I now know more about drug and obscenity laws than I ever imagined I'd need the brain cell storage to accommodate ... and that's a peculiarly good thing. I came out of this book with a new set of unlikely personal heroes - men and women who first challenged the absurdly restrictive obscenity laws in order to make health and birth control information legal to ship through the US mail ... and even folks like the irrepressibly obnoxious Larry Flynt, who is in some respects our nation's last defense against enforced, legislated morality. Read about the bizarre, inconsistent and patently ridiculous drug laws that keep marijuana users under a heavier legal boot than convicted child rapists. Find… Read more
This was a fun little ride through one of the more iconic fairy tales - tracing its original publication as a morality fable about high-society sexual escapades and traipsing on down through the twentieth century. Along the way, the book addresses old Bugs Bunny cartoons, Sam the Sham and the Pharohs ("Little Red Riding Hood ... you sure are looking good ... you're everything a big bad wolf could want ...") and Kim Cattrall in the Pepsi commercial where the wolf/woman roles are exaggerated and fused. Lots of good analysis going on here; much of it is fairly obvious, but every now and again the author surprises you with a little moment of, "Huh. I never thought about it that… Read more
Set in depression-era southeast Texas*, this sort-of-mystery, sort-of-maybe-supernatural story reads like a near-gothic frappe of Harper Lee and early M. Night Shyamalan ... with a Texan accent. It's a richly-drawn, finely-told murder mystery related from the primary POV of 2 kids whose father is struggling with the investigation.
Technically, I guess, the tale is told by the older sibling, who is now elderly (in a nursing home?); and to tell the truth, I wish Lansdale had left the frame story out of it. There's only so much denoument a novel needs, and I got more wind-down than I really wanted. But even so, it's a damn fine story and Lansdale's writing style is enough to keep you flying… Read more
