The Big Blow [Hardcover]

Joe R. Lansdale (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With hundreds of short stories and over a dozen novels to his credit, the prolific and versatile award-winning Texas storytellerDbest known for his series featuring the mismatched East Texas private eyes Hap Collins and Leonard Pine (Bad Chili)Dstrives for darker irony in this often vulgar, sometimes bittersweet, patchwork novella depicting a latter-day Sodom and Gomorrah. The narrative builds an atmosphere of impending doom in the lives of a group of blithely unsuspecting denizens during the four days preceding the 1900 Galveston hurricane, considered by many as the most devastating North American natural disaster of the 20th century. On September 4, 1900, Isaac Cline, the Galveston, Tex., weatherman, receives an official telegram from the Weather Bureau in Washington: "Tropical storm disturbance moving northward over Cuba." That same afternoon, prizefighter John McBride arrives from Chicago, scheduled to fight the local heavyweight champion, a black man named "Lil" Arthur Johnson. Sponsored by a group of racist white businessmen, McBride is offered a $500 bonus if he kills Johnson in the fight. The next day the Washington Bureau warns that the tropical disturbance is moving northwest toward the Keys and could become dangerous. But there is no hint of danger in the balmy air as a romantic young woman loses her virginity to an opportunistic young gigolo on the beach. As the storm nears, two battered whores, a ship's captain sailing for Pensacola, a couple with a new baby, the betrayed virgin and the pugilists are all unprepared for approaching disaster. Despite the bare-knuckle prose, there is a heavy sense of karma lurking here. Lansdale's fans will snap it up. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Boxer Jack McBride arrives in Galveston in September 1900 with mayhem on his mind. A local black fighter, Jack Johnson, appears to be on his way to the heavyweight championship. The syndicate that handles McBride wants him to derail the Johnson express and leave boxing's ultimate achievement for white men. After sharpening his skills by abusing a local prostitute, McBride is ready to go after Johnson, but a hurricane gets in the way--not just any hurricane, but the greatest natural disaster in North American history. Johnson, McBride, and the hurricane all converge at the same moment, with surprising results. In extending what had previously been a short story into a short novel, Lansdale adds historical detail and fleshes out his main characters. Initially appearing to be a foul-mouthed lout, McBride emerges as far more admirable than any of his socially connected employers. As he does in his current mainstream novel, The Bottoms [BKL Je 1 & 15 00], Lansdale offers an unflinching portrayal of racism as a social cancer. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 153 pages
• Publisher: Subterranean; 1St Edition edition (September 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892284987
• ISBN-13: 978-1892284983
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,262,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic, wonderful Lansdale, June 17, 2003

By 

Kitten With a Whip "kittenwithawhip" (The Hellmouth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Big Blow (Hardcover)

This novella has one of the best opening lines of all time, and classic Lansdale: "On an afternoon hotter than two rats (making love) in a wool sock, John McBride... arrived by ferry from mainland Texas to Galveston Island, a six-gun under his coat, and a razor in his shoe". The rat metaphor (he doesn't use the term I did--if I quoted him directly, this review would get tossed) did it for me.

Be advised that this is a novella. 153 pages, very large margins. Not saying it's not worth picking up, or reading, just warning you in case you were gonna take it to the beach expecting a long read. The story is set in 1900--it originally appeared in a shorter version in the uneven collection Revelations --and covers five days, broken down by times (4 PM, 10:21 AM, etc. ) rather than chapters. A young black man, Jack, has beaten a white man in a boxing match at the Sporting Club. The townspeople are none too thrilled about a white man losing to him and hire McBride, a vicious and successful fighter, to face off against him, offering more money if McBride will kill him. Meanwhile, the storm of the century is brewing, a dangerous tropical storm blowing in from Key West. Will they even make it to the match? Will the townspeople the book follows live through it?

This is classic, wonderful Lansdale. We spend a lot of time with McBride, who is entertaining but not a likable guy. In fact, most readers will probably want him dead for at least three different reasons by page 20. Jack, his opponent, is not a saint, but he's fighting for his dignity in a racist town. Yes, the characters are racist--the n-word gets thrown around quite a lot-- but it's the characters, not the author,using the term and it's not exactly out-of-place for the location and time period. Offensive, but sadly realistic. We also follow a young couple with a baby, who have to keep moving to higher and higher ground as the flooding worsens... soon they're up to the second floor of their house, with their valuables and their poor scared horse. If you have a phobia of deep water or drowning (I do) some of the scenes, such as the description oft he furniture below them thumping on the ceiling, grating against the floor on which they stand, will make your blood turn to icewater. Actually, they'd probably make anyone's blood chill, phobia or not, especially when Lansdale follows some very unlucky men stuck out at sea on a fishing boat (shades of The Perfect Storm, but remember this story was first published in 97, way before the movie). No matter how bad off you think you are, you'll be thanking God you're not in their shoes.

Lansdale is that most rare and enjoyable of authors to read in that he fits all my criteria for an author who I'd spend my last 20 bucks on to read his latest: a great writer AND a great storyteller, plus this man writes with style (see the fornicating rat description). There's no-one like him out there. This HC may be pricey for the word count, but it's so well written I felt that even though I finished it in one evening, it was worth every penny.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Boxing in a hurricane, July 13, 2011

By 

broiderqueen "army mama" (Southern Oregon) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Big Blow (Hardcover)

Lansdale is one of my favorite authors and a master of the short story format. He can pack more story into just a few pages than most authors can in a whole book.

Lansdale is also not just an author but a storyteller, a skilled raconteur. His descriptive passages read like poetry. "The Big Blow" is a novella but feels much longer. It is harsh, gritty, vulgar. One of the main protaganists, John McBride, is a nasty piece of work. He is cruel to women, vicious to men (but he likes animals - woohoo).

This book is very graphic - language, sex scenes, racial slurs, abuse - but these are not used too indiscriminately and fit the story being told.

This is another winner for Lansdale.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Big Blow, February 17, 2001

By 

D. Hensley (jamestown, nc United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Big Blow (Hardcover)

Very interesting short novel written in Joe Lansdale's unique style. This story takes place in 1900 in Galveston Texas. Lots of characters for a short novel and the main character changes his name from Lil Arthur to Jack. It's boxing and a hurricane. Lots of excitement.