Customer Reviews

The Big Blow

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4 star:		(1)
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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.

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.

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.

I LOVED this novella. I told my boss I had constipation so I could sit in the Ladies Room and read it. What can I say?? I was desperate to find out how it ended. Absolutely, this is Mr. Lansdale at the top of his game. Stop reading this review and start reading "The Big Blow"!!

This is Joe Lansdale's excellent story about the real champion African American boxer Jack Johnson. Jack has defeated Galveston's best white boxer and the white Texas boxing fans will have non of it. So they send off for a white boxer with a bad reputation to fight Johnson and set things right. Meanwhile the 1900 Galveston hurricane is bearing down on the seaside town. This story started as a short story and won a Bram Stoker award. Joe then expanded into a short novel.

Joe Lansdale writes many different kinds of fiction - horror, westerns, mysteries and more "serious" novels like The Big Blow. He excels in all genres. There is a lot going on in this short novel. The two events central to the story are the great Galveston, Texas hurricane of 1900 and a fictional, I presume, prize fight between the famous black boxer Jack Johnson and a white ringer from Chicago by the name of John McBride. These two events track each other to their own respective climaxes. The novel is packed with well-drawn secondary characters and story lines that all fit together very nicely. Lansdale could easily have expanded this book to at least twice its actual size. The fact that he didn't do that demonstrates remarkable self-restraint as well as good judgment. Regardless of the genre, Lansdales stories are always gritty, insightful and humorous. Racism, prejudice and other consequences of ignorance are underlying themes of most of his work. Most importantly, Lansdale is a master story teller. The Big Blow exhibits all of these qualities. I recommend setting aside a few hours in order to be able to read this book in one sitting. The book is hard to put down.

I really enjoyed the short version from the excellent anthology REVELATIONS (1997) and loved how joe took
this and made a great novel. This would make a great movie
someday!