Honky-Tonk Samurai

Honky Tonk Samurai – Joe R. Lansdale

Like an old pair of jeans, or better yet, one of my pairs of boots. Just slip right in, and get comfortable. A punch to the gut, a good start as any, and what would I expect from Hap and Leonard, although, to be honest, the books are far better than TV. Except, maybe for that girlfriend — I forgot about the TV series, but I remembered her.

God bless Joe R. Lansdale (Scorpio) because he lends an authenticity to deep East Texas, like he’s been there.

“I like people with a little spice, even if it gives me a bit of heartburn.” Page 47.

Always a little spice — frequently mixed with a little ultra-violence.

There’s a point, very early in the book wherein a character’s image is drawn out in excruciating detail, more as a grotesque, rather than as a real person. Herein is the problem: raised in East Texas?

These characters exist. In real life.

What an ill-informed reader would assume, reading this material, that the people are larger than life, or weirder than life, or whatever, too fictional to be probable? Integral to the story, there she is, larger than life, and yet, those of us from around these parts, yeah, we know her. Or someone just like her.

Sometimes someone from up north will come down to East Texas and say, “It’s so hot, but living here all your life, I guess you get used to it.”

No. You don’t. Page 104.

I was raised with it. Sure, it’s hot, but it’s a wet heat.

Part way through, the author’s tricky, so simple but so good story-telling picks up and then, can’t put the book down until the end.

Think this is about number 8 or 9, and I missed one someplace in the mix. That being duly noted, it didn’t interrupt the way the story motored right along, or the way a character from previous book didn’t cause any problems, and fit right in, quality craftsmanship in narrative form.

I’m less about the horror, but more about the texture of the novels. Straight-up deep east Texas scare stuff.

Looking up a fictional element, like fact-checking, I stumbled across a term in a review, sort of fits.

Hap and Leonard, Joe R. Lansdales’s creations, are a sub-genre called “Texploitation.”

Violent horror and the seamy underbelly with a touch of vice, and a deep East Texas twang.

Honky-Tonk Samurai

Honky Tonk Samurai – Joe R. Lansdale