By turns absurd, hilarious, and terrifying, this outrageous collection features the best writings of the high priest of Texan weirdness. Odd-ball detectives, malicious rocks, spectral prehistoric fish, and vampire hunters permeate these vividly detailed stories. Featuring cult-classic award-winning tales such as “Night They Missed the Horror Show” and “Mad Dog Summer,” along with nonfiction forays into drive-in theaters and low budget films, this dynamic retrospective represents the broad spectrum of Lansdale’s career. “Bubba Hotep”—the tale of Elvis, John F. Kennedy, and a soul-sucking mummy, which was made into an award-winning film—is included along with the acclaimed novella, “On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks,” and never before collected works. Original, compelling, and downright odd, this unforgettable compilation is essential reading for fans of horror, mystery, and southern gothic.
The Best of Joe R. Lansdale
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Always entertaining, champion storyteller Lansdale (Vanilla Ride) shares his best weird yarns in this terrific collection. Crucified Dreams, an emotional introduction (I speak uncensored, unfiltered, and full of madness), prefaces 16 stories pushing the limits of westerns, mystery, horror, southern gothic, and satire. Five Stoker-winning tales and several stories later translated onto the screen (including campy Elvis tale Bubba Ho-Tep) share space with such jewels as the intense Incident On and Off a Mountain Road, about a tough woman with a wild secret; succinct Cowboy, in which a man meets an African-American boy yearning for more stories about black cowboys; and the hilarious White Mule, Spotted Pig, about a frustrated man's bid for freedom via a wacky mule race. This is a great introduction to the raunchy, cheerfully unclassifiable East Texan bon vivant. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Indisputably one of horror’s most revered craftsmen, with more than 30 novels and hundreds of stories to his credit, Lansdale sports an idiosyncratic, endearingly profane style. Where else but in a Lansdale story would one find Godzilla in a 12-step program tailored to oversized monsters, or an octogenarian Elvis, confined to a bed in the Shady Grove Convalescent Home, facing down a soul-eating Egyptian mummy? Both tales are in this handpicked best-of collection, about which his fans could only object that its total of 16 stories is far too small. Lansdale’s favored themes run from zombies to vampire hunters to drive-in theaters, and his storytelling encompasses everything from gross-out horror to satire. For the record, “Mad Dog Summer,” about a brother and sister’s tense encounter with a backwoods creature during the Depression, is worth the price of the volume all by itself; and as a bonus attraction, Lansdale includes a rambling, autobiographical essay describing his East Texas boyhood and the many influences on his fiction, from comics to fantasy. --Carl Hays
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More About the Author
Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over thirty novels and numerous short stories. His work has appeared in national anthologies, magazines, and collections, as well as numerous foreign publications. He has written for comics, television, film, newspapers, and Internet sites. His work has been collected in eighteen short-story collections, and he has edited or co-edited over a dozen anthologies. He has received the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker Awards, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award, the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy, and many others. His novella Bubba Hotep was adapted to film by Don Coscarelli, starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis. His story "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" was adapted to film for Showtime's "Masters of Horror." He is currently co-producing several films, among them The Bottoms, based on his Edgar Award-winning novel, with Bill Paxton and Brad Wyman, and The Drive-In, with Greg Nicotero. He is Writer In Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University, and is the founder of the martial arts system Shen Chuan: Martial Science and its affiliate, Shen Chuan Family System. He is a member of both the United States and International Martial Arts Halls of Fame. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife, dog, and two cats.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Rogues Gallery,
By Gary Griffiths (Los Altos Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Best of Joe R. Lansdale (Kindle Edition)
Joe Lansdale is the bare-knuckled, no-holds-barred voice of American fiction - a shrewd genius who buries in what seems on the surface to be good ole boy yucks and corn pone a keen insight and deep morality. "The Best of Joe R. Lansdale" is an extraordinarily entertaining anthology that captures the author's versatility and brilliance - a thrill and chill-packed collection of short stories crossing boundaries of horror, drama, and cynically black humor - all creative, off-the-wall, and a lot of fun.
There's not a turkey in the bunch, but my favorites: "The Big Blow": a fictional but well-researched tale of the deadly Galveston hurricane of 1900, spiced with an illicit boxing match between the first black heavy weight champion, Jack Johnson, and the most vile, despicably drawn opponent I can even remember reading. "Mad Dog Summer": a moving and poignant tale of racial tension and Great Depression economics combined with gothic mystery - suspenseful with a supernatural lilt. I assume this was the basis for "The Bottoms," one of my all-time favorite Lansdale novels. "Incidents On and Off a Mountain Road": classic suspense and horror with a wicked and totally unexpected twist. "On the Far Side of the Cadillac Dessert with Dead Folks": with a title like this, you know you're gonna get an extra dose of Lansdale's mischief. Sure to offend many, leave it to Lansdale to twist zombies and Disney and Christianity around a malignant version of a Michael Crichton plot. "Bubba Ho-Tep": so what if Elvis really was still alive, and it was actually an Elvis impersonator that died? Whatever you can imagine, I can pretty much guarantee this is not what you're thinking. "The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out in a Harlequin Romance": another wacky-great title, leading into an unlikely murder mystery with well drawn characters featuring Lansdale's unique brand of humor and razor-sharp metaphors. And perhaps the best, "Steppin' Out, Summer, `68": a coming of age tale so darkly funny that only Lansdale's beautifully warped mind could have spun a story that so-well captures the pressures and myths of a trio of teens' passage into adulthood combined with such hilariously disastrous results. Terrific character development, a sneaky pace, and an outrageous climax make this a classic that deserves a bushel of awards. Trust me - Joe Lansdale is the real deal, an all original American treasure. If you haven't discovered him yet, I can't think of a better place to start than here. And for the fan, what I great place to get some additional insight into the source of the author's creativity and prolificacy.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stories, like grandma use to tell.........,
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This review is from: The Best of Joe R. Lansdale (Paperback)
Letting the imagination take flight,(What a beautiful cover)THE BEST OF JOE R. LANSDALE, the stories
from this man have stuck with me for years, always look forward to whatever he pulls out of his head, he is a master of his craft and what can you say about this "Best of", I'm sure their are actually many of Joe's favorites included here, I've read many of these stories(many, many times over already) but from the cover art to the back this is first class assault to the senses, one hell of a ride into the odd, bizarre & mixed with heart and soul and some real life sprinkled in. A best of collection to take out and enjoy for all its thrilling, off the wall stories. Still knows how to dig deep and tell a mean story and a favorite with few peers to compare to. Long live Joe R. Lansdale!!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Short Story Collection,
By
This review is from: The Best of Joe R. Lansdale (Kindle Edition)
This title doesn't lie. It is truly the best of Joe R Lansdale. He can tell a story like you're sitting in the room listening to him. These stories won't disappoint.
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