fine Dark Line which got him mainstream accolades and success, it got easy to forget that this is a guy who originally made his name doing exceptionally gory horror stories and novels. I’d gotten caught up in his Hap & Leonard series as well as the other recent novels so I’d forgotten about early bucket-o-blood books like The Drive-In and The Nightrunners.
So it was kind of a slap in the face to read this collection and have an oozing sore on elderly Elvis Presley’s penis described in graphic detail.
Despite being a huge Lansdale fan, I hadn’t read many of his short stories. This collection would be a great primer for new Lansdale fans because it shows all the phases of his career like the early horror days with graphic violence and sometimes sick (but funny) humor, a couple of tales that give the flavor of his crime fiction, and some that showcase the more literate side he’s engaged in lately.
Several of these have already had some exposure. Bubba Ho Tep has Elvis and Jack Kennedy fighting a mummy in a Texas rest home and was made into a cult favorite film starring Bruce Campbell. Incident On and Off A Mountain Road was used for Showtime’s Masters of Horror series. The story Mad Dog Summer was later expanded into The Bottoms, Lansdale’s most critically acclaimed novel.
There’s a wide variety here like the absurd tragic and funny story of Godzilla struggling with his addiction to smashing buildings and squishing people. There's the bittersweet Not From Detroit with an elderly man facing off Death himself to save his wife. We also get Lansdale doing historical fiction in The Big Blow with two boxers facing off during the hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas, in 1900. All this and lots more including zombies, alligator attacks, serial killers, visions of prehistoric fish and a racing mule who has a pig for a best friend.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll scream and you’ll fight the urge to vomit a couple of times, but this is Joe Lansdale in all his disturbing glory.
So it was kind of a slap in the face to read this collection and have an oozing sore on elderly Elvis Presley’s penis described in graphic detail.
Despite being a huge Lansdale fan, I hadn’t read many of his short stories. This collection would be a great primer for new Lansdale fans because it shows all the phases of his career like the early horror days with graphic violence and sometimes sick (but funny) humor, a couple of tales that give the flavor of his crime fiction, and some that showcase the more literate side he’s engaged in lately.
Several of these have already had some exposure. Bubba Ho Tep has Elvis and Jack Kennedy fighting a mummy in a Texas rest home and was made into a cult favorite film starring Bruce Campbell. Incident On and Off A Mountain Road was used for Showtime’s Masters of Horror series. The story Mad Dog Summer was later expanded into The Bottoms, Lansdale’s most critically acclaimed novel.
There’s a wide variety here like the absurd tragic and funny story of Godzilla struggling with his addiction to smashing buildings and squishing people. There's the bittersweet Not From Detroit with an elderly man facing off Death himself to save his wife. We also get Lansdale doing historical fiction in The Big Blow with two boxers facing off during the hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas, in 1900. All this and lots more including zombies, alligator attacks, serial killers, visions of prehistoric fish and a racing mule who has a pig for a best friend.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll scream and you’ll fight the urge to vomit a couple of times, but this is Joe Lansdale in all his disturbing glory.
September 27, 2025
This book was my introduction to the legendary Joe R. Lansdale. Okay, that’s not precisely true. The outrageous, cult horror/comedy movie Bubba Ho-Tep was my introduction to Lansdale’s madness. And since this volume contained the short story of the same name that inspired that demented film, it was the first of his books that I sought out to read.
Bubba Ho-Tep tells the story of two old guys dying slow in an East Texas nursing home. One claims to be the real Elvis (rather than the imposter who died in 1977). The other, a Black gentleman, claims to be John F. Kennedy, hidden away here while his brain is kept in storage at the National Archives. Together, they must team up to defeat an ancient, Egyptian mummy that is stealing the souls of the old people of the nursing home.
”He had me on the floor and had his mouth over my asshole.”
“A shit eater?” Elvis said.
“I don’t think so,” Jack said. “He was after my soul. You can get that out of any of the major orifices in a person’s body. I’ve read about it.”
”Mr. Kennedy,” Elvis said, “Ask not what your rest home can do for you. Ask what you can do for your rest home.”
Lansdale’s writing is outrageous, crude, profane, utterly bonkers, and stupidly funny. No one can write wack-a-doodle stories quite like him. This collection also contains Godzilla’s Twelve-Step Program which is a story just as advertised — where Godzilla goes to group meetings with other monsters and takes it one day at a time as he struggles to kick his addiction to destroying cities. Fire Dog is a tale wherein a man finds success in a career being the mascot dog for his local fire department (and gets way too into it). All these stories present a goofy surface while concealing a wild darkness just below it.
Then there are the other stories — the ones where that darkness is a raging rapids rather than an undercurrent. The Big Blow is a pitch dark boxing tale set during the Great Galveston Hurricane, full of viciousness, meanness, violence and destruction fit to match that epic storm. Mad Dog Summer (later expanded into Lansdale’s Edgar Award winning novel, The Bottoms) is hillbilly noir (a Lansdale specialty) where an Atticus Finchesque sherif doggedly attempts to solve a vicious race murder. In these and several others Lansdale will have you staring hypnotized into the compelling Darkness he creates.
From wacky-goofy tales to brutal and murderous ones, Joe R. Lansdale takes everything too far. He crosses all decent boundaries of propriety. He makes everything too big, too messy, too outrageous, too vicious, too brutal, and ultimately, too much fun. No one else writes stories like these. (Hell, even Joe doesn’t make ‘em like this anymore!) Read it and be amazed.
Bubba Ho-Tep tells the story of two old guys dying slow in an East Texas nursing home. One claims to be the real Elvis (rather than the imposter who died in 1977). The other, a Black gentleman, claims to be John F. Kennedy, hidden away here while his brain is kept in storage at the National Archives. Together, they must team up to defeat an ancient, Egyptian mummy that is stealing the souls of the old people of the nursing home.
”He had me on the floor and had his mouth over my asshole.”
“A shit eater?” Elvis said.
“I don’t think so,” Jack said. “He was after my soul. You can get that out of any of the major orifices in a person’s body. I’ve read about it.”
”Mr. Kennedy,” Elvis said, “Ask not what your rest home can do for you. Ask what you can do for your rest home.”
Lansdale’s writing is outrageous, crude, profane, utterly bonkers, and stupidly funny. No one can write wack-a-doodle stories quite like him. This collection also contains Godzilla’s Twelve-Step Program which is a story just as advertised — where Godzilla goes to group meetings with other monsters and takes it one day at a time as he struggles to kick his addiction to destroying cities. Fire Dog is a tale wherein a man finds success in a career being the mascot dog for his local fire department (and gets way too into it). All these stories present a goofy surface while concealing a wild darkness just below it.
Then there are the other stories — the ones where that darkness is a raging rapids rather than an undercurrent. The Big Blow is a pitch dark boxing tale set during the Great Galveston Hurricane, full of viciousness, meanness, violence and destruction fit to match that epic storm. Mad Dog Summer (later expanded into Lansdale’s Edgar Award winning novel, The Bottoms) is hillbilly noir (a Lansdale specialty) where an Atticus Finchesque sherif doggedly attempts to solve a vicious race murder. In these and several others Lansdale will have you staring hypnotized into the compelling Darkness he creates.
From wacky-goofy tales to brutal and murderous ones, Joe R. Lansdale takes everything too far. He crosses all decent boundaries of propriety. He makes everything too big, too messy, too outrageous, too vicious, too brutal, and ultimately, too much fun. No one else writes stories like these. (Hell, even Joe doesn’t make ‘em like this anymore!) Read it and be amazed.
October 3, 2014
Brilliant, but not for the easily, or even remotely easily, offended. This man is dangerously good.
Great novella length stories: Bubba Ho-Tep, Mad Dog Summer, The Big Blow. Fantastic short stories like Not From Detroit, Fish Night, Incident On and Off a Mountain Road and The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance and White Mule Spotted Pig. This is a great introduction to all styles and types of writing that make up Lansdale’s work.
Lansdale’s style is almost impossible to describe. One part Mark Twain’s evil twin, one part Cormac McCarthy, one part Faulkner, one part….oh, screw it, he is Joe Lansdale and nobody writes like this guy. He is a Texas icon and one of the few truly original talents out there and he clearly has no fear. Nothing is sacred or too dark—he writes whatever he wants to write and pulls no punches and offers no apologies.
Everyone will have their favorites. I say that because there are so many different types of stories in this book. You won’t get a better horror story than Incident On and Off a Mountain Road or At the Cadillac Ranch with Dead Folks. But you will find yourself laughing out loud at the infamous Bubba Ho-Tep and at White Mule Spotted Pig, a mythical southern tale which read to me like a story that Mark Twain would have loved. Then he follows those stories up with literary masterpieces like Mad Dog Summer and The Big Blow. There are touching and beautiful stories like Not From Detroit where an old man refuses to allow death to take his wife and Fish Night, which reminded me of the best of Ray Bradbury, but darker.
Everyone will have their favorites, but also probably will have the story or two that marched in and took a big dump right in the middle of their comfort zone. For me it happened at the end with Night They Missed the Horror Show---one of the meanest and most disturbing stories that I have ever read.
Be forewarned, be prepared as best you can, but don’t miss this book.
Great novella length stories: Bubba Ho-Tep, Mad Dog Summer, The Big Blow. Fantastic short stories like Not From Detroit, Fish Night, Incident On and Off a Mountain Road and The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance and White Mule Spotted Pig. This is a great introduction to all styles and types of writing that make up Lansdale’s work.
Lansdale’s style is almost impossible to describe. One part Mark Twain’s evil twin, one part Cormac McCarthy, one part Faulkner, one part….oh, screw it, he is Joe Lansdale and nobody writes like this guy. He is a Texas icon and one of the few truly original talents out there and he clearly has no fear. Nothing is sacred or too dark—he writes whatever he wants to write and pulls no punches and offers no apologies.
Everyone will have their favorites. I say that because there are so many different types of stories in this book. You won’t get a better horror story than Incident On and Off a Mountain Road or At the Cadillac Ranch with Dead Folks. But you will find yourself laughing out loud at the infamous Bubba Ho-Tep and at White Mule Spotted Pig, a mythical southern tale which read to me like a story that Mark Twain would have loved. Then he follows those stories up with literary masterpieces like Mad Dog Summer and The Big Blow. There are touching and beautiful stories like Not From Detroit where an old man refuses to allow death to take his wife and Fish Night, which reminded me of the best of Ray Bradbury, but darker.
Everyone will have their favorites, but also probably will have the story or two that marched in and took a big dump right in the middle of their comfort zone. For me it happened at the end with Night They Missed the Horror Show---one of the meanest and most disturbing stories that I have ever read.
Be forewarned, be prepared as best you can, but don’t miss this book.
February 2, 2010
Just this morning finished reading Tachyon's new collection, THE BEST OF JOE R. LANSDALE.
Okay, for starters, I'm a big Lansdale fan. Just haven't read too much of his that I haven't enjoyed immensely.
As with most "best of" collections there were several stories I had read, notably The classic "On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks", the many-times reprinted "Night they Missed the Horror Show", the Toho monsterama "Godzilla's Twelve-Step Program" and the rock solid historical novella "The Big Blow".
I read them anyway. Hell, I've drank beer before, but that has never stopped me from opening up another bottle.
I hadn't read the original novella, "Bubba Ho-Tep", although I loved the movie. The original novella pleased me greatly. I also hadn't read "Mad Dog Summer", which was a little more along the lines of Lansdale's book The Bottoms. I hadn't read "The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance" - an introduction to a new set of hard-boiled characters just waiting for a novel series of their own.
All in all it was a damn good read and a solid introduction to the man's work. I'd recommend it to anyone who wanted to get to know Lansdale's work.
A taste of raw moonshine, a sip of wild white lightning!
Yowza!
Yours in storytelling,
Steve Vernon
Okay, for starters, I'm a big Lansdale fan. Just haven't read too much of his that I haven't enjoyed immensely.
As with most "best of" collections there were several stories I had read, notably The classic "On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks", the many-times reprinted "Night they Missed the Horror Show", the Toho monsterama "Godzilla's Twelve-Step Program" and the rock solid historical novella "The Big Blow".
I read them anyway. Hell, I've drank beer before, but that has never stopped me from opening up another bottle.
I hadn't read the original novella, "Bubba Ho-Tep", although I loved the movie. The original novella pleased me greatly. I also hadn't read "Mad Dog Summer", which was a little more along the lines of Lansdale's book The Bottoms. I hadn't read "The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance" - an introduction to a new set of hard-boiled characters just waiting for a novel series of their own.
All in all it was a damn good read and a solid introduction to the man's work. I'd recommend it to anyone who wanted to get to know Lansdale's work.
A taste of raw moonshine, a sip of wild white lightning!
Yowza!
Yours in storytelling,
Steve Vernon
April 7, 2014
This is my first books from Joe R Lansdale and it's a collection of short stories most of which were very interesting, but some of which seemed disgusting for disgusting's sake, as well as being rife with racial slurs which were a little much for me. A few stories stuck out like the opening ode to the Japanese monster flicks I grew up with that threw the hilarious spin on Godzilla trying to give up his Tokyo stomping ways through a twelve step AA type program which was just great fun. I was familiar with Bubba Ho-Tep from the movie with Bruce Campbell but the actual initial descriptions of Elvis's anatomy "problems" was just a little much, but the story beyond that was interesting. I'm sure I've also seen the Incident On and Off Mountain Road but I'm not sure where, maybe Masters of Horror, but it was a pretty good straight up horror story. Then there was White Mule, and Spotted Pig which ended up being one of the most interesting stories in the book. The rest of the stories were just ok. I could suggest the book if you have a strong stomach for disgusting descriptions, but if you're easily offended I would avoid it.
April 5, 2022
I haven't had much luck with Lansdale's stuff, but this one came up on a random library trawl of ebooks, and I'd never read any of his shorts. Well. I didn't finish even one! If the lame library ereader allowed me to copy quotes, I'd post a couple of gross ones. Anyway, I usually don't care for horror, or graphic murder scenes, or body fluids spread liberally over the (figurative) page. Definitely Not for me! Back it goes....
December 19, 2019
4 STARS for The Best of Joe R. Lansdale (paperback)
This is a book of dark and twisted short stories. Some are strange. Some are brutal. Most are interesting and entertaining.
This is a book of dark and twisted short stories. Some are strange. Some are brutal. Most are interesting and entertaining.
March 11, 2014
Why did I read this book?
I read an oddball short story by Lansdale in Steampunk. It was sort of gross, but so different than anything i'd ever read i wanted more of it.
The details about this book refer to stories about Godzilla's 12 step program, Elvis fighting a mummy and a guy's girlfriend turning into a zombie. I was hooked.
and then i was disappointed.
That's all there was to the oddness i expected. The rest of the stories are suspense stories sprinkled with a little supernatural activity, maybe, but nothing the like there should have been. most of the stories are boring, unless you like mysteries. there is some of that.
The next problem is when Lansdale finds his voice you can tell - it's that of a perverted 16 year old boy who thinks of nothing but sex, sex and more sex. A full 80% of the stories deal with sexual commentary, narrative and dialogue that was neither humorous nor beneficial to the story. Had Lansdale been able to construct a story with a more pleasant voice perhaps this book would have been a little better. I understand bad guys need to sound bad. i get it, but every story was full of perverted sexual situations i realized this was his voice and there was nothing more to it. Steampunk
I read an oddball short story by Lansdale in Steampunk. It was sort of gross, but so different than anything i'd ever read i wanted more of it.
The details about this book refer to stories about Godzilla's 12 step program, Elvis fighting a mummy and a guy's girlfriend turning into a zombie. I was hooked.
and then i was disappointed.
That's all there was to the oddness i expected. The rest of the stories are suspense stories sprinkled with a little supernatural activity, maybe, but nothing the like there should have been. most of the stories are boring, unless you like mysteries. there is some of that.
The next problem is when Lansdale finds his voice you can tell - it's that of a perverted 16 year old boy who thinks of nothing but sex, sex and more sex. A full 80% of the stories deal with sexual commentary, narrative and dialogue that was neither humorous nor beneficial to the story. Had Lansdale been able to construct a story with a more pleasant voice perhaps this book would have been a little better. I understand bad guys need to sound bad. i get it, but every story was full of perverted sexual situations i realized this was his voice and there was nothing more to it. Steampunk
May 3, 2019
Now what have we got here?
Crucified Dreams: Introduction
Godzilla’s Twelve-Step Program
Bubba Ho-Tep
Mad Dog Summer
Fire Dog
The Big Blow
Duck Hunt
Incident on and off a Mountain Road
The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance
White Mule, Spotted Pig
On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks
Not From Detroit
Cowboy
Steppin’ Out, Summer ’68
Fish Night
Hell Through a Windshield
Night They Missed the Horror Show
Avid readers and fans of Lansdale would be able to find a lot of gems in the above-mentioned list. Even a sometime fan of Lansdale like me drew enormous pleasure from some of them. But they were almost completely concerned with typical American obsessions, including Elvis! As a result, collectively they tasted like barbecue, chicken-fried steak, fried okra, chili... At the end of the read I could find only Texas all over my tastebuds!
That would make this book an American classic, probably.
I prefer my Lansdale in slightly different dosage, like 'Jonah Hex' graphic novels, 'Deadman's Road' and the uber-cool 'Hap and Leonard'.
Nevertheless, if you seek fun, this collection is likely to tick all your boxes, provided you are an American.
Recommended.
Crucified Dreams: Introduction
Godzilla’s Twelve-Step Program
Bubba Ho-Tep
Mad Dog Summer
Fire Dog
The Big Blow
Duck Hunt
Incident on and off a Mountain Road
The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance
White Mule, Spotted Pig
On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks
Not From Detroit
Cowboy
Steppin’ Out, Summer ’68
Fish Night
Hell Through a Windshield
Night They Missed the Horror Show
Avid readers and fans of Lansdale would be able to find a lot of gems in the above-mentioned list. Even a sometime fan of Lansdale like me drew enormous pleasure from some of them. But they were almost completely concerned with typical American obsessions, including Elvis! As a result, collectively they tasted like barbecue, chicken-fried steak, fried okra, chili... At the end of the read I could find only Texas all over my tastebuds!
That would make this book an American classic, probably.
I prefer my Lansdale in slightly different dosage, like 'Jonah Hex' graphic novels, 'Deadman's Road' and the uber-cool 'Hap and Leonard'.
Nevertheless, if you seek fun, this collection is likely to tick all your boxes, provided you are an American.
Recommended.
September 8, 2010
There are a lot of Joe R. Lansdale anthologies hanging around out there. Most of these stories have been collected before and often. Yet this new collection is a good introduction to Lansdale's short fiction. They run the gamut from his earlier splatter-punk writings to straight horror to his visceral suspense tales. The highlights include "Mad Dog Summer" which is the predecessor to his novel The Bottoms, Bubba-Ho-Tep", "On The Far Side of The Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks", and the extremely disturbing "Night They Missed The Horror Show".
August 16, 2017
Räigelt hea kogumik übernaljaka übervägivaldse proosa meistrilt. Kui žanri mida nimetatakse splätteriks harrastajad pongestavad endal kasvõi päraka välja, et võimalikult palju soolika ja verepritsimist kirjeldada, kusjuures enamjaolt on see kõik sama naljakas kui keskmine matus, siis Lansdale ületab splätteri keskmise taseme mängeldes, ilma isegi eriliselt ponnistamata. Tema lood Ida-Texasest on aga sealjuures groteskselt naljakad, mõnikord suhteliselt tõsised ja enamjaolt nii vägivaldsed, et lugeja jääb ammulisui vahtima, et misasi see nüüd siis oli. Üleloomulikku elementi aeg-ajalt esineb, tihti on lood lihtsalt Ameerika lõunaosa (või siis Ida-Texase, kust Lansdale ise pärit, ja mis sarnaneb kultuuriliselt vana hea Lõunaga, erinevalt ülejäänud Texasest) valgest harimata alamklassist, ehk siis lugude kangelased kuuluvad enamjaolt gruppi mida kutsutakse "white trash".
Nagu öeldud, vägivalda esineb palju, mõnikord aetakse taga seeriamõrtsukat (Mad Dog Summer), teinekord jälle ajavad valenime all elav Elvis ja reinkarneerunud John F. Kennedy (kes on reinkarneerunud neegri kehasse) taga hingesid söövat vana-Egiptuse muumiat, ja tegevus toimub Texase vanadekodus (Bubba Ho-Tep). White trashi kurbtraagilist ja kohati väga verist elustiili valgustavad päris hästi lood White Mule, Spotted Pig, ja eriti oma räige vägivalla ja poliitilise ebakorrektsusega silma paistev Night They Missed the Horror Show.
Ei siin pole muud kui et kellel võimalus, hankige ja nautige. Kindel "viis".
Nagu öeldud, vägivalda esineb palju, mõnikord aetakse taga seeriamõrtsukat (Mad Dog Summer), teinekord jälle ajavad valenime all elav Elvis ja reinkarneerunud John F. Kennedy (kes on reinkarneerunud neegri kehasse) taga hingesid söövat vana-Egiptuse muumiat, ja tegevus toimub Texase vanadekodus (Bubba Ho-Tep). White trashi kurbtraagilist ja kohati väga verist elustiili valgustavad päris hästi lood White Mule, Spotted Pig, ja eriti oma räige vägivalla ja poliitilise ebakorrektsusega silma paistev Night They Missed the Horror Show.
Ei siin pole muud kui et kellel võimalus, hankige ja nautige. Kindel "viis".
July 18, 2024
The best of Joe R Lansdale… and you know what, it was!
Loved all of these stories and enjoyed reading some I’ve never read before - also revisiting Bubba Ho-Tep after so long was a delight. It was a story that really transformed my thinking and made me want to start writing, so thank you Joe, for all of this, and for that inspired moment locked away in that story!
Loved all of these stories and enjoyed reading some I’ve never read before - also revisiting Bubba Ho-Tep after so long was a delight. It was a story that really transformed my thinking and made me want to start writing, so thank you Joe, for all of this, and for that inspired moment locked away in that story!
November 9, 2021
An outrageously entertaining, horrific, vulgar, provocative, humorous, and varied collection of stories from Joe R. Lansdale. This book was published in 2010, so it's doesn't include any recent stories, but the stories it does include are consistently brilliant.
Some critics go out of their way to apologize for Lansdale's vulgarity and profanity, which tend to offend some readers. Not me. I was thoroughly entertained.
This was my first exposure to Lansdale, who is most famous for his Hap and Leonard series currently streaming on Netflix. Consider me now a huge fan. I've never encountered a writer with such a freewheeling, unpredictable style of storytelling. Many of the stories evoke life in Nacogdoches, the small East Texas city where Lansdale is from, and they frequently tackle the theme of race. As far as genre goes, Lansdale isn't easy to nail down, moving effortlessly between horror, crime, and fantasy genres, kinda like another writer I admire a lot: John D. MacDonald. They're both master storytellers who paid their dues.
My favorite story in this collection is "Mad Dog Summer," which won a Stoker award in 1999. The following year, Lansdale expanded that story into his Edgar-winning novel The Bottoms. The story has echoes of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, but Lansdale gives it his own inimitable style. The other stories in the collection are also fantastic, particularly "Godzilla's Twelve Step Program," "Bubba Ho-tep" (which Don Coscarelli adapted into a 2002 movie), "The Big Blow," "Incident on an Off Mountain Road," and "Events Concerning a Nude Fold Out in a Harlequin Romance." Even the five-page story "Cowboy" is extraordinarily powerful.
Some critics go out of their way to apologize for Lansdale's vulgarity and profanity, which tend to offend some readers. Not me. I was thoroughly entertained.
This was my first exposure to Lansdale, who is most famous for his Hap and Leonard series currently streaming on Netflix. Consider me now a huge fan. I've never encountered a writer with such a freewheeling, unpredictable style of storytelling. Many of the stories evoke life in Nacogdoches, the small East Texas city where Lansdale is from, and they frequently tackle the theme of race. As far as genre goes, Lansdale isn't easy to nail down, moving effortlessly between horror, crime, and fantasy genres, kinda like another writer I admire a lot: John D. MacDonald. They're both master storytellers who paid their dues.
My favorite story in this collection is "Mad Dog Summer," which won a Stoker award in 1999. The following year, Lansdale expanded that story into his Edgar-winning novel The Bottoms. The story has echoes of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, but Lansdale gives it his own inimitable style. The other stories in the collection are also fantastic, particularly "Godzilla's Twelve Step Program," "Bubba Ho-tep" (which Don Coscarelli adapted into a 2002 movie), "The Big Blow," "Incident on an Off Mountain Road," and "Events Concerning a Nude Fold Out in a Harlequin Romance." Even the five-page story "Cowboy" is extraordinarily powerful.
March 2, 2018
My experience with Lansdale is a descending arc: I loved The Bottoms, A Fine Dark Line was just OK and this book I couldn’t bring myself to finish.
My individual ratings for what I read:
Crucified dreams: 3 stars
Godzilla’s Twelve-Step Program: 1.5 stars
Bubba Ho-Tep: 1 star
Mad Dog Summer: 4 stars (from The bottoms)
Fire dog: 1.5 stars
The Big Blow: 1.5 stars
Duck hunt: ½ star (at this point I had enough)
I can’t deny that Lansdale can write, but the style and the tone of the stories in this collection are not my cup of tea I realise now that my first novel was the exception and this author is not for me. DNF at about half way.
My individual ratings for what I read:
Crucified dreams: 3 stars
Godzilla’s Twelve-Step Program: 1.5 stars
Bubba Ho-Tep: 1 star
Mad Dog Summer: 4 stars (from The bottoms)
Fire dog: 1.5 stars
The Big Blow: 1.5 stars
Duck hunt: ½ star (at this point I had enough)
I can’t deny that Lansdale can write, but the style and the tone of the stories in this collection are not my cup of tea I realise now that my first novel was the exception and this author is not for me. DNF at about half way.
February 3, 2020
I met Joe Lansdale at a writer's group in Texas. He came to speak to us about writerly things, like how to sell your book for example, or what to do if someone doesn't pay you on time. He was eccentric and odd and seemed like someone who lived in a stark apartment with only enough belongings that would fit in his suitcase. I liked him. His stories are eccentric and odd adventures that may have been written in a stark apartment with a packed suitcase waiting at the front door.
At this point, my husband and I have read several of his books, but it was several years ago. We both loved his work for it's oddities, ghostly mysteries, crudeness, backwoods weirdness. If you need a vacation from your life, but not necessarily a Hilton 5 star hotel vacation, more like a discovered haunted shed with piss stained mattresses on the floor vacation (you know, to appreciate what you do have!) then this is your guy. He will truly take you away to unexpected places with strange characters and very raw, crude language.
At this point, my husband and I have read several of his books, but it was several years ago. We both loved his work for it's oddities, ghostly mysteries, crudeness, backwoods weirdness. If you need a vacation from your life, but not necessarily a Hilton 5 star hotel vacation, more like a discovered haunted shed with piss stained mattresses on the floor vacation (you know, to appreciate what you do have!) then this is your guy. He will truly take you away to unexpected places with strange characters and very raw, crude language.
April 5, 2012
Mixed. "Bubba Ho Tep" and "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" are choice, and the man can definitely write, but some of the stories lost me due to the casual overuse of a certain racial epithet and really over the top, crude sexual language. I'm normally not put off by such things (at least when used to make some sort of point), I know there are people out there who think like that, and the characters that bothered me are hardly heroes in the traditional sense. However, in several cases it did really break me out of the spell Lansdale was weaving simply because it made me so uncomfortable. He does have a wild imagination, and a wicked sense of humor.
That being said, I am still curious to read some more of his work. The man made me laugh out loud twice on a crowded subway. There aren't many writers who can do that.
That being said, I am still curious to read some more of his work. The man made me laugh out loud twice on a crowded subway. There aren't many writers who can do that.
June 24, 2010
Joe R. Lansdale is becoming one of my all-time favorite writers. I've been listening to his "Hap and Leonard" series of pulpy mysteries on audio and have absolutely loved them. This collection ranges from the harrowing ("Mad Dog Summer") to the downright weird ("Bubba Ho-Tep", "On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks"). Always great fun from a truly fearless writer.
October 2, 2025
With short stories selected by the author himself, this collection really gives you an idea of the range Joe Lansdale is capable of. Until now, I'd only been familiar with his pulp-adjacent 'weird western' Reverend Jedediah Mercer stories... or so I thought. It turns out that I'd actually read two of the tales in this collection ("The Big Blow" and "On he Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks") before but didn't realize it was the same author. In addition to straight-out horror (sometimes verging on SplatterPunk), this book has stories that are straight historical fiction, true crime/detective, humor, weird fiction, post apocalypse, fantasy, and one 'animal buddies' tale ("White Mule, Spotted Pig"). My favorites in this collection were "The Big Blow," "Mad Dog Summer," "Bubba Ho-Tep," and "Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance." I was less fond of the 'weird fiction' ("Fire Dog," "Fish Night," and "Godzilla's Twelve Step Program"), although the concept of the Godzilla story was cute. Potential readers should be warned that the dialogue is frequently crude (and often scatological) and the action is pretty brutal. Mostly set in the Southern US, racism is also a factor in many of these stories. Low 4 stars.
The last story in this collection, "Night They Missed the Horror Show" is listed in NPR's "100 Best Horror Novels and Stories," which I am gradually working my way through. https://www.npr.org/2018/08/16/632779...
The last story in this collection, "Night They Missed the Horror Show" is listed in NPR's "100 Best Horror Novels and Stories," which I am gradually working my way through. https://www.npr.org/2018/08/16/632779...
February 3, 2023
I really enjoyed this collection of Lansdale’s shorts. I typically take my time with anthologies and this one was no different. My personal favourites were ‘The Big Blow’, ‘White Mule, Spotted Pig’, and ‘On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks’. I found Lansdale is particularly talented at bringing to life East Texas low-lifes, trash and gutter-barrel archetypes who may or may not pay for their sins. The prose is natural, free-flowing and often wickedly humorous. I’d recommend this to anyone who likes horror, pulp fiction and entertaining subversive short fiction.
May 16, 2022
An outstanding collection of weird, wonderful stories. Memorable, quirky characters. Loads of suspense splashed with humor. Vivid settings. Every story was fabulous. Highly recommended!
April 22, 2018
Here is Joe R. Lansdale in all his dark, violent, gory, funny, and foul-mouthed glory.
I purchased this book pre-release in 2010, and I remember being disappointed looking at the table of contents and realizing I had already read every story. Now it has been ten years since I read most of them, so it seemed like a good time to revisit them and see if they still hold up.
Overall, this is an incredibly strong collection of short fiction. The only one I would have omitted is "Duck Hunt". Some of my favorite stories were not included, but they would have pushed this to two volumes.
"Godzilla's 12-Step Program" - Godzilla and his pals Kong, Reptilicus, Gorgo, and Gamera are trying to kick their addiction to rampaging and killing humans. I do not know if JRL is making fun of AA, or maybe this is a message to be true to yourself no matter the cost. All I know, it is very, very funny.
"Bubba Ho-Tep"--Years after switching lives with an impersonator, the real Elvis Presley is still alive in a nursing home in East Texas. He can barely find any reason to go on living, until an ancient Egyptian mummy begins sucking out patients' souls in the dead of night. Elvis must team with an elderly black man who claims to be John F. Kennedy in order to save the residents of Mud Creek Shady Grove Convalescence Home. It may sound like the worst B-movie plot imaginable, but this story works because it is really about aging, loneliness, and finding a cause worth living for. Nominated for a Bram Stoker Award in 1994.
Mad Dog Summer--An eleven-year old boy and his tomboy sister find a dead black woman on the banks of the Sabine River in 1931, an apparent victim of a serial killing. This coming of age story about racism and childhood during the Great Depression owes a few of its story beats to Harper Lee, but it is just as dark and violent as you would expect from Lansdale. The writing is superb and pitch perfect. Won a Bram Stoker Award in 1999.
"Fire Dog" - A man is hired as a mascot for the local fire department. He has to wear a dog suit, with his butt and privates hanging out. It might seem weird at first, but yields surprising benefits for his social life. This story is a little bit warped but a whole lot of funny.
"The Big Blow"--Future African-American boxing champion Jack Johnson fights a challenger from Chicago on the night of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. Funny, brutal, and moving. Note: this is the original novella that won a Bram Stoker Award in 1997, not the extended novel-length version published by Subterranean Press (the original version is better).
"Duck Hunt"--A short, rather one-note coming of age story about a boy who goes hunting with his dad. It is hard to agree this one of JRL's best. I wish "Weed Eater Man" or "My Dead Dog Bobby" had been included instead.
"Incident On and Off a Mountain Road"-- A terse woman vs. serial killer suspense story. The great thing about this story is that all the physical action is realistic. Lansdale has an extensive martial arts background, and he is not going to write a half-baked fight scene to let a 100-lb woman overpower a physically fit man twice her size. Instead, she must truly use her brains to outwit the killer. This tale was adapted into a TV movie a few years back, but the written version is much superior.
"The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance"--The story begins as a southern gothic comedy. A man takes his teenage daughter to a circus only to see the trained dog show break down into chaos when one of the poodles goes into heat. Through a set of bizarre but funny string of events, this leads him to investigate a serial killer who is mutilating women across Texas. It ends with a fight to the death in a burning dump yard. Only Lansdale could write something this bizarre and make it work perfectly. Won a Bram Stoker Award in 1992.
"White Mule, Spotted Pig"-- More than anything in his life, Frank wants to win the county mule race, but his mule got struck by lightning and he has no money to buy another. This leads him on an odyssey through the East Texas swamplands to find the near-mythical White Mule. This is the sort of tale you imagine Mark Twain might have spun by a campfire late at night after drinking a pint of hooch with the boys.
"On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks"--Lansdale was writing dark brutal zombie stories 25 years before Walking Dead and World War Z made them part of the American cultural zeitgeist again. This novella begins with a bad hombre trying to sexually exploit a naked, muzzled 12-year old zombie in a bar… from there, it gets really stark and offensive… great stuff! Won a Bram Stoker Award (1989) and a British Fantasy Award (1990).
"Not From Detroit"--An aging man fights the personification of Death in order to save his ill wife. Lansdale developed this story by expanding on a just a few sentences from a brief scene in his early novel The Nightrunners. Surprisingly poignant without being sappy.
"Cowboy"--A young boy wonders why there are no black cowboys in western novels. This is a short, maudlin story. It is only interesting because a few years ago JRL did in fact remedy this problem with the publication of the greatest novel of his career, Paradise Sky.
"Steppin’ Out, Summer ’68"--Three teenage boys go looking for girls on a Saturday night. Instead they find an angry father, a hungry alligator, and a murderous truck driver in this black comedy.
"Fish Night"--I have read this story a few times, and it grows on me each time. A nice blend of magical realism with just a faint hint of the trademark Lansdale bite.
"Hell Through a Windshield"--This is a comedic quasi-essay about the author's love of drive-ins that morphs into a fictional horror story. Some of the ideas and scenes were later incorporated into his classic cult novel, The Drive-In.
"The Night They Missed the Horror Show"-- I’ve read this story four times now. Every time I encounter it, I say I am not going to re-read it, but I always do. The frank real-world brutality shocks me every time. I also laugh out loud, and then I always feel guilty about it. Won a Bram Stoker Award in 1988.
I purchased this book pre-release in 2010, and I remember being disappointed looking at the table of contents and realizing I had already read every story. Now it has been ten years since I read most of them, so it seemed like a good time to revisit them and see if they still hold up.
Overall, this is an incredibly strong collection of short fiction. The only one I would have omitted is "Duck Hunt". Some of my favorite stories were not included, but they would have pushed this to two volumes.
"Godzilla's 12-Step Program" - Godzilla and his pals Kong, Reptilicus, Gorgo, and Gamera are trying to kick their addiction to rampaging and killing humans. I do not know if JRL is making fun of AA, or maybe this is a message to be true to yourself no matter the cost. All I know, it is very, very funny.
"Bubba Ho-Tep"--Years after switching lives with an impersonator, the real Elvis Presley is still alive in a nursing home in East Texas. He can barely find any reason to go on living, until an ancient Egyptian mummy begins sucking out patients' souls in the dead of night. Elvis must team with an elderly black man who claims to be John F. Kennedy in order to save the residents of Mud Creek Shady Grove Convalescence Home. It may sound like the worst B-movie plot imaginable, but this story works because it is really about aging, loneliness, and finding a cause worth living for. Nominated for a Bram Stoker Award in 1994.
Mad Dog Summer--An eleven-year old boy and his tomboy sister find a dead black woman on the banks of the Sabine River in 1931, an apparent victim of a serial killing. This coming of age story about racism and childhood during the Great Depression owes a few of its story beats to Harper Lee, but it is just as dark and violent as you would expect from Lansdale. The writing is superb and pitch perfect. Won a Bram Stoker Award in 1999.
"Fire Dog" - A man is hired as a mascot for the local fire department. He has to wear a dog suit, with his butt and privates hanging out. It might seem weird at first, but yields surprising benefits for his social life. This story is a little bit warped but a whole lot of funny.
"The Big Blow"--Future African-American boxing champion Jack Johnson fights a challenger from Chicago on the night of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. Funny, brutal, and moving. Note: this is the original novella that won a Bram Stoker Award in 1997, not the extended novel-length version published by Subterranean Press (the original version is better).
"Duck Hunt"--A short, rather one-note coming of age story about a boy who goes hunting with his dad. It is hard to agree this one of JRL's best. I wish "Weed Eater Man" or "My Dead Dog Bobby" had been included instead.
"Incident On and Off a Mountain Road"-- A terse woman vs. serial killer suspense story. The great thing about this story is that all the physical action is realistic. Lansdale has an extensive martial arts background, and he is not going to write a half-baked fight scene to let a 100-lb woman overpower a physically fit man twice her size. Instead, she must truly use her brains to outwit the killer. This tale was adapted into a TV movie a few years back, but the written version is much superior.
"The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance"--The story begins as a southern gothic comedy. A man takes his teenage daughter to a circus only to see the trained dog show break down into chaos when one of the poodles goes into heat. Through a set of bizarre but funny string of events, this leads him to investigate a serial killer who is mutilating women across Texas. It ends with a fight to the death in a burning dump yard. Only Lansdale could write something this bizarre and make it work perfectly. Won a Bram Stoker Award in 1992.
"White Mule, Spotted Pig"-- More than anything in his life, Frank wants to win the county mule race, but his mule got struck by lightning and he has no money to buy another. This leads him on an odyssey through the East Texas swamplands to find the near-mythical White Mule. This is the sort of tale you imagine Mark Twain might have spun by a campfire late at night after drinking a pint of hooch with the boys.
"On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks"--Lansdale was writing dark brutal zombie stories 25 years before Walking Dead and World War Z made them part of the American cultural zeitgeist again. This novella begins with a bad hombre trying to sexually exploit a naked, muzzled 12-year old zombie in a bar… from there, it gets really stark and offensive… great stuff! Won a Bram Stoker Award (1989) and a British Fantasy Award (1990).
"Not From Detroit"--An aging man fights the personification of Death in order to save his ill wife. Lansdale developed this story by expanding on a just a few sentences from a brief scene in his early novel The Nightrunners. Surprisingly poignant without being sappy.
"Cowboy"--A young boy wonders why there are no black cowboys in western novels. This is a short, maudlin story. It is only interesting because a few years ago JRL did in fact remedy this problem with the publication of the greatest novel of his career, Paradise Sky.
"Steppin’ Out, Summer ’68"--Three teenage boys go looking for girls on a Saturday night. Instead they find an angry father, a hungry alligator, and a murderous truck driver in this black comedy.
"Fish Night"--I have read this story a few times, and it grows on me each time. A nice blend of magical realism with just a faint hint of the trademark Lansdale bite.
"Hell Through a Windshield"--This is a comedic quasi-essay about the author's love of drive-ins that morphs into a fictional horror story. Some of the ideas and scenes were later incorporated into his classic cult novel, The Drive-In.
"The Night They Missed the Horror Show"-- I’ve read this story four times now. Every time I encounter it, I say I am not going to re-read it, but I always do. The frank real-world brutality shocks me every time. I also laugh out loud, and then I always feel guilty about it. Won a Bram Stoker Award in 1988.
April 9, 2013
I was familiar with some of Joe R Lansdale's work because his stories are usually in all the best anthologies.....and I was not disappointed by this collection. His story "Incident on and Off a Mountain Road" was the basis for one of my favorite Masters of Horror episodes and "Mad Dog Summer" is hands-down one of the best short stories (more of a novella really) that I've ever read. Lansdale combines the storytelling gift of a Stephen King novel with the weird and compelling cinematic quality of a Quentin Tarantino film.
July 9, 2010
This collection was a hoot. It recalled in me the fears and wild designs of growing up in small town America -- not Mayberry, mind you, but rather the small towns that exist on the margins, those places where the soil underfoot always feels unstable and the only thing that was certain was that this world is a weird fucking place.
January 24, 2017
Just not my style. This was the first book I've ever explored by Joe Lansdale.
I just don't understand or enjoy the stories.
I just don't understand or enjoy the stories.
January 5, 2023
I debated really hard on how I felt about this and in the end, I think it’s a bit above average but not quite worth a 4/5 for me. These short story collection things are always tricky and somewhat of a mixed bag. The issue usually is that some stories can really set the bar high while others will completely cripple the experience, leaving you with a bad taste. This collection is certainly no exception. I’ll preface my review by saying this was a fairly pleasant surprise and I found myself overall becoming a fan of Lansdale. That said, there are some major issues I would like to address that really put a giant bulbous eyesore on an otherwise great display of story-telling capabilities.
Firstly, Lansdale is a great tale spinner. He’s like that weird drunk uncle at the family reunion that you never know what he’s going to say whether it be inappropriate, offensive, or gut-bustingly hilarious, you just can’t help but be drawn in by the story telling abilities. His idioms and usage of language and dialect is superb, his descriptions and characters feel 3D and varied. He also has no qualms delving into the strange and all out bizarre out of nowhere, and it’s a fun ride. So what’s the problem?
Well, here’s the thing. A lot of these works are 25+ years old. That’s not a super long time I know, but there are some things that are brought up that aren’t necessarily of the times today. I’ve debated internally back and forth on where I am with this but essentially I think some of the works in this are meant to provoke, to poke the reader in the head and make them maybe question what the heck they are reading. Other times, there’s just weird wacky stuff for the sake of it. I’m somewhere in the middle of loving this but also not wanting to admit to it because it’s got some questionable issues. I will say that a handful of these stories are not for the faint of heart or queasy. Things get dark and by that I mean super dark. There is profuse usage of the N-word that feels a bit excessive but then again I like many of Tarantino’s works which are period pieces. It’s a double-edged sword liking some qualities while it’s shortcomings continue to pull it down. I think my biggest appreciation for this collection is again, Lansdale’s command of the readers attention, his ability to weave an interesting tale from the seemingly mundane in an exciting and sometimes gruesome, truly out of this world manner. Not only this, but there’s so much variety in style and subject matter that you can’t help but be a bit impressed at just the wide span of creativity featured here.
Some highlights for me were:
Godzilla’s Twelve Step Program (short and hilariously creative)
Bubba-Ho-Tep (I lol’d so much at this)
Not From Detroit (unexpectedly sweet)
Mad Dog Summer (Southern Crime/horror adjacent kinda. Wow fun)
Duck Hunt (uhhh creepy and short)
Incident on and off a mountain road (whew, horror slasher chase scene basically)
I’ll say it again, it’s not perfect and there are certainly things I would not write or associate myself with in this book. I don’t necessarily think the author would either. This being my first full book by Lansdale, I haven’t gotten a close read on his character. But he seems the type that would be provocative, taboo, a button-pusher so to speak for the sake of making the audience question and dig deeper. He certainly subverted expectations and for all of these things I give credit. But I also have to be realistic and point out that some of the qualities and plot points in the stories feel too exploitative without much purpose and for that I must not label this as perfect. Still a welcome surprise and a new author for me to jump into for the future.
Firstly, Lansdale is a great tale spinner. He’s like that weird drunk uncle at the family reunion that you never know what he’s going to say whether it be inappropriate, offensive, or gut-bustingly hilarious, you just can’t help but be drawn in by the story telling abilities. His idioms and usage of language and dialect is superb, his descriptions and characters feel 3D and varied. He also has no qualms delving into the strange and all out bizarre out of nowhere, and it’s a fun ride. So what’s the problem?
Well, here’s the thing. A lot of these works are 25+ years old. That’s not a super long time I know, but there are some things that are brought up that aren’t necessarily of the times today. I’ve debated internally back and forth on where I am with this but essentially I think some of the works in this are meant to provoke, to poke the reader in the head and make them maybe question what the heck they are reading. Other times, there’s just weird wacky stuff for the sake of it. I’m somewhere in the middle of loving this but also not wanting to admit to it because it’s got some questionable issues. I will say that a handful of these stories are not for the faint of heart or queasy. Things get dark and by that I mean super dark. There is profuse usage of the N-word that feels a bit excessive but then again I like many of Tarantino’s works which are period pieces. It’s a double-edged sword liking some qualities while it’s shortcomings continue to pull it down. I think my biggest appreciation for this collection is again, Lansdale’s command of the readers attention, his ability to weave an interesting tale from the seemingly mundane in an exciting and sometimes gruesome, truly out of this world manner. Not only this, but there’s so much variety in style and subject matter that you can’t help but be a bit impressed at just the wide span of creativity featured here.
Some highlights for me were:
Godzilla’s Twelve Step Program (short and hilariously creative)
Bubba-Ho-Tep (I lol’d so much at this)
Not From Detroit (unexpectedly sweet)
Mad Dog Summer (Southern Crime/horror adjacent kinda. Wow fun)
Duck Hunt (uhhh creepy and short)
Incident on and off a mountain road (whew, horror slasher chase scene basically)
I’ll say it again, it’s not perfect and there are certainly things I would not write or associate myself with in this book. I don’t necessarily think the author would either. This being my first full book by Lansdale, I haven’t gotten a close read on his character. But he seems the type that would be provocative, taboo, a button-pusher so to speak for the sake of making the audience question and dig deeper. He certainly subverted expectations and for all of these things I give credit. But I also have to be realistic and point out that some of the qualities and plot points in the stories feel too exploitative without much purpose and for that I must not label this as perfect. Still a welcome surprise and a new author for me to jump into for the future.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 4, 2018
This is as much a review of my poor reading habits as is is of this essential story collection. Joe, if you are reading this, I'm sorry, I'll do better in the future!
I've been meaning to read a Joe R. Lansdale book since the movie Bubba Ho-Tep came out in 2003. I bought my ticket to see Bruce Campbell as Elvis. It didn't hurt that I loved director Don Coscarelli's Phantasm either. Bubba Ho-Tep burrowed into a deep part of my brain that only the best horror comedies can reach. It tunneled through grey mater until it was a part of my consciousness. It found a little cave down there in the moist darkness and made it's home alongside Evil Dead 2, Della Morte Dell'amore, Re-Animator, and a few more. But even then, compared to the others, Bubba Ho-tep seemed different. Something about this movie made me want to inflict it on people that I'd never think to subject to Evil Dead 2. I even dragged my parents to a screening over the holiday break. I was pleasantly surprised that they actually enjoyed it. Part of it was undoubtably Bruce Campbell's career best performance, but I think even that would have been lost on them if the story had been different. Bubba Ho-Tep is weird, but weird in a very appealing way.
I looked up Joe R. Lansdale right after I watched Bubba Ho-Tep for the first time. I remember thinking, "This is a writer I should check out." Between 2003 and 2018 I must have thought this several thousand times. Every time I read a review of one of Joe's books. Every time Stephen King name dropped him. Every time I saw a comic book collaboration between my childhood hero Timothy Truman and Joe. I missed all these opportunities to simply drop what I was doing, kick open the door to Barnes & Noble, and dig in. I don't know what unconscionable spirit stopped me all those times, but I'm glad it has been exorcised.
At last, in 2018, during a personal renaissance of reading, I finally picked up this book, the ostensible subject of this review. Contained in it are stories that have drilled deep into my brain and taken up residence in a variety of places. Places that are funny. Places that are weird. Places that are gross and inappropriate. Places that are deep at the core of the human organism.
The original "Bubba Ho-Tep" is here, and is just as weird and touching I hoped it would be. All of the other stories are of the same standard, but "Mad Dog Summer", "The Big Blow", and "The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance" are standouts for me. Watch out for "Night They Missed the Horror Show", it has teeth. You have been warned. Joe R. Lansdale turns out to be exactly the kind of writer I should have checked out long ago.
In penance, I've added a lot of Joe R. Lansdale books to my reading list, and I promise I'll get to them soon. I also plan to inflict this collection on as many people as possible. If you delight in weird, funny, disturbing stories, don't wait fifteen years like I did, pick this book up now!
I've been meaning to read a Joe R. Lansdale book since the movie Bubba Ho-Tep came out in 2003. I bought my ticket to see Bruce Campbell as Elvis. It didn't hurt that I loved director Don Coscarelli's Phantasm either. Bubba Ho-Tep burrowed into a deep part of my brain that only the best horror comedies can reach. It tunneled through grey mater until it was a part of my consciousness. It found a little cave down there in the moist darkness and made it's home alongside Evil Dead 2, Della Morte Dell'amore, Re-Animator, and a few more. But even then, compared to the others, Bubba Ho-tep seemed different. Something about this movie made me want to inflict it on people that I'd never think to subject to Evil Dead 2. I even dragged my parents to a screening over the holiday break. I was pleasantly surprised that they actually enjoyed it. Part of it was undoubtably Bruce Campbell's career best performance, but I think even that would have been lost on them if the story had been different. Bubba Ho-Tep is weird, but weird in a very appealing way.
I looked up Joe R. Lansdale right after I watched Bubba Ho-Tep for the first time. I remember thinking, "This is a writer I should check out." Between 2003 and 2018 I must have thought this several thousand times. Every time I read a review of one of Joe's books. Every time Stephen King name dropped him. Every time I saw a comic book collaboration between my childhood hero Timothy Truman and Joe. I missed all these opportunities to simply drop what I was doing, kick open the door to Barnes & Noble, and dig in. I don't know what unconscionable spirit stopped me all those times, but I'm glad it has been exorcised.
At last, in 2018, during a personal renaissance of reading, I finally picked up this book, the ostensible subject of this review. Contained in it are stories that have drilled deep into my brain and taken up residence in a variety of places. Places that are funny. Places that are weird. Places that are gross and inappropriate. Places that are deep at the core of the human organism.
The original "Bubba Ho-Tep" is here, and is just as weird and touching I hoped it would be. All of the other stories are of the same standard, but "Mad Dog Summer", "The Big Blow", and "The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance" are standouts for me. Watch out for "Night They Missed the Horror Show", it has teeth. You have been warned. Joe R. Lansdale turns out to be exactly the kind of writer I should have checked out long ago.
In penance, I've added a lot of Joe R. Lansdale books to my reading list, and I promise I'll get to them soon. I also plan to inflict this collection on as many people as possible. If you delight in weird, funny, disturbing stories, don't wait fifteen years like I did, pick this book up now!
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