Customer Reviews

Junior's Leg: A Novel

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Borrowing from such varied sources as the Bible to Shakespeare to Buddhism to the Dukes of Hazard, Ken Wells' wandering tale of a one-legged bad-assed Cajun Job has more twists and turns than a crooked Louisiana bayou. The story opens with Junior Guidry in an almost fully deserved state of self-inflicted woe. He's a drunk, he's mean, he's stupid, and ..... he knows all of these things but just doesn't care. He's a hard man not to hate. Then, an angel-woman appears and, surprise, she saves him. But wait, is she an angel-woman or a devil-woman? Is she going to save him, or deliver him to hell? A motley crew of ner-do-wells, crooked lawmen, honest lawyers and saintly women populate Mr. Wells' south Louisiana swamps. Junior's Leg takes you places you have never seen and introduces you to people you have never met; and, if you have a lick of sense, never want to visit and never want to meet. But, that's what books do. You can safely see inside a most interesting place. Like in his earlier book "Meely Labauve" Mr. Wells will slip you a few lessons of life if you are not careful. In a reappearance, a grown-up Meely Labauve gives us great instruction: "People can change, though I have to say that, what I know of honest change, it's a rare commodity--in fact, pretty close to a miracle. Still, I do believe it's possible under certain circumstances for people to redeem themselves. Even someone like you, Junior. Even you." You'll have to read Junior's Leg to find out if Junior really does change.

I loved Ken Wells's first book, "Meely LaBauve," and was surprised and somewhat troubled that his new book was about the obnoxious bully in "Meely," Junior Guidry. However, Wells won me over in the first few chapters. The story is told through Junior's voice and as a character study, Junior is riveting. The plot is rich with surprises and well paced. Yes, Junior's a drunk and foul-mouthed, but he's also funny and insightful about his own predicament. Junior knows, in the book's parlance, that he's "screwed the pooch" in his relationships, jobs, etc. He vividly tells you, with a kind of mordant glee, how he squandered his insurance settlement from a lawsuit over the loss of his leg in an oil-rig accident. He takes you on his the honeymoon of his misbegotten second marriage to a Cajun honky-tonk angel. (Wells, as he demonstrated in "Meely," knows how to write a sex scene.) A lot of this is laugh-out-loud funny. Wells, though, is a canny writer. His rehabilitation of Junior, through the ministrations of a good if beleaguered woman, is artless. He deals with serious issues in the book--class, race, honor, loyalty--yet Junior's Leg is never ponderous or preachy. It's almost as if Wells is some weird hybrid writer. Junior's Leg is heftier than, say, a Grisham courtroom thriller, but more accessible than, say, Faulkner, though it has elements of both. Or put another way, nobody I know writes quite like him. Beyond that, Junior's Leg exudes a wonderful sense of place--Wells's swampy sector of the Louisiana oil patch seems as exotic as the moon. Do yourself a favor and take this book to the beach. And buy one for your best friend while you're at it.

Junior Guidry, the creepy bully from Meely LaBauve (2000), takes the lead in this book, which takes place 15 after ML ended. Now sporting a wooden leg, Junior is more despicable than ever, a drunk who finds himself taken on as 'a cause' by Iris Mary Parfait. Herself on the run from the law after she killed a dude in self-defense, she starts trying to get Junior to mend his ways. When he discovers he can get some cash by turning her in - but realizes he might be falling in love with her - things get mighty complicated.
Full of Cajun dialect, humor, honest, and most of all compassion, Junior's Leg is a worthy step-brother book to Meely LaBauve.

In his debut novel "Meely LaBauve," Ken Wells established himself as an affectionate and wryly observant chronicler of life in bayou Louisiana. His sequel, "Junior's Leg" is nothing less than extraordinary. Capturing the essence of this distinctive culture through language and razor-sharp characterization, Wells not only creates a larger-than-life protagonist, but infuses his story with genuine compassion, grief and wisdom. His protagonist, a drunken, ill-educated, perpetually sexually aroused reprobate, Junior Guidry, grapples with issues of identity, purpose and love without even knowing it. Junior easily captures the heart of his audience; his rough-hewn sense of humor, his abject acceptance of all the crud life seems to throw at him, his utter shock at discovering his heart -- all his perilous, skewed attempts at understanding his predicaments reveal a bayou everyman.

Mr. Wells is wise enough to allow Junior to tell his own story in his own words, and Wells gracefully incorporates the patois of the spoken word, the incredibly rich idioms of the bayou, and the sharp, spicy tang that a storyteller utilizes to make events into fable. On the surface, "Junior's Leg" is an incredibly funny story, but, just below, where the gators and snakes live, resides a serious commentary about dissolution, despair and despondency. It is one of the delightful paradoxes of the novel that its protagonist, so thoroughly stupid and self-destructive, discovers the ability to redefine himself in spite of (or perhaps because of) alcoholism, lack of education and prejudice.

In this sense, "Junior's Leg" joins hands with the greatest coming-of-age novels of our national experience. It doesn't matter that its protagonist has already reached, and long sense passed, the age of adulthood. The wreckage of Junior's life, movingly recounted in his own words, becomes the prelude to the pivotal event of the novel: his accidental encounter with an albino woman with a tattered, burdened past. The confluence of her virtue with his vinegar, her hope with his despair, her confidence with his fatalism result in a powerful, compelling story.

"Junior's Leg" affirms all that is noble about our American character. Its author, Ken Wells, writes with the best type of convictions: that common people may instruct us to great truths, that language can delight and elevate, that ironic humor and wry laughter may well be the best antidotes to sadness and loneliness.

Junior is the meanest person in the Bayou. Foul mouthed with a foul attitude, life can just about get swallowed by the shark who ate his leg as far as Junior is concerned. Until Iris Mary breaks into his trailer. She thinks it is abandoned until she sees Junior crumpled up in a drunken slup. She cleans up Junior and the trailer, throws up all the bottles of liquor and makes gumbo. She is on the run from the law, and Junior is on the run from life. When the law catches up to them, you will not be able to put this book down. I stayed up all night to see how it would turn out and I was not disappointed.
This book mad me laugh out loud in certain places. And I found myself holding my breath in suspense in others. If you don't read this book you will be sorry because it is well worth the read.

Being tired of the doldrums and repetiveness of serial killer, virus and quickly written bestsellers, I picked up Junior's Leg after reading a brief review. To my surprise, JL is one of the freshest, funny, and undeniably, best characterized books I have read in quite a while.
With the development of the hero which is out of one's normal reckoning, I found myself engrossed in this wonderful story. JL is easy to appreciate and hard to put down.

Junior's Leg illuminates Cajun culture in the same way that Confederacy of Dunces illuminated the anarchic underbelly of the New Orleans Irish Channel underclass--it's grand farce, black comedy, and a fisheye view of a little (literarily) explored culture all in one. Wells is a gifted story teller and he nails the mannerisms, mores and cadences of his subjects in the way that the best contemporary Irish fiction writers handle their terrain.

This is a laugh-out-loud funny book, with the kind of storytelling that makes it hard to put down. It's fresh, original and just plain delightful.

The only thing that slowed me down in reading this book was that it made me cry so much. It is a mystery, a tale of the boyuos (sp?), a love story, a story of a man overcoming his weaknesses and fears. I read it in two days. Don't miss it!

Great read, and I thought that the characters were well-developed. I enjoyed Junior's resurrection.