From Publishers Weekly
Though Partridge (The Ten-Ounce Siesta) writes with energy and style, only rarely does this collection drawn from the past 11 years rise above mediocrity. Yet the book may be worth buying for a single story, "Coyotes," which stands apart from the other 24 like a fine diamond mounted in a rhinestone necklace. From the first line, it captures the perfect narrative attitude to unveil the fate befalling Mexican illegals unfortunate enough to pass through one Southwest border town. Like many a horror classic, the ending is as surprising as it is inevitable, as darkly funny as it is chilling. Deserving of an honorable mention is "Last Kiss," where the unremarkable tone of the teenage narrator contrasts eerily to the ghastly mounting truth about him and his destiny. The rest of the collection mostly weaves through yesteryear's pop culture in ways that leave one wondering what's being celebrated and what's being lampooned. Whether reimagining Howard Hughes as a vampire ("Undead Origami"), Bonnie and Clyde in California ("Red Right Hand"), James Dean surviving his crash ("Spyder"), Dracula settling in the Old West ("Do Not Hasten to Bid Me Adieu"), or Jack and Bobby Kennedy confronting Bluebeard ("Mr. Fox"), too much seems forced and sophomoric. In his charmingly garrulous introduction, the author recounts how his childhood spent frequenting the local movie drive-in instilled a lifelong love for horror and '50s pop culture. Alas, but that it had instilled a more discriminating vision to his fiction.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
A brand-new collection from Norman Partridge! This volume gathers several previously uncollected stories together with two new stories written for this collection. The 24 stories that make up this collection span the length of Partridge's writing career. It also features an 8,500-word introduction, as well as a complete bibliography. As an added bonus, the limited edition also features an unpublished piece of juvenilia, "Castle of the Honda Monsters". - In a suburban American ghost town, a frightened boy armed with a BB gun stands alone against a soul-stealing stranger. - During the Great Depression, outlaw rivals of Bonnie and Clyde battle for their lives in a bullet-riddled cornfield that holds the secret of love and death - Returning to Texas beneath a sky the color of a woman's heart, the man who slew Count Dracula brings a coffin and a thirst for vengeance to the town that abandoned him. Contents: Seeing Past the Corners (An Introduction of Sorts) Red Right Hand The Man with the Barbed-Wire Fists The Pack Blood Money Last Kiss Blackbirds Wrong Turn Spyder In Beauty, Like the Night Minutes Where the Woodbine Twineth Mr. Fox The Hollow Man Return of the Shroud Tombstone Moon The Mojave Two-Step Coyotes !Cuidado! Do Not Hasten To Bid Me Adieu Carne Muerta Bucket of Blood Undead Origami Harvest The Bars On Satan's Jailhouse
From the Publisher
Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Collection!
