Customer Reviews

High Cotton: Selected Stories of Joe R. Lansdale

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Champion Mojo storyteller" Joe Lansdale has slowly, over the span of twenty years, made quite a name for himself without ever really becoming a bestselling author. He has recently reached the current peak of his steadily increasing level of fame due to two events: winning the Edgar Allan Poe award for his novel, The Bottoms, and the recent release of the film Bubba Ho-Tep, based on a short story he wrote about an ancient mummy confronted by a seventy-year-old Elvis and J.F.K. He's certainly an acquired taste, but one that was an easy acquisition for me when I read his omnibus novel The Drive-In, about one summer evening when an alien comet buzzes a Texas drive-in theater and causes all sorts of havoc too disgusting to relate here. It was horror mixed with humor, and I loved it. So, I immediately set out to find more about this genre-mixing writer (my favorite kind). I read the first novel of his Hap and Leonard series, Savage Season, and it was good, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for.

Short stories are always a good way to experiment with a new writer. Luckily, that's how Lansdale started out making his living. There are several short story collections available of his early work but, the way he puts it in the introduction to High Cotton--and in reference to the southern-fried title--"this is the best cotton I've grown in the short form." When an author thinks the book you're holding contains his best stuff, that's the one you ought to try.

Each story has a short introduction written by Lansdale, explaining its inspiration, history, or lack thereof. I always find it fascinating for an author to write about their works; another favorite of mine, F. Paul Wilson, follows the same tack in his collection, The Barrens and Others.

High Cotton is certainly not bound to be a mainstream success, but for people who like the sort of gruesomely funny tales with a southern mentality that Joe Lansdale comes up with, it will be just your cup of sweet tea. It contains many stories that are as disturbing as they are funny: the basic premise is horrifying, but Lansdale manages to find the humor underneath it which, in turn, often enhances the horror of the situation. The one I think epitomizes this best is "The Drive-In Date" (also published in play format in The Best of Cemetery Dance, Volume Two), which concerns a couple of "good ole boys" and their rather unconventional date at the drive-in. The usual amount of laughter, food, and sex is contained within, with one important difference. This one still gives me the creeps -- while making me laugh. Stories like this require that you reexamine your own comfort threshold.

"The Pit" starts off the collection. This combination of dogfighting, boxing, and crazy backwoods snake handlers is one that he feels deserves more attention, and it certainly packs a punch. You'll think twice about making that wrong turn onto a back road when you finish with this one. Following "The Pit" is a simple little story that shows Lansdale's sentimental side. In "Not from Detroit," a man fights Death so that neither he nor his wife has to be alone. This story is so surprisingly sweet, that it is the first I've read of his that almost made me cry. But things return to normal, Lansdalewise, in "Booty and the Beast," which includes fire ants, a plastic syrup bear, and a "[pubic] hair from the Virgin Mary."

Sometimes, the humor is the main aspect of the story, as in "Godzilla's Twelve-Step Program," which follows our hero, Godzilla, as he goes through the daily grind of fighting his addiction to burning down buildings with his fiery breath. Even his job as an ingot melter doesn't seem to do the trick. What could have been a one-joke premise leading to a punchline is fleshed out by the author's imagination into a character study.

As you can see, Lansdale has many talents, but he is at his absolute best when he follows the exploits of a bunch of useless good-for-nothings who get themselves into a heap of trouble just by being stupid. This occurs first (and funniest) in High Cotton in the form of "Steppin' Out, Summer, '68" as Buddy, Wilson, and Jake go out in pursuit of a little horizontal recreation and--through a seeming innocuous, if increasingly ignorant, series of events--one of them ends up in the mouth of an alligator. It is one of the author's personal favorites, and any story that can make me laugh out loud in public instantly becomes one of mine.

Ending the collection is the story that Lansdale calls his "signature story" and the first one to really get him noticed (winning the Bram Stoker award in the process), "The Night They Missed the Horror Show." After skipping the night's showing of Night of the Living Dead (after discovering that a black man is the hero), Leonard and Farto do a couple of stupid--if generally harmless--things in the name of fighting boredom. But when they run into the wrong people, these events spiral into a night of pure terror. Lansdale is in particularly good form here, making the characters sympathetic by having their "punishment" be far above and beyond anything that would have suited their "crimes" of ignorance. It is really an ideal closer for High Cotton.

But all the stories in here are worth reading and Golden Gryphon Press has done a wonderful job packaging the collection. The cover illustration by J.K. Potter is very effective at getting across the contents--even though it appears that Potter himself didn't get past the first page of the first story. High Cotton is bound to become the definitive collection of Joe R. Lansdale's short fiction by itself, and it makes an excellent companion piece to the more recent Bumper Crop, which includes some of his and his fans' personal favorites, if not his most memorable work. Together, Lansdale ("hisownself") calls these two "the definitive volumes of my short work." As a fellow reviewer once said about Lansdale's work, "Read it and vomit. It's brilliant."

It's incredibly rare when you read a collection of stories and every single one of them is great. I own a large collection of short story books and I tend to skip around and read a story here and there, but with this collection I found myself reading them all one after the other. Lansdale's description of "High Cotton" being his best work is quite true here. If you remember reading Stephen King's Night Shift and loving the style (which King seems to have abandoned), you'll love this collection. I've found myself looking for more of Lansdale's books and short story collections, and there are a few (some of which are hard to come by). If you like this book, I highly recommend his Drive In Double Feature. Again, it's very early King-ish and quite a fun read.

So, "High Cotton" reprints several of Lansdale's personally selected best stories. These stories, all of them except for one are also featured in his original collections "By Bizarre Hands", "Bestsellers Guaranteed", and "Writer of the Purple Rage", and are arguably the best of the stories featured in the original (and out of print) books.

Lansdale's follow-up, "Bumper Crop" collects many of the rest, but not very many stories from "Writer of the Purple Rage." If you can get a copy of "Purple Rage" get it. It has the original "Bubba Ho-Tep" novella, which is one of Lansdale's best stories and was made into the wonderful movie starring Bruce Campbell, which may be one of the most faithful adaptations of a writer's work ever put on film.

Anyway, "Booty and the Beast" is the newest (to me) story in this collection, which centers around a specific item associated with the Virgin Mary that brings doom to those who possess it. It is an entertaining story. The best stories here, however, are the ones his true fans have read before: "The Night They Missed the Horror Show" (his signature story), "The Phone Woman", and "Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man's Back", "Not From Detroit", and many others. The stories also have introductions by Lansdale telling how they were conceived. There is also an introduction at the front of the book explaining how he came to write short stories and why he deosn't write as many anymore.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading the stories again and I hope this one stays in print for a long time, so that readers don't have to track down out of print collections to see what a fabulous writer this man is. These are the stories that made him famous, using his unique blend of humor, horror, and gritty realism to form a truly effective story. Highly Recommended!

Generally, I don't like short stories. They do not offer enough time to develop character and plot. I usually find that, just as I'm falling into the rhythm of a short story, it's over. The experience is unsatisfying. Having discovered Joe Lansdale about a year ago and having read every novel of his on which I could get my hands, I picked up his short story collection, "High Cotton". To my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed it. These stories all grabbed my interest in the first few pages. There's no getting your feet wet while try you acclimate and get your bearings. Lansdale throws you right into the pool. I didn't often like where I was or whom I was with. There are few redeeming characters in this collection. The stories are populated with ignorant, cowardly, ugly, racist, stupid and evil people. Some are scarier that the monsters in more classic "horror" stories. If it wasn't for the humor and insight with which Lansdale portrays these people, his work would be too bleak for me. As dark as these stories are, they are also laugh-out-loud funny.

These are some of Lansdale's best.As a huge fan of his, I had already read some of them in earlier anthologies. These are the ones he feels best describe him as a short story writer. It's an excellent addition to your Lansdale collection.

High Cotton by Joe R. Lansdale is the best short story collection I have ever read so far! The stories are funny and will make you laugh aloud -- so don't read this book in public places! Funny story: I was reading this book whilst waiting to board the plane in the airport, and I could not stop laughing! Security guards started to crowd around me -- just because I was acting in a 'peculiar manner' due to the loud laughing... so Joe R. Lansdale, it's your fault people are laughing out loud in public places whilst reading your book! Read this book and you will know what all the fuss is about.

I bought this book because I wanted to read the original story from which a first season episode of Showtime's "Masters of Horror" was built around. The episode was "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road", and both the television adaptation and- I was happy to learn when I received "High Cotton" from Amazon- the original Lansdale story are top notch. In fact, the TV show was excellent largely due to its sticking extremely close to the Lansdale original.

Happily, there are many other great stories in this collection other than "Incident". As other reviewers have pointed out here, the stories range from darkly humorous to dark & gritty, the dark & gritty ones being my favorites. There are also a few good stories of the ironic and darkly poetic variety, where some poor schmuck gets an undeserved ton of bricks dropped on his life for no other reason than fate sometimes does that (I'm thinking mostly of the story involving the guy who tries to help the seemingly pathetic blind groundskeeper). The outright "funny" stories, like the one about Godzilla being in the twelve-step program (he wants to stop stomping on tourists), and the story about the inflatable dinosaur who wanted to visit Disneyland so he could meet Mickey Mouse, are also okay, but less memorable than the dark & gritty stories, which usually involve hapless characters taking a wrong turn somewhere and in short order finding themselves in the midst of one form or another of earthly hell.

Sensitive readers should note that there are many instances of racist humor, and many racist observations, throughout the book, as this or that character spouts something ignorant. In fact, there's so much of it that I started thinking that the author perhaps had a benign view of such things, or maybe even held those views himself. But, no, it ultimately becomes clear that Mr. Lansdale is just trying to accurately show how many people talk and think, and also demonstrate that such thoughts and observations can mean one of several things: that the character in question truly IS racist, or might just be a little ignorant and stupid but not truly bad. I say this because in several instances (especially in the last story), a couple of SEEMING racists meet up (after one of those wrong turns) with a group of true, hateful, monstrous racists, and... well, let's just say Mr. Lansdale makes it clear that there's a difference between dumb, ignorant spoutings and true evil.

With the exception of the occasional inflatable dinosaur and the not-as-friendly-as-it-seems housecat (and even the tales containing those offbeat elements were perfectly engaging), these are intense, dark, memorable stories, and I look forward to experiencing more Joe R. Lansdale in the near future. Just not quite yet. There's some grim stuff here, and I could use a breather.

This is the best short story collection Joe has put out over
the years. Everything about "HIGH COTTON" is quality from the artwork cover right through. This should be on every horror/mystery/suspense lovers shelf(and read through). This has a little bit of everything from Joe over the years and believe me when you finish these you'll want to start
reading Joe's novels, which are also wonderful. A classic American
original writer like no other, these short stories will open
your mind, if you're not into the short story these just might
change you mind!

For those of you who enjoy great storytelling, then look no further. High Cotton is the essential Lansdale collection. 21 of his best stories right at your fingertips; a veritable banquet that range from humorous to dark suspense, the bizarre to outright horror. Stories that made Lansdale what he is today: A master storyteller. Once again, Golden Gryphon Press has produced yet another beautiful, above publishing standards, book with a wild J.K.Potter dust jacket, while Lansdale (his own fine self) provides an insight, and often hilarious Intro to each of the stories. Gary S.Potter Author/Poet.

Joe R. Lansdale's peculiar mix of horror, South-West American mores, humor and attention to the morally repugnant in the story collection 'High Cotton' is always only going to appeal to a minority. Judging from the other reviews, many in that minority are enthusiastic enough to write their opinions down - an indication that if you are already a fan of Mr. Lansdale's quirky style, then 'High Cotton' is sure to satisfy. Those who are not familiar with this author, or who aren't aware that they are familiar with him, should use their previous experience with modern horror stories as a guide. Mr. Lansdale is, for the most part, an engaging story-teller - but those readers who are squeamish, easily offended, or against graphic depictions of violence will probably be upset or turned off by the collection.

The twenty-one stories of 'High Cotton' are split equally into thirds; those I thought were entertaining to excellent, those I felt ambivalent about, and those that would have made the collection stronger if they had been left out. Almost all of the last example were short-short stories, consising of only a few pages apiece. The quality of these varied from squirm-inducing ('My Dead Dog Bobby') to silly ('Godzilla's 12-step program', 'Bob the Dinosaur Goes to Disneyland'), but it was the short format that I found lacking, over and against any technical proficiency. The middle group of stories were either derivitive, or else they waltzed to close to the line where I feel disgust rather than horror.

Every human activity is eligible for examination, but the success or failure of looking at its uglier aspects depends on how the author handles the material. Simply describing actions considered taboo may have some shock value, but it doesn't work as horror - an example would be the film 'Hostel', more pornography than horror. Back to Mr. Lansdale's collection, several of his stories, by concentrating on the shock value, miss out on the potential to be truly unsettling. One of the best stories, 'Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man's Back', gets the difference, and gets it just right. Two other stories, one exemplifying an effective tale ('The Night They Missed the Horror Show') and the other an ineffective one ('Drive-In Date), are harder to quantify just what exactly makes them different, let alone a success or failure. To me, it comes down to concentration on character rather than situation. When the focus of the story is on an activity, then I feel my nose is being rubbed in something unpleasant. When it is about the character, I'm engaged, or at least have the potential to be.

There is one other aspect to Mr. Lansdale's writing that I feel is important to mention. These stories take place in the rural south, and the dialogue of many of the characters is dotted with slurs and derogatory comments that are sure to offend sensitive ears. Personally, I feel that Mr. Lansdale was trying to make a point about types of people that certainly exist, and he was intent on presenting them realistically. I can go along with that, but the author often made his point early in the story, and then made it again and again and again. Regardless, if you find the atom-bomb of racial slurs to be unfit in any context, then skip 'High Cotton'.

For those who aren't aware of it, the somewhat obscure film 'Bubba Ho-Tep' was adapted from a novella of Mr. Lansdale's (not included in 'High Cotton') - readers who enjoyed the quirky elements of that film will see stylistic similarity in some of the stories included here (perhaps best in 'Steppin' out, Summer, '68'), though one shouldn't look for the theme of the film repeated over and over. One of the strengths of this collection is it's variety, which is also one of its weaknesses. Seven four- and five-star stories, seven three-star, and seven one- and two-star stories - that makes it a three-star average for the entire collection.