Average customer rating:
- An truly inspiring story
- A joy to read
- Powerful, compelling, elegantly written novel about forgiveness
- Profound and moving search for identity and morality
- A Prodigal's Story
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Levi's Will
W. Dale Cramer
Manufacturer: Bethany House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Contemporary
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ASIN: 0764229958
Release Date: 2005-06-01 |
Book Description
Will flees his Old Order community at the age of 19, leaving behind a pregnant girlfriend and all things Amish. He begins a new life, joining the army and later marrying and having two sons of his own. But his new life, and his new family, are tainted by the hidden sins of his past. Hoping to patch things up with his father,Will finally takes his new family to meet the old one. But his father rejects him. Determined,Will spends years working to regain his father's respect. But Will's own sons may pay the price. Or can Will learn that love, not work, will heal the past and give hope to his family's future
Customer Reviews:
An truly inspiring story .......2007-08-24
My husband and I picked up a stack of CD's to listen to on a long car trip. Levi's Will had "Inspirational Fiction" on it so we thought it might not be too bad. We were immediately drawn in by the story and couldn't wait to get back to it each time stopped. Dale is an excellent writer, and the story was indeed inspirational. I was so impressed with his writing that I bought all of his other books. I thought they would be a great addition for our church library.
Sorry to say, I have been disappointed. It seems to me he did not intend for women to read Bad Ground. As I read it, I kept thinking that my husband would really enjoy this story, but I felt I was intruding in a man's world. I haven't been able to finish Sutter's Cross. It started out pretty interesting, but it became obvious what was going to happen in the end. It just didn't hold my interest.
I will never forget the story of Levi's Will.
A joy to read.......2006-11-02
Dale Cramer is a master storyteller--one of the best in the CBA (and the ABA for that matter). I usually gravitate toward the thriller/suspense/horror genre but I'll read anything by Dale Cramer. Levi's Will was a pure joy to read, simply because of Cramer's quality writing. Highly recommend it. A must read.
Powerful, compelling, elegantly written novel about forgiveness.......2006-07-03
Levi's Will by W. Dale Cramer is an amazingly powerful book about the relationships between fathers and sons and Father and Son. Cramer's previous books (Sutter's Cross and Bad Ground) were so deeply moving, it always felt as though he were writing from his own history. According to the acknowledgements in this book, there is some truth to this story and it shows, or should I say, it shines. Will Mullet runs away from his Amish background and authoritarian father Levi into the World. He spends the rest of his life trying to gain his father's approval while denying that same approval to his own son Riley. This book is so elegantly written; it moves along quietly with no huge climactic scenes or melodrama. It's a simple story of quiet people living their lives the best way they know how. I've read some of Beverly Lewis' Amish books, and the characters seem to be idealized or romanticized. While Cramer's Amish didn't make me want to run out and buy a buggy, they were portrayed as real, true human beings with quirks and flaws. Their plain faith shines through the book like a beacon, not just to Will, but to the reader as well. Cramer's descriptions of Amish life and countryside are profound. The book doesn't end, it simply slips away, leaving the reader, Will, and Riley with hope.
Profound and moving search for identity and morality.......2006-03-26
In 1985, sixty-year-old Will McGruder gets the sad news that his elderly father has passed away, and Will heads to Apple Creek, Ohio, for the funeral, accompanied by Riley, his thirty-five-year-old son. And, Will begins to re-examine his past, his relationships, his values, and his life.
In 1943, nineteen-year-old Will Mullett decides he cannot stay with his rigid, dogmatic, Old Order Amish family, and heads out to face the evil, the challenges, the complexity, the diversity, and the beauty of the World.
Will McGruder is Will Mullett.
W. Dale Cramer has given us a wondrous gift of prose in this introspective fictional biography. Adeptly shifting back and for between two time-lines (the days between Will's father's death and Will's father's funeral, and the decades between Will's departure from home and his father's death), we get to ride along as Will ponders such weighty issues as the meaning of life, the differences between rituals and relationships, the differences between religion and faith and beliefs and values, the tendency for people to parent their own children differently from how they were raised (despite vowing to do otherwise), and how to live with, and grow beyond, one's own mistakes. Mr. Cramer has created a realistic protagonist who is truly three-dimensional, in this character study of a character who is worthy of study.
The writing in "Levi's Will" flows evenly and deeply. In Orson Scott Card's "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy," Mr. Card cites the late Octavia Butler as a prime example of an author who loaded every line with meaning, and gives the first line of Ms. Butler's "Wild Seed" as an example. Mr. Cramer has gone a step further, in a way, as even the title, "Levi's Will" has many different meanings, all of which gradually emerge throughout this rich tale of humanity, grief, tragedy, triumph, and love.
Chapter 36 of "Levi's Will" deserves special mention, as it is a turning point for the protagonist, and is a wonderful essay on the meaning of life, love, and belief. All of the bits and pieces of wisdom encountered by Will McGruder/Mullett finally coalesce into an epiphany that changes his world-view, and the reader gets to join that moment of wonder. Mr. Cramer manages to do this with finesse, and it really gives the reader a chance to re-examine his or her own beliefs and values, without feeling that the author is preaching or dictating the "Truth" or the "right" answers.
In some ways, I am startled that I enjoyed this book, and that I wrote what I wrote in this review. While I have always held strong moral and spiritual beliefs, I long ago turned away from organized religion, because of the rigid dogma and ritual I had encountered. From reading the description and reviews of this book, one might get the impression that religion is the focus of the story. I see it differently. Religion is the context of "Levi's Will," but its focus is really on the beliefs, values, ethics, and morality that are supposed to be the true messages of religion. I think there is much that is of value in "Levi's Will" for the Christian, and for anyone of any other religion, as well as for agnostics and even atheists. At it's root, "Levi's Will" is a tale, well told, about values and the power of love.
A Prodigal's Story.......2006-03-23
Levi's Will is a masterfully crafted story that captures you from the very beginning. Not only does it pull back a curtain to artfully portray the Amish way of life, it gets to the heart of broken relationships in a way that transcends culture or religion. Cramer has created believable characters and shown us their hearts, making us care very much about the outcome. And through it all he teaches a valuable lesson about love and forgiveness
Book Description
For much of his life Pascal (1623-62) worked on a magnum opus which was never published in its intended form. Instead, he left a mass of fragments, some of them meant as notes for the Apologie. These were to become known as the Pensees, and they occupy a crucial place in Western philosophy and religious writing. Pascal's general intention was to confound scepticism about metaphysical questions. Some of the Pensees are fully developed literary reflections on the human condition,, some contradict others, and some remain jottings whose meaning will never be clear. The most important are among the most powerful aphorisms about human experience and behaviour ever written in any language. This translation is the only one based on the Pensees as Pascal left them. It includes the principal dossiers classified by Pascal, as well as the essential portion of the important Writings on Grace. A detailed thematic index gives access to Pascal's areas of concern, while the selection of texts and the introduction help to show why Pascal changed the plan of his projected work before abandoning the book he might have written.
Customer Reviews:
A beautiful mind.......2006-10-13
Seldom does a week go by that one of Pascal's musings doesn't come to my mind. Most often, I think, his comment that he believes that all man's misery is due to either laziness or impatience ("....not being able to sit quietly in a room alone"). I've seen that played out so many times, and it's my favorite lecture to my grandchildren.
As another reviewer has said, Pascal's most provocative reflections are on the miraculous survival of the nation of Israel and what that tells us about the divine authorship of the Bible. This was especially surprising and gratifying to me in light of his times and religious affiliation.
Most amusing is his fascination with the male fixation on games involving balls. He turns that one over and over and never quite figures it out.
I always find it restful to pick up this tiny, sweet-tempered book--so huge in its enduring wisdom--and read a few pages. It always gives me something more worthwhile and just plain fun to think about than politics and my irritating next-door neighbor.
Difficult.......2005-08-12
Hard to grasp. A following sentence will contradict the sentence above. Ravings not musings. If read by a believer it is great writing. If read by a stoic it's ragtime.
"In order to love God you must hate yourself." ???
The Spirtual/Logical Mind Reveals Thoughful Comtemplations.......2005-04-21
Pascal's Pensees are among the more interesting and enlightened of Christian writings. Pascal was a brilliant 17th century mathematician and scientist who tabulated binomial coefficients, provided groundwork in the field of hydrodynamics and also invented the syringe. But for some reason he seems to be known best for his "Pensees" (thoughts). These Pensees are deeply religious but like Pascal's Wager (the argument that it makes sense to believe in god even if it can't be proven scientifically) they are also extraordinarily logical. And this is the crux of the enigma that is Blaise Pascal: how could a man of such brilliant reason also have such unshakeable faith? The answer is to some degree in the Pensees but at the same it is also something so sublime that it touches the realm of existentialism. Regardless, the Pensees are really thoughtful writings not all of which confront the existence of God. The also provide interesting insight into the intellect of the early age of reason.
Many compare Pascal to Montaigne and though I agree that they came from the same stock they certainly fall into different camps. Montaigne was an intellectual bon vivant and if one reads his "Essays" it is easy to see that his value in reason and science is not nearly as complete as that of Pascal. I really enjoy Montaigne and find myself thinking more like he did than Pascal. My belief is that their style of straightforward easy eloquence is similar due to the fact that they were both French intellectuals but the comparison should end there. The Pensees are great and I don't think they were meant to be read with any speed. Buying a copy is a great investment because it provides a series of aphorisms and thoughts for a lifetime of contemplation.
- Ted Murena
A milestone of Western religious thought .......2004-10-18
This is one of the great works of Western religious thought. It is written in fragments, but these fragments are often brilliant poetic thoughts . Many of them have become part of the everyday vocabulary of the Western mind. " Man is a reed, but he is a thinking reed" " The silence of these infinite spaces cast me into dread"
Among the major suggestions of Pascal's thought is the Pascalian wager which William James picked upon. Roughly speaking betting on the non- existence of G-d gives nothing. But betting on the existence of G-d give the possibility of eternity. Therefore says Pascal we should be wise and bet on the existence of God. And this though it is not certain that God wants us as gamblers.
Pascal's insights also extend into his reading of the Bible and his special insight into the destiny of Israel. His God after all is not " the god of the philosophers but the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob " Pascal saw the continued survival the miraculous survival of the people of Israel through generations of persecution and suffering as a proof of the existence of G-d. And for that alone I have tremendously warm feelings for him.And this aside from the gratitude of his overwhelmingly powerful and beautiful insights.
This is one of the great books for probing the heart of Man and the Universe. And we should never stop rereading it.
'The Great Pascal'.......2003-12-03
This Oxford's version of the Pensees is in some ways superior to the Penguin Classics version. The introduction, by Anthony Levi, gives a much better insight into the history behind the development of Pascal's 'thoughts'. As far as the biography is concerned, Oxford's version gives a much broader span of time concerning Blaise's life.
A lot of people blame Pascal for not being like Montaigne, but that is just foolish. I enjoy Pascal's style because of its originality, and there also seems to me to be a similiar style between both men--espcially in how they both change ideas in a brief span of time. I believe Montainge originally meant to make his 'essays' a collection of expanded sayings and maxims but it took another form, and Pascal maybe wanted his 'pensees' to be his magnum opus by turning it into a large book that would be something like Montaign's Essays. Both men, I guess, envisioned something different from their final product and both of them left a legacy that was fruitful and informative, and their works shouldn't be compared as two competing styles since they are so different from one another in both format and intention.
And after reading Pascal's 'Discussion with Monsieur de Sacy', I was struck by Pascal's shear brilliance. He is a giant of a writer and is one of the cleanest writers I have ever read.
Product Description
Christian fiction
Customer Reviews:
Quiet, thought-provoking, journey of discovery.......2007-02-28
In 1985, sixty-year-old Will McGruder gets the sad news that his elderly father has passed away, and Will heads to Apple Creek, Ohio, for the funeral, accompanied by Riley, his thirty-five-year-old son. And, Will begins to re-examine his past, his relationships, his values, and his life.
In 1943, nineteen-year-old Will Mullett decides he cannot stay with his rigid, dogmatic, Old Order Amish family, and heads out to face the evil, the challenges, the complexity, the diversity, and the beauty of the World.
Will McGruder is Will Mullett.
W. Dale Cramer has given us a wondrous gift of prose in this introspective fictional biography. Adeptly shifting back and forth between two time-lines (the days between Will's father's death and Will's father's funeral, and the decades between Will's departure from home and his father's death), we get to ride along as Will ponders such weighty issues as the meaning of life, the differences between rituals and relationships, the differences between religion and faith and beliefs and values, the tendency for people to parent their own children not very differently from how they were raised (despite vowing to do otherwise), and how to live with, and grow beyond, one's own mistakes. Mr. Cramer has created a realistic protagonist who is truly three-dimensional, in this character study of a character who is worthy of study.
The writing in "Levi's Will" flows evenly and deeply. In Orson Scott Card's "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy," Mr. Card cites the late Octavia Butler as a prime example of an author who loaded every line with meaning, and gives the first line of Ms. Butler's "Wild Seed" as an example. Mr. Cramer has gone a step further, in a way, as even the title, "Levi's Will" has many different meanings, all of which gradually emerge throughout this rich tale of humanity, grief, tragedy, triumph, and love.
Chapter 36 of "Levi's Will" deserves special mention, as it is a turning point for the protagonist, and is a wonderful essay on the meaning of life, love, and belief. All of the bits and pieces of wisdom encountered by Will McGruder/Mullett finally coalesce into an epiphany that changes his world-view, and the reader gets to join that moment of wonder. Mr. Cramer manages to do this with finesse, and it really gives the reader a chance to re-examine his or her own beliefs and values, without feeling that the author is preaching or dictating the "Truth" or the "right" answers.
In some ways, I am startled that I enjoyed this book, and that I wrote what I wrote in this review. While I have always held strong moral and spiritual beliefs, I long ago turned away from organized religion, because of the rigid dogma and ritual I had encountered. From reading the description and reviews of this book, one might get the impression that religion is the focus of the story. I see it differently. Religion is the context of "Levi's Will," but its focus is really on the beliefs, values, ethics, and morality that are supposed to be the true messages of religion. I think there is much that is of value in "Levi's Will" for the Christian, and for anyone of any other religion, as well as for agnostics and even atheists. At it's root, "Levi's Will" is a tale, well told, about values and the power of love.
Book Description
THIS 10 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual, by Eliphas Levi. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766102971.
Book Description
THIS 14 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Paradoxes of the Highest Science, by Eliphas Levi. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 1564590208.
Download Description
THIS 14 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Paradoxes of the Highest Science, by Eliphas Levi. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 1564590208.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), published by The Register Guard on April 9, 2002. The length of the article is 862 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Low sales force Levi to make deep cuts.(Business)(Jobs: The downsizing campaign will not affect the company's service center in Eugene.)
Publication:
The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) (Newspaper)
Date: April 9, 2002
Publisher: The Register Guard
Page: B1
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from New York Times Upfront, published by Scholastic, Inc. on April 26, 2004. The length of the article is 1973 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Made in the USA? Not anymore: Levi's and Etch A Sketch are just two of the many 'American' products that are now made overseas. How will the increasing outsourcing of jobs affect workers and the economy in the U.S.?(Cover Story)
Author: Joseph Kahn
Publication:
New York Times Upfront (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 26, 2004
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Volume: 136
Issue: 13
Page: 10(6)
Article Type: Cover Story
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Average customer rating:
- Good stuff.
- What a year
- Shelve It Anywhere
- Wow! A new Lansdale fan here!
- A Moving and Evocative Story
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Fine Dark Line, A
Joe R. Lansdale
Manufacturer: Brilliance Audio Unabridged
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
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ASIN: 1590862821
Release Date: 2003-01-08 |
Book Description
The time is the summer of 1958. The place is Dewmont, Texas, a town that the great American postwar boom has somehow passed by. A sad, hollow beat trails the kids who tune into rockabilly on the radio and waste their weekends at the Dairy Queen. And an undetected menace simmers under the heat that clings to the skin like thin molasses.
For blissfully ignorant thirteen-year-old Stanley Mitchell, the end of innocence comes with his discovery of an old trove of passionate yet troubled love letters that lead him to a long-ago house fire and the tragic deaths of two very different young women. Obsessed with investigating their fates, Stanley finds a guide and mentor in black, elderly Buster Lighthouse Smith, a retired Indian Reservation policeman who now runs the projector at the drive-in theater owned by Stanley's parents. The laconic Buster tutors Stanley on the finer points of Sherlock Holmes, the blues, and life's lost dreams.
But not every buried thing stays dead. And in one terrifying night of rushing creek water and thundering rain, an arcane, murderous force will suddenly rise from the past to threaten the boy - and test the limits of Buster's strength and wisdom. In the end the old man teaches Stanley a lesson that will haunt him always, about the forever short distance between living flesh and the dust from which it came.
Download Description
For young Stanley Mitchell, Jr., 1958 is quickly becoming a year of newfound joys and thrilling adventure. Beginning with the discovery of hidden love letters, and an uneasy meeting with Buster Lighthorse Smith, the Dewdrop Drive-in's elderly projectionist and former reservation policeman.Through him, Stanley learns about blues music, Sherlock Holmes, racism, and lost dreams. Through the natural course of growing up, he learns the true nature of his father's heart, the love of his mother, sister, and house servant, Rosy, and becomes involved with a forbidden world that exists beneath Dewmont, Texas like dirt and bacteria beneath a beautiful carpet. Stanley enters a forbidden world of secrets filled with death and darkness, jealous lovers and ghostly occurrences-until he discovers the real murderer of the young girl who wrote the love letters he discovered, and becomes the murderer's next target.
Customer Reviews:
Good stuff........2006-07-24
If it's a coming-of-age story with supernatural elements set in the late 50s (or thereabouts) there's a good chance I'll like it, and the venerable Joe R. Lansdale's "A Fine Dark Line" novel is no exception.
I don't think the fun of this novel is about the believability of the events but its wonderful ambiance full of evocative nostalgia and old-school action. It feels delightfully pulpy in places but also has a modern, self-conscious sensibility about it.
The protagonist of the book is 13 year old Stanley Mitchell. He lives in the fictional small East Texas down of Dewmont. He lives with an older sister by a few years, Cassie, and his mother and father in a house with an outer wall that doubles as the drive-in (owned and operated by the family) projection screen. Also featured prominently are two African-American characters, the projectionist Buster Smith and the family's housekeeper and cook Rosy, and of course what story like this is complete without a loyal and heroic pet dog. The era, setting, set-up, and cast of characters all make for an intriguing start that makes it easy to get into the book.
One day Stanley finds a buried box full of letters that hint at tragedy and scandal in the town's past. This box of letters starts Stanley on the road to a series of improbable yet entertaining adventures, and a lot of growing up. Along the way Stanley also learns through his adventures and the people around him, particularly Buster, Rosy, and his sister, about pertinent life issues, like love, sex, racism, abuse, and many facets of human nature. In his adventures he comes across threats both supernatural and human.
Lansdale is a very gifted storyteller with a good sense of the era and a natural ear for the dialogue. Some it may seem over the top to modern readers who didn't live through the time, but mostly it rings true. The characters are all excellently fleshed out, the plotting is fine and the pacing superb.
To conclude, this novel is really a crowd pleaser, and I could see it appealing to mature readers of all ages and interests. I prefer it to Lansdale's earlier coming-of-age novel with supernatural touches (set in the Depression era) "The Bottoms." I recommend "A Fine Dark Line" without reservation.
What a year.......2006-04-13
What a year it was for baby boomers, 1958! That being said, again we have another fine novel that takes place over the summer of 1958, this time in eastern Texas. (My last review was Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door, which also took place over the summer of 1958; but The Girl Next Door is an entirely different kind of story, the very antithesis, if you will, of A Fine Dark Line.)
I was just a little, teensy kid in 1958, and remember the world as a bigger and less demanding place than it is now. Bigger because I was small and vulnerable and knew nothing about it, and less demanding because I was a kid--maybe. Being a child does not guarantee one a carefree childhood full of happy memories (read The Girl Next Door). But I do think America was in many ways a simpler place in the fifties, if perilous for some. And this is the beauty of A Fine Dark Line, Joe R. Lansdale's engaging story about thirteen-year-old Stanley Mitchell, whose world is a conundrum of simple and dangerous; simple because it is 1958, and his parents love him; dangerous because he discovers a buried old box full of troubled but unsigned love letters that suggest something dark and terrible has happened in the not-too-distant past, and Stanley is determined to unravel the mystery, which puts him directly in the sights of death itself.
Stanley seeks out the help of one Buster Lighthouse Smith, an elderly Seminole and African American mix-blood, who runs the movie projector for the Dew Drop drive-in theater, which Stanley's father owns on the outskirts of a humid but dusty hamlet called Dewmont, Texas. (Stanley and his family live over the drive-in, in the residential quarters. It doesn't get much better than that, kids.)
Old Buster, it turns out, is a retired Indian Reservation policeman, who knows a thing or two about investigating mysteries. Buster becomes Stanley's mentor, unbeknownst to Stanley's father, and helps him unravel the dark mystery surrounding the love letters and the deaths of two young girls, though not before the quest puts Stanley, his older sister Callie, and his best pal Richard in dire peril.
This book is one of my all time favorites. I bought the hardcover edition, and kept it on my coffee table weeks after I'd finished reading it. For one thing, I wanted to keep the memory of the story alive in my head; and for another, the artwork on the cover is terrific, depicting old town Americana, vintage automobiles, an old Buick. (My parents owned a 1952 Buick. Now that was a car.) The art is nostalgic.
Mr. Lansdale writes with a convincing voice, and tells an even story with a style reminiscent of Harper Lee's, To Kill a Mockingbird. You won't be disappointed reading this book, folks--I don't care what age you are.
Shelve It Anywhere.......2005-08-25
I found this book in the mystery/thriller section. It could have been in many other sections as well: coming of age, southern literature, 1950's literature, dysfunctional families or race relations to name just a few.
The narrator, East Texan 13 year old Stanley Mitchel, Jr., gets a lifetime's worth of education during one summer vacation in the 1950's. While "investigating" a few murders and the ghosts of their victims, he learns about the birds and the bees, race relations (his mother is liberal his father uses the word "nigger"), murderers, friendship and dysfunctional families. His family, though it has warts, is a close-knit support group. Every character in the book has depth and believeability. There are no cardboard cutouts in this novel. Even the evil protagonists never quite fit into a stereotype.
The story moves at a blistering pace. The many evolving relationships move the book along as much, if not more than, the mystery component. There are some truly loveable characters here - main and tangential, and some truly nasty evil-doers as well. The mystery is really the vehicle that meshes the characters' relationships.
Mr. Lansdale is a superb writer. He captures the down to earth voice of the teen narrator extremely well. There is something of Huck Finn/Tom Sawyer in both the telling and the wide-eyed view the narrator brings to the telling of the tale.
This is an extremely fast-paced read, but there are so many subplots and social issues touched upon that it would be great reading group fodder. Highly entertaining. Highly thought-provoking. Highly recommended.
Wow! A new Lansdale fan here!.......2005-05-05
Just finished reading A Fine Dark Line and I am hooked! This was a completely engrossing, poignant yarn about a 13 year-old boy and the goings-on in his Texas town over the summer of 1958. This was a good old-fashioned murder mystery, coming-of-age, friendship/relationship tale all rolled into one. Kinda reminded me of some of Stephen King's works where a boy or boys are the main character (Stand By Me, Hearts in Atlantis, etc.). I just did not want this book to end, I loved the story and the characters so much! Can't wait to find some more Lansdale books and/or stories to read next.
A Moving and Evocative Story.......2005-01-06
It's 1958 and Stanley Mitchel is a very young thirteen years old. His family has just moved to the small town of Dewmont, Texas where they have purchased the Dew Drop Drive-in and Concession stand. Although he's out of school for the summer, Stanley is about to learn some tough lessons about love, loyalty, friendship, racism and about the perversity that often lurks deep in the human heart. Oh yeah, he also figures out why those cars parked out near the back fence each night at the drive-in are always rockin'.
One day Stanley and his faithful dog, Nub, discover a rusty old box full of love letters buried in the yard of a burned out house behind the family's property. The letters were written by a young girl who had been brutally murdered twenty years earlier. With the help of Buster Abbot Lighthorse Smith, the surly and aging African American projectionist employed by his father, Stanley decides to solve the old murder that has fallen into his lap. The boy starts digging but there are some folks in Dewmont who would prefer to "let sleeping dogs lie." Before too long, Stanley and his family are immersed in and threatened by the sins of Dewmont - past and present. As the violence and menace close in and as Stanley gets closer and closer to the truth, the young boy's eyes are opened and his heart is broken by the tragic and bittersweet drama of adulthood and the inevitable loss of innocence that always seems to come along for the ride.
A FINE DARK LINE is a powerful and haunting work. Lansdale writes with grace and genuine emotion. His experience in the gothic tradition enables him to give his readers a glimpse of the darkest reaches of the human soul while at the same time crafting a story that is as uplifting, hopeful and as ripe with promise as a sunny day stretching ahead of a young boy and his dog on summer vacation. But just beneath the surface or hiding behind that big oak tree just beyond the next corner are danger, disappointment and death. Stanley soon discovers that learning to be a man means glorying in and appreciating that promise while being at the same time always prepared to face disillusionment and disenchantment. "That's life," Buster tells Stanley, "Ain't always satisfactory, but sometimes the part that is, is pretty damn good. Thing to remember is, enjoy life, `cause in the end, dirt and flesh is pretty much the same thing. You understand that?"
A FINE DARK LINE is a novel that succeeds on multiple levels: as a mystery with wondrously wrought gothic elements, as a moving and poignant evocation of a bygone era, and as the story of one small boy's soul-wrenching journey to adulthood and, ultimately, to peace with himself and his place in the world. But Stanley's journey is also our journey as well. It's Lansdale's ability to make that connection in such an effective and entertaining way that elevates this book beyond the level of the ordinary thriller.(James Clar - MYSTERY NEWS)
Average customer rating:
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A FINE DARK LINE
Joe Lansdale
Manufacturer: Subterranean Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000P0U70I |
Product Description
2 Titles By Joe R. Lansdale : The Bottoms A Fine Dark Line. Two Trade Sized Softcover Books.
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- My Sunshine (Coulter Family)
- Never Look Back
- On the Street Where You Live
- Open and Shut
- Over the Moon at the Big Lizard Diner
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Green Money
- A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League
- S-Centered Radicals
- The Yellow Wind: With a New Afterword by the Author
- The Quilts of Gee's Bend: Masterpieces from a Lost Place
- Astronomy: A Beginner's Guide to the Universe, Fourth Edition
- What Every Kid Should Know
- Artforms Revised & Artnotes Package, Seventh Edition
- The Body of Christ in the Art of Europe and New Spain, 1150-1800
- The Genus Pleione
