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 As an added bonus, the limited edition also features an unpublished piece of juvenilia, "Castle of the Honda Monsters".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
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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.
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Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Collection!
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Claire held the gun in her left hand, the blood in her right. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Claire held the gun in her left hand, the blood in her right. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
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Format:Hardcover
Norman Partridge has been doing some of the best work in horror over the past decade. A fan favorite, he also draws high praise from critics and peers, and his work is frequently included in various "Year's Best" collections. In fact, of the twenty-four stories included in The Man With the Barbed Wire Fists, four, "Blackbirds," "Bucket of Blood," "Harvest," and "The Bars on Satan's Jailhouse," found places in such volumes (The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 11 & 12, and The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 6 & 7, respectively).
What stands out in this collection is Partridge's consummate professionalism, particularly his ability to give familiar archetypes a new twist. Thus, he does intriguing work even when constrained by the boundaries of theme anthologies. This is especially evident in the title story (Partridge's take on the Frankenstein mythology), and in tales like "Undead Origami" (featuring Howard Hughes as a vampire), "Do Not Hasten to Bid Me Adieu" (a deconstruction of and epilogue to Stoker's Dracula), "In Beauty, Like the Night (where he uses zombies to make a point about the porno industry), and "The Pack" (a clever mixture of werewolves, bikers, and Mayberry).
Another talent on display is Partridge's ability to grab his audience's attention from the first sentence. Witness this, from "Red Right Hand":
"Claire held the gun in her left hand, the blood in her right."
This, from "Coyotes":
"I was out past the dump, digging a grave for the coyote, when I spotted the van with the naked Mexican chained to the bumper heading my way."
Finally, this, from "Tombstone Moon":
"Black entered the cemetery shack and tossed the severed ear onto the desk, between a can of Brown Derby and a salami sandwich missing a bite."
Not everything in the Partridge universe is this straightforward, however. Tales like "Blood Money," 'Wrong Turn," Minutes," "Where the Woodbine Twineth," and "Mr. Fox" are less accessible, more exercises in style than in linear storytelling. Their often surreal qualities require more work on the part of the reader, an investment of time and effort that is ultimately rewarding.
Despite the obvious craftsmanship behind his work, there is nothing self-conscious or mannered about Norman Partridge's writing. There's an urgency about almost everything he writes, as if, to quote Peter Straub, Partridge is writing "as though his life depends on the words he sets down on the page." This urgency has served him well thus far (pick up previous collections, Mr. Fox and Other Feral Tales and Bad Intentions for further proof), and, by all indications, should exert a positive influence on his work for years to come.
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
Hey, it's Norman Partridge. What else you need to know? If you've ever read so much as one story by this guy then you know how great and original a storyteller he is. Buy this sucker now. Norman needs your money and attention.
By Mitch Henson
Format:Hardcover
Once in awhile a new collection of stories by a single author comes along that grabs the reader and forces him to take notice. Karl Wagner's posthamous "Exorisms and Ecstasies" was one and Harlan Ellison's "Love ain't nothing but sex mispelled" was another. Norman Partridge comes along and takes us for a spin along a gravel track with motor's spiting fire and both carbs blazing. This is a major contender for a World Fantasy Award, produced by Night Shade Books with a real cloth binding, a killer cover painting and an attention do detail that will leave you breathless. This collection offers 24 stories from Partridge that turned this reader into an instant fan. Be warned, if your idea of literature is a safe escape from the mundane world, don't get this book. Nothing is safe about it, it will grab you, hit you low and hard - but you won't look back and nothing will ever be safe again.
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