Wed 15 Jul 2015
Reviewed by Barry Gardner: DANIEL WOODRELL – The Ones You Do.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[2] Comments
DANIEL WOODRELL – The Ones You Do. St. Bruno #3. Henry Holt, hardcover, 1992. Pocket, paperback, 1998. Also published in The Bayou Trilogy, hardcover, Mulholland Books, 2011.
The first two books set in St. Bruno (Under the Bright Lights and Muscle for the Wing) have featured Rene Shade, a policeman there, as the protagonist; and his brother Tip, a semi-shady character who owns a bar, appeared in a supporting role. (A third brother was and is again seen only peripherally.) Both are featured prominently again, but here their long-absent father, John X. Shade, joins the cast and provides the focus for the tale.
John X. is on the run. His young wife has left him, stealing a large chunk of money John was keeping for a local hardcase. The hardcase is neither understanding, forgiving, nor non-lethal, so John flees with his 10 year old daughter, Etta (who was left behind by the absconding wife), back to what he hopes is the comparative safety of St. Bruno.
His past is hot on his trail, though, in the person of the hardcase, Lunch Pumphrey. All of the Shade clan figure prominently in the story, as does Rene’s love from past books, Nicole. The ending will surprise you, I think.
The Ones You Do strays farther from genre norms than the first two, though Woodrell has never really written standard mystery, detective or crime stories. They are crime novels in that crimes are committed, but more than anything else they are books about people on the underside of life, people who are rough as the proverbial cob. They are rarely nice people, but they are real; if you were raised up semi-rough and rural you ll probably recognize one or two of them.
Not all of them ring true, though — I found the sketching of the vanished wife almost cartoonish, and the relationship between Tip and a pregnant field-hippie wasn’t particularly convincing, either.
I have long felt that Woodrell is underappreciated. His stories of the Louisiana bayou country and people have a gritty, realistic feel. The tone is wry and ironic, and he has a genuine talent with words. With the caveat that the language is rough and the people rougher. I highly recommend all three books.
July 16th, 2015 at 11:30 pm
Good assessment of Woodrell who I thought would go farther.
July 17th, 2015 at 1:46 pm
A good friend of mine, Dan Robers, who passed away about a year ago, was a strong proponent of Woodrell’s work. I kept promising him that I’d give Woodrell a try, but I never did. This series may be the place to start.
Barry called Woodrell underappreciated, and he was right then, and he’s right now, even though Woodrell is still actively writing, or so I believe. He doesn’t go out of his way to follow the trends that more popular writers add only small variations on. He’s cut his own path — in fact, his own individual niche, “country noir,” as it’s commonly referred to– and he sticks to it.