Edge of Dark Water
Joe R. Lansdale, 2012
Little, Brown & Co.
292 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316188425
Summary
Mark Twain meets classic Stephen King—a bold new direction for widely acclaimed Edgar Award winner Joe R. Lansdale.
May Lynn was once a pretty girl who dreamed of becoming a Hollywood star. Now she's dead, her body dredged up from the Sabine River.
Sue Ellen, May Lynn's strong-willed teenage friend, sets out to dig up May Lynn's body, burn it to ash, and take those ashes to Hollywood to spread around. If May Lynn can't become a star, then at least her ashes will end up in the land of her dreams.
Along with her friends Terry and Jinx and her alcoholic mother, Sue Ellen steals a raft and heads downriver to carry May Lynn's remains to Hollywood.
Only problem is, Sue Ellen has some stolen money that her enemies will do anything to get back. And what looks like a prime opportunity to escape from a worthless life will instead lead to disastrous consequences. In the end, Sue Ellen will learn a harsh lesson on just how hard growing up can really be. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—October 28, 1951
• Where—Gladewater, Texas, USA
• Education—N/A
• Awards—8 Bram Stoker Awards; Grinzani Cavour Prize
for Literature; American Horror Award; (see more below)
• Currently—lives in Nacogdoches, Texas
Joe Richard Lansdale is an American author and martial-arts expert. He has written novels and stories in many genres, including Western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense. He has also written for comics as well as Batman: The Animated Series.
Frequent features of Lansdale's writing are usually deeply ironic, strange or absurd situations or characters, such as Elvis and JFK battling a soul-sucking Egyptian mummy in a nursing home (the plot of his Bram Stoker Award-nominated novella, Bubba Ho-Tep, which was made into a movie by Don Coscarelli).
He is perhaps best known for his Hap and Leonard series of novels which feature two friends, Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, who live in the fictional town of Laborde, in East Texas, and find themselves solving a variety of often unpleasant crimes. The characters themselves are an unlikely pairing; Hap is a white working class laborer in his mid forties who once protested against the war in Vietnam, and Leonard is a gay black Vietnam vet. Both of them are accomplished fighters, and the stories (told from Hap's narrative point of view) feature a great deal of violence, profanity and sex. Lansdale paints a picture of East Texas which is essentially "good" but blighted by racism, ignorance, urban and rural deprivation and corruption in public officials. Some of the subject matter is extremely dark, and includes scenes of brutal violence. These novels are also characterized by sharp humor and "wisecracking" dialogue.
His current new release publisher is Mulholland Books, which in 2012 released Edge of Dark Water. About four friends who journey down the Sabine River in East Texas with the ashes of their dead friend and a stolen cache of money, the novel has inspired comparisons to Twain's Huck Finn and Dickey's Deliverence.
Lansdale, who was born in Gladewater, Texas, now lives in Nacogdoches and is the writer in residence at Stephen F. Austin State University. He also teaches at his own Shen Chuan martial arts school and is a member of both the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame and Soke and the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame. He is the father of actress and musician Kasey Lansdale.
Awards
Joe Lansdale has won eight Bram Stoker Awards over the course of his long career—in the Short Fiction, Long Fiction (incl. novellas), Anthology, and Other Media (incl. comics) categories.
1988 - Night They Missed the Horror Show"- short story
1989 - On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks - novella
1992 - The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance"- short story
1993 - Jonah Hex: Two Gun Mojo - Comic Book
1997 - The Big Blow - novel
1999 - Mad Dog Summer (tied) - short story
2006 - Retro Pulp Tales (tied) Anthology
Lansdale was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award nine other times.
Other awards include:
1990 - British Fantasy Award, Best Short Story - "On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks"
2000 - Edgar Award, Best Novel - The Bottoms
2000 - Herodotus Award, Best Historical Mystery - The Bottoms
Lansdale is also frequently cited as winning the American Mystery Award, the Horror Critics Award, the Shot in the Dark International Crime Writer’s award, the Booklist Editor’s Award, and the Critic’s Choice Award. The specifics are difficult to track down at present, but it is likely that at least some of these were awarded to The Bottoms, which is by far his most acclaimed novel.
The Horror Writers Association gave him the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2011, which he received at the Bram Stoker Awards Banquet in Salt Lake City, Utah on March 31, 2012.
On 19 October 2012 he was inducted into The Texas Literary Hall of Fame. (Bio and awards adapted from Wikiipedia.)
Book Reviews
Joe R. Lansdale slips into his folksy storyteller persona…to spin a charming Gothic tale narrated by a feisty schoolgirl…an adventure as funny and frightening as anything that could have been dreamed up by the Brothers Grimm—or Mark Twain.
Marilyn Stasio - New York Times Book Review
A coming of age story peopled with original and fascinating blood-and-bones characters. A chillingly atmospheric tale of good and evil and adolescent angst. Edge of Dark Water has all the potential of becoming a classic, read by generations to come.
New York Journal of Books
Edgar-winner Lansdale channels Mark Twain in this chillingly atmospheric stand-alone set in Depression-era East Texas.... Lansdale's perfect ear for regional dialogue and ability to create palpable suspense lift this above the pack.
Washington Examiner
A storyteller in the great American tradition of Ambrose Bierce and Mark Twain.
Boston Globe
For those new to Lansdale's work, this novel will serve as a good intro: entertaining, eerie and soaked with the East Texas period atmosphere Lansdale owns like no other writer.... Along the river chase, readers will pick up on nods to homer, Dickey, Twain and others, but the brooding East Texas atmosphere is all Lansdale: the specter of Skunk is like something out of a horror movie; man and nature both provide plenty of thrills and chills; the mystery of who killed May Lynn is given just enough attention; and Sue Ellen's precocious teen wisdom and bumpkin delivery provides the laughs.... Joe R. Lansdale could fall into the Sabine River at its filthiest point and still come up dripping nothing but storytelling mojo.
Dallas Morning News
A doozy of a read, the kind of book we call an "all nighter".... It's that kind of great, and it's pure-blood Lansdale, crammed to bursting with plot twists that recall the snaky bends of the Sabine River.... This sucker moves.... It's our favorite book of the year so far, and one of Lansdale's best, ever.
Austin Chronicle
Edgar-winner Lansdale channels Mark Twain in this chillingly atmospheric stand-alone set in Depression-era East Texas. When 16-year-old Sue Ellen Wilson finds the body of her friend May Lynn Baxter in the Sabine River, ...[she] and her two best friends...hatch an elaborate plan: burn May Lynn’s body and take her ashes to California.... When the trio discover money squirreled away...they decide to take it with them on a raft down the Sabine en route to California. Soon they must contend with more than just the current. Lansdale’s perfect ear for regional dialogue and ability to create palpable suspense lift this above the pack.
Publishers Weekly
...[N]ear the dark, snake-infested Sabine River during the Depression years... [o]nly the beautiful May Lynn has thought much about the future, and her plans to run away to Hollywood die with her at the bottom of the Sabine River. Determined that May Lynn will achieve her dream, ...three friends...cremate her body, nab money and a raft, and set out...down the river to Gladewater, where they can catch a bus to Hollywood. Like Huck Finn, each time they leave the river, the friends experience tragedy.... Verdict: Lansdale crafts a perfect noir mood using time, place, and culture for a novel that pits the pretty good against pure evil. —Thomas L. Kilpatrick, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib. at Carbondale
Library Journal
[A] distaff Huck and Jim. Paddling a makeshift raft down the Sabine River, they flee East Texas, a New York minute ahead of their pursuers. There are four of them.... Flagrantly ill-treated, consistently undervalued, they've been brought together by a murder.... It's an event that provides the restless four with both a mission and a pretext. May Lynn always wanted to go to Hollywood.... The river, the raft, a stash of money coveted by bad guys, nonstop adventures that edify, terrify.... A highly entertaining tour de force.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Many reviewers have praised Edge of Dark Water by comparing it to classic works of American fction. What is it about the book that draws these comparisons? Which novels did Edge of Dark Water remind you of?
2. What would you say are the larger themes of Edge of Dark Water? What does this ragtag group’s attempts to preserve May Lynn’s dream of Hollywood stardom suggest about America’s ideals of success?
3. Who was your favorite character in Edge of Dark Water and why?
4. What did you think of the way Lansdale portrays East Texas during the Great Depression? Does his portrayal of the dangers of the road seem accurate to you? What about the state of race relations in the region? No year is ever mentioned outright in the novel—what do you make of Lansdale’s decision not to pin down the story with a specifc date?
5. What did you think of the author’s use of oral storytelling inEdge of Dark Water?
6. Why do you think Lansdale chose the Sabine River for the group’s journey? Would another means of transportation, such as a highway or trail, evoke a different mood or perspective?
7. What role does freedom play in Edge of Dark Water, especially in regard to Sue Ellen’s coming-of-age adventure story? If you were Sue Ellen, do you think you would have set out on the same journey away from home, or wanted to?
8. Which villain in Edge of Dark Water did you fnd most frighten-ing and why—Skunk, Constable Sy, or Uncle Gene?
9. What do you think Edge of Dark Water says about gender roles during the Depression?
10. What did you think of the role Terry played in May Lynn’s death? Do you blame him for the crime or for withholding information from Sue Ellen, Jinx, and Sue Ellen’s mother?