From Publishers Weekly
Best known for his celebrated mysteries featuring Hap Collins and Leonard Pine (The Two-Bear Mambo, Bad Chili), Lansdale wrote this shopworn coming-of-age tale in 1983 when he was still sunk in obscurity. His introduction explains that he set out to produce a YA novel like those by Gary Paulsen and Robert Cormier because, to his mind, their work was "closer to literary novels than those written for adults." Set in 1933 during the early Depression, with whispers of Mark Twain and an echo of Faulkner's The Bear, this yarn recounts the bravado of 15-year-old East Texas farm boy Richard Dale, who battles with "old Satan," a wild boar of mythic proportions. After his father goes off to earn money as a carnival wrestler, Richard must protect his pregnant mother and younger brother. When the monstrous boar kills the family's dogs and bursts through the farmhouse door, his mother goes into early labor, and the boy resolutely hitches up the wagon to take her and his younger brother to a doctor in the nearest town. Returning home undaunted to face the unearthly creature, Richard enlists the aid of his best friend, Abraham, an African American boy who dreams of returning to his African heritage as a great warrior. While Lansdale's sentimental attachment to his early work is understandable, it gives little indication of the gift for telling disturbing and outrageously funny tales that would later bring him acclaim. This "deluxe'" edition contains illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
It’s the summer of ’33 and the Depression has the Dale family living “close to the bone.” While his father travels with the carnival, hoping to win prize money for wrestling, fifteen year-old Ricky takes charge of the farm and family. All he really wants to do, though, is be a writer. “The idea was comfortable, like drinking a big cup of hot coffee on a cold morning and having it spread around inside your stomach.” But then their corn crop is ripped up by the roots and their dog killed by Old Satan, the Devil Boar. With his best friend Abraham, an old Winchester, a shield and spear and guidance from Uncle Pharaoh, Richard Harold Dale sets out to even the score.
Readers may recognize some of The Boar’s characters from Lansdale’s Edgar-award winning novel, The Bottoms. Along with Sunset and Sawdust and the recently-published YA novel, All the Earth Thrown to the Sky, the less well-known Boar is a jewel-like addition to Lansdale’s Depression-era East Texas “country noir.”
Readers may recognize some of The Boar’s characters from Lansdale’s Edgar-award winning novel, The Bottoms. Along with Sunset and Sawdust and the recently-published YA novel, All the Earth Thrown to the Sky, the less well-known Boar is a jewel-like addition to Lansdale’s Depression-era East Texas “country noir.”
