This is one of those books that will make you shake your head in wonder at how much contemporary fiction is dull, lifeless trash, just because it’s so subtle and hilarious that to admire its virtues is to bring the flaws of others into sharp contrast by implication. The Dog of the South provides a sprawling panoramic view of a particular strain of American culture, with its mix of simple, uncomplicated religious belief and modern economics that seems to winnow the very life and meaning out of the country. The prose style is very artful and the character of the doctor is an American type very reminiscent of the traveling hucksters and other marginal types found in Mark Twain’ or in O’ Tooles “Confederacy of Dunces”. [Read more…]
Mar 17, 2018
The Dog Of The South (Charles Portis)
·
Advertisements
Dec 5, 2016
Pawnbroker (Jerry Hatchett)
·Ignore the crappy cover. “Law. . . It was all a game, one whose outcome was usually determined not so much by right and wrong as by who had the money and who held the power.” I’ll buy that. In the case of this snappy, fast-paced novel by Jerry Hatchett, law as game and money and power is the whole point. Gray Bolton is a simple pawnbroker. He spends his days with the poor, the downtrodden, the hopeless and helpless of society. [Read more…]