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A Fine Dark Line

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In Joe R. Lansdale's newest novel, A FINE DARK LINE, the reader is carried back to the summer of 1958 when thirteen-year-old Stanley Mitchell, Jr. and his family move to Dewmont, Texas to take over the ownership of the town's only drive-in movie theater. This is the summer that Stanley will lose his childhood innocence and learn that there's no Santa Claus, what sex is really about, the ugly truth concerning racism, and the painful reality about death, murder and the human monsters that hide behind the masks of one's next-door neighbors. It's also the summer that young Stanley begins to learn about the power of friendship, family, love, and the unrelenting courage that's needed in the face of horror. Stanley's journey into adulthood begins when he finds a half-buried metal box filled with old love letters near a burnt-down house in the woods behind the drive-in theater where he and his family now live. The letters belonged to a young girl who was gruesomely murdered almost two decades before. The fact that the crime was never solved triggers Stanley's curiosity. With the help of his older sister, Caldonia, and his new friends Richard Chapman and old Buster Lighthorse Smith, he begins to slowly, but persistently, dig into the past, not knowing that what he discovers will change his life forever. Brilliantly written by one of America's top authors, A FINE DARK LINE carries us back to when comic books were a nickel, Tarzan movies played on TV in the mornings, and a young boy could believe that the fictional John Carter of Mars actually existed. This was a time when anything seemed possible, and small-town life during the hot, sweltering summer months was slow and relaxed, and the local teenagers flocked to the drive-in theater at night to see the newest movies and to make out in their cars. Mr. Lansdale is able to capture the pure ambience of these forgotten memories with a simplicity of words that draws the reader into the story as if he/she was walking the streets of Dewmont with Stanley and his dog, Nub. Each of the main and supporting characters are fully developed individuals that you either love or hate, and one can't help finding themselves laughing out loud as Stanley learns about the "birds and the bees" from Caldonia and Buster, or feeling the soul-wrenching emptiness as he experiences first hand from the Mitchell's housekeeper, Rosy Mae, how terrible men can be toward the women they love. This is not only a journey for Stanley, but one for the reader as well. You'll come away with a little more knowledge of what it means to be a human being in all of its mixed-up aspects. Like Mr. Lansdale's previous award-winning novel, THE BOTTOMS, this book is what I would call a "life experience," and it's one I would highly recommend to any person wishing more than a casual read. Entertaining, thought provoking, and nostalgic, A FINE DARK LINE is a true masterpiece from one of America's most gifted writers.

Joe Lansdale proves again he can recreate with a fine eye growing up in East Texas during the '50's. Perhaps "A Fine Dark Line" is a bit too close to his prize-winning "Bottoms," but nevertheless, this is prime Lansdale reading.

Stanley Mitchel, Jr. 13 resides in Dewton, Texas. His daddy owns the Dew Drop Drive-In movie, and their home is kind of between the screen and the concession stand, which Stanley thinks is a very good thing. The whole family, Mom ("Gal"), Daddy, and older sister Callie run the theatre. It is the summer of 1958, and as Stanley says, more things happen in that summer than have happened in his entire life. He finds a hidden trove of love letters that lead in him to a burned out plantation in the woods in back of the drive-in and discovers a young girl was burned to death in the fire. On the same night another young girl was murdered on the railroad tracks, decapitated and her head never found. Rumored ghosts abound. The remnants of the house and mill are eerily entwined with vines and saplings that have grown around and through them. Stanley decides to investigate the mystery, and gets a great deal more than he bargained for---corruption in high places, blackmail, and two psychotics: father of his best friend Richard and erstwhile boyfriend Bubba, huge and terrifying, of the family's housekeeper Rosy Mae.

The characterizations are sublime. High spirited, cheerleader-cute sister Callie is wonderfully drawn. She knows she has great powers of attraction and uses them like an inexperienced marksman with an assault rifle. Friend Richard wrenches your heart with his deprived and catastrophic home life. The family employees, Buster, the projectionist, and Rosy Mae, crackle with life, earthiness, and vibrancy. Daddy, in spite of his bad temper and propensity to fight, shines with goodness, and mother Gal is secretly in charge of everyone.

"A Fine Dark Line" is witty, terrifying and occasionally mischievous. Sometimes credibility is stretched. Even in 1958, could there be one 13-year-old boy that still believed in Santa Claus? The amount of terror and mayhem that happened on one night couldn't have happened to most people in a lifetime. But believe me, you will consider every last word right and true as you race through the pages. A book not to be missed.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

The arrival of A FINE DARK LINE prompts a legitimate question regarding its author, Joe R. Lansdale: is there anything this guy can't do well? My first encounter with him was THE DRIVE IN, a science fiction horror novel. This was followed by THE MAGIC WAGON --- a gothic western if you will --- and COLD IN JULY, a mystery. Then came the Batman-based CAPTURED BY THE ENGINES, TARZAN'S LOST ADVENTURE, the Jonah Hex comic book story arcs, and on and on and on...and they are all great. So with A FINE DARK LINE, we have a coming of age novel set in rural Texas in the 1950s, a time both better and worse than our own and inexorably linked to it. And, like all his other works that have preceded it, A FINE DARK LINE is his finest work to date.

A FINE DARK LINE is told through the eyes of Stanley Mitchell, a thirteen year-old boy standing on the summer cusp of adolescence, the younger of two children in a family that isn't poverty-stricken but not exactly next door neighbors to Scrooge McDuck, either. No, the Mitchells are the owners and proprietors of the only drive-in theater in Dewmont, Texas. Stanley's youth and innocence are consumed in a slow-burning maelstrom sparked by his discovery of a tin box containing a collection of troubled love letters that ultimately lead him to a burned out house, the mysterious deaths of two young women and secrets that the powers that be in Dewmont would prefer to stay buried. Stanley's unlikely ally is Buster Smith, the projectionist at the theater, an elderly black man whose attempts to drown his demons in alcohol are doomed to failure but who has a depth that only Stanley is aware of. In attempting to solve the mysteries of the deaths of the two women, Stanley exposes not only himself, but also his family and friends, to danger. A FINE DARK LINE, however, is more than a mystery story. It is, ultimately, the tale of a time not so long gone but vanished completely nonetheless. Lansdale uses the mystery as a vehicle to explore the cultural landscape, race relations and sexual mores of the 1950s. What is most remarkable here is that Lansdale is able to capture so perfectly the voice of a 13 year-old boy in that era. I suspect that, to at least some extent, it is his own, some 50 years removed. If so, it resonates within him pitch-perfectly and his translation is unerring.

With A FINE DARK LINE, Lansdale continues to expand the breadth and scope of his literary vision. One could easily come to the conclusion that his talent and landscape know no boundaries. He is a writer who has exceeded the promise of his earliest work and the expectations of his readers --- and will undoubtedly continue to do so.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

It is unusual for a writer to successfully cross the boundaries between literary genres, but Joe R. Lansdale does so with ease. He's written horror stories and novels, science fiction, and mysteries. What's more, the author has won awards in different genres, from six Bram Stoker Awards for horror to the Edgar Award and the American Mystery Award. Up until a month ago, I never read a Joe Lansdale book. I heard of him over the years, always meant to pick up one of his books, but just never got around to it. The recent release and the subsequent clamor of praise for "Bubba Ho-Tep," a Lansdale short story adapted for the big screen by "Phantasm" creator Don Coscarelli, finally inspired me to sit down with a Lansdale tome or two. Surprisingly, I picked two of his mystery stories, the recent "Sunset and Sawdust" and "A Fine Dark Line." I liked the former, a whodunit set in the steamy environs of East Texas during the Depression. I also, it turns out, enjoyed the former, a whodunit set in East Texas during the late 1950s. Lansdale writes about East Texas because he knows the region like the back of his hand. It's possible the writer may well do for the Lone Star state what Stephen King did for Maine and what Bentley Little is trying to do for Arizona.

"A Fine Dark Line" stars Stanley Mitchel, Jr., a man in his late fifties recalling a series of startling events that occurred in the Summer of 1958 when he was thirteen years old and living in Dewmont, Texas. The Mitchel family was well off in Dewmont since they owned the local drive-in theater. Stanley Mitchel, Sr., the patriarch of the clan, is a no nonsense type of guy who doesn't hesitate to hand out a few slaps to keep peace in the family. For instance, when daughter Callie falls under suspicion for sleeping with the local bad boy, Chester, Stanley Mitchel makes sure the lout doesn't come around anymore. With his family and employees, the father is different; a loving, caring man who believes that his children and wife should have all the decent things in life. Although he embodies many of the racial attitudes of the day, he acquiesces to his spouse's demand to take in a black woman named Rosy Mae when domestic problems with her abusive boyfriend Bubba Joe threaten to put the woman in the local morgue. Mitchel Sr. puts up with the taciturn Buster Abbot Lighthorse Smith, an alcoholic black man who runs the projection booth at the theater. In short, the family is what you would call liberal today, but radical in 1950's Texas.

The mystery begins in earnest when Stanley Mitchel Jr., with loyal dog Nub in tow, uncovers a cache of letters in the wooded area behind the drive-in. These epistles, written back during the Second World War, detail an enigmatic relationship between two people known only as 'M' and 'J'. Intrigued, Stanley investigates the origins of these love letters and in the process uncovers several nasty secrets about the town's richest residents. Soon, Stanley joins forces with the moody Buster Smith. Together the two embark on a covert operation to discover the identities of the two letter writers, an operation that rapidly uncovers more than the two unlikely sleuths thought possible. Nothing less than murder, corruption, and several other unsavory activities come to light. A seemingly unrelated subplot involving Stanley's friend Richard and the boy's hyper religious and abusive father plays a significant role in the inevitable final showdown. During the course of the story, Stanley Mitchel, Jr. moves from childhood into adulthood as he learns how the world really works. "A Fine Dark Line" is primarily a mystery story, but it is also a coming of age story as well as a tale about changing race relations in the South.

While I have only read two Lansdale books to date, I already detect a pattern in the man's writings. First, his concerns about race permeate his books. As a child of the South during the tumultuous days of the 1960s, Lansdale must have personally witnessed many of the riots, marches, and other activities associated with the Civil Rights struggle. The author is obviously no Bull Conner or George Wallace, however. Stanley Mitchel's family's attitudes about local blacks must have been similar to the opinions held by Joe Lansdale's family. Second, the author's prose strikes all the right chords. Clean, sparse, and to the point, Lansdale wastes few words describing his characters and the atmosphere of East Texas. He advances the plot effortlessly, without any needless exposition so common amongst his more verbose colleagues. Finally, Lansdale knows how to write effective scenes, perhaps best evidenced in "A Fine Dark Line" with the chase sequence in the woods where Richard, Callie, and Stanley meet up with the ominous Bubba Joe while on a quest to discover more information about the letters. It is a scary situation while at the same time revealing several important plot elements in the space of a just a few pages.

"A Fine Dark Line" is a fine dark read. The story moves at a lightening fast pace, is humorous in spots (witness Stanley's observations about the balloons), and fleshes out even minor characters effectively. The only drawback I saw was the jacket flap, which was full of errors. For example, the flap refers to Buster Abbot Lighthorse Smith as Buster LIGHTHOUSE Smith (?) and misspells Stanley Mitchel's last name. If I were Joe Lansdale, I'd have been furious over these slipshod mistakes. "A Fine Dark Line" felt like a good place to start for me, the novice Lansdale reader. Now if I can just find a few of his horror stories, I'll go a little further.

Opening with a sweetly melancholic passage recounting some of his earliest memories, Stanley Mitchell, the now fifty seven year old narrator of A Fine Dark Line, quickly gets down to the business at hand, telling a story which began in the summer of 1958. That summer, Stanley's discovery of a long buried diary eventually leads to the revelation of the truth behind a scandal in the town's past, involving the deaths of two young women from opposite ends of the social spectrum. A modern day Tom Sawyer, Stanley finds himself in the middle of things, his curiosity and naiveté placing him in the path of mortal danger.

Given Lansdale's notorious sense of the bizarre, much of the novel concerns itself with Stanley`s often harrowing adventures around his hometown of Dewmont, Texas. The strongest portions of the novel, however, deal not with Stanley's investigations, nor with their macabre side effects, but with his mundane, day to day life: his loving, if sometimes embattled relationships with his father, mother, and sister, his comradery with his friend Richard (Huck to Stanley's Tom), his affectionate reliance on the family housekeeper Rosy Mae, and his often contentious association with Buster Lighthorse Smith, an elderly black man who runs the projector at the Mitchell family drive-in. Lansdale's portrait of Stanley's family life and 1958 Dewmont possesses all the detail and authenticity of an old home movie; he chronicles the townspeople's prejudices, dreams, and petty squabbles with deceptive ease. Doing so, he demonstrates that the "fine dark line" of the title delineates not only the barriers between races and social classes, and between the past and the present, but also the ones that exist between childhood and adulthood, and between spouses and friends.

Wise and knowing, A Fine Dark Line is blessed with the same air of authenticity as Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, or Stephen King's "The Body," making it a worthy successor to Lansdale's Edgar Award winning regional gothic The Bottoms. Lansdale's writing continues to climb to higher levels--always a distinctive voice, he continues to hone his craft, producing ever more suspenseful, colorful, and engaging work, creating books which are increasingly more personal and heartfelt.

I enjoyed this novel for it's interesting plot and well-devoloped characters.

The young protagonist, his older sister, and his dog spend one 1950's Texas summer learning about other people's lives and motivations, discover the sometimes harsh truth about family and friendships, and uncover and help solve a set of murders from the town's past.

It's rare that you find yourself really sad when a book ends. This was the case for me in Lansdale's wonderful A FINE DARK LINE. Although it is a mystery, it is also a marvelous look at growing up in what seemed to be more "innocent" times, when the local drive in was the hottest place in town on Friday and Saturday nights. The Mitchell family, including the story's narrative voice, Stanley, is a warm and comfortably stoic group, highly developed morals, a sense of family love, and a warm heart for even those outside of the family (most noticeably in their "adoption" of the Negress Rosy). Buster Lighthorse Smith, who works as the projectionist at the Mitchell's drive-in, is a moody, often caustic alcoholic, who becomes a friend to young Stanley and helps him in his investigation of two murders committed twenty years before. Although this mystery is what drives the storyline of A FINE DARK LINE, it is the development of the characters, including Stanley's friend, Richard, and many other supporting characters, that elevates this book to its level of excellence. One of the murders is solved; the other,well, that's for you to decide. But nonetheless, I wanted to spend more time with Stanley and his family and friends; the wrap up at the end adds to the nostalgic feel of learning about people you knew. A great book!

Joe Lansdale, who started his career as a horror writer, is now best known for his hard-biting, hard-edged and very dark mystery and thrillers. The last few years has a offered a softer version of Lansdale who, although still writing mysteries, has decided to deal more with the pains and fears of growing up. A Fine Dark Line is another addition to this lot and, although it is genuine Lansdale, the whole still left me a bit disappointed. This one felt more like the outline for a greater novel than anything else.

Stanley is a thirteen year old boy who, during the summer of 1958, moves with his family to a new town. His father has bought the town's drive-in as a family business and that's where Stan will see himself live with his parents and sister. Soon enough, he uncovers a box full of old letters, which will lead him to discover a mystery that has just been waiting to be unearthed.

The mystery deals with a couple of young girls who were killed nearly thirty years ago. Their deaths are still unresolved and Stanley, with the help of his sister and the old projectionist, decides to figure things out by himself.

Since the book is set in the 50s it will, of course, deal with sexuality, with the black revolution and with movies of the era. Lansdale tries to deal with too much in too little time. There are great echoes of To Kill a Mockingbird in this one (even a Boo Radley-like character appears in A Fine Dark Line), which just shows the kind of thing Lansdale was striving to achieve. The book is barely 300 pages long and yet, it has more to deal with than most books twice its size. It really saddens me to say that this one feels more like an outline Lansdale didn't feel he had to courage to see through.

I still enjoyed reading A Fine Dark Line. The book has great characters and some very chilling situation. But the whole thing left me thirsting for more. This is the rare case where the story could have used a little more flesh on its skeleton. As it stands, A Fine Dark Line is an average book by an author capable of much better (like his great book The Bottoms, one of the best mystery to ever see print).

Although Lansdale's Stanley is few years older than I am, I can say that not much changed in East Texas from 1958 to the 1960's when I grew up. Although I grew up in Austin, Dewmont is like the small towns around the state that I visited as a little girl. Lansdale gets the atmosphere and dialogue dead-on. Of all the characters, Stanley's dad is my favorite. He reminds me so much of men that I knew when I was little---big-hearted and learning to get rid of the prejudices that were taught to them. He provides some hilarious moments as he rights wrongs against his family. This isn't deep reading, folks. It's just sweet, and strange, and authentic.

This is basically The Bottoms revisited. The story is changed a little bit, but the premise is the same, a coming of age story involving a murder mystery in the gone-by south admist the turmoil of ratial inequality. Like the bottoms, it's beatufuly described, and you really care about the characters, even though some of them are simple and ignorant ( I guess that's what makes them real. )

But The Bottoms is much better (in my opinion) and I'm not sure why he even wrote this. Why make an almost carbon copy of a better book?

Still, it's lansdale, and it's good. It's no Drive In Omnibus, but it beats a lot of what's out there. Now if he'd only get back to writing the mojo that made me love his work so much.