Where Crenshaw blames society, readers should blame Hall.
It’s hard to tell which is dumber: this unfunny satire or the redneck protagonist who narrates it.
Imagine Jeff Foxworthy with a mean streak of cultural elitism. Or perhaps a Deliverance sketch on Saturday Night Live, on which comedian-writer Hall (Things Snowball, 2003) was once a cast member. The novel purports to be the memoir of Otis Lee Crenshaw, whose life seems to circle around serving jail time on a series of outlandish charges, marrying a series of six women named Brenda (actually five; he marries one of the Brendas twice) and writing an occasional country song inspired by his sorry existence. Interspersed with the accounts of the courtship of Brenda(s) are court transcripts from cases in which Crenshaw has insisted on defending himself, employing arguments that defy legal logic. The plot never really builds or goes anywhere, mainly serving as an excuse for allegedly humorous observations on trailer-park culture, jailhouse society, white-trash women with zeppelin-sized breasts and the immortals of country music (where Crenshaw—or perhaps Hall—proves less than reliable as a critical historian). Along the way, the narrator achieves a reconciliation of sorts with his estranged father, Jack Daniels Crenshaw, a man who (wouldn’t you know it?) likes to drink. The narrative also involves itself with conspiracy theories concerning the conviction of James Earl Ray (murderer of Martin Luther King, and boyfriend of Brenda #1) and the rise of an unworthy country star named Narvel Crump (boyfriend of Brenda #2). The early stages of the novel suggest that Hall might give the book some comedic bite by sinking teeth into the thematic meat of class consciousness and the American dream, but as it proceeds to settle for easy laughs at obvious targets, the mirth quickly wears thin. What might have worked for five or ten minutes on TV can’t sustain itself for a couple hundred pages.
Where Crenshaw blames society, readers should blame Hall.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-349-11818-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Abacus/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2005
This novel began as a reworking of W.W. Jacobs' horror classic "The Monkey's Paw"—a short story about the dreadful outcome when a father wishes for his dead son's resurrection. And King's 400-page version reads, in fact, like a monstrously padded short story, moving so slowly that every plot-turn becomes lumberingly predictable. Still, readers with a taste for the morbid and ghoulish will find unlimited dark, mortality-obsessed atmosphere here—as Dr. Louis Creed arrives in Maine with wife Rachel and their two little kids Ellie and Gage, moving into a semi-rural house not far from the "Pet Sematary": a spot in the woods where local kids have been burying their pets for decades. Louis, 35, finds a great new friend/father-figure in elderly neighbor Jud Crandall; he begins work as director of the local university health-services. But Louis is oppressed by thoughts of death—especially after a dying student whispers something about the pet cemetery, then reappears in a dream (but is it a dream) to lead Louis into those woods during the middle of the night. What is the secret of the Pet Sematary? Well, eventually old Jud gives Louis a lecture/tour of the Pet Sematary's "annex"—an old Micmac burying ground where pets have been buried. . .and then reappeared alive! So, when little Ellie's beloved cat Church is run over (while Ellie's visiting grandfolks), Louis and Jud bury it in the annex—resulting in a faintly nasty resurrection: Church reappears, now with a foul smell and a creepy demeanor. But: what would happen if a human corpse were buried there? That's the question when Louis' little son Gage is promptly killed in an accident. Will grieving father Louis dig up his son's body from the normal graveyard and replant it in the Pet Sematary? What about the stories of a previous similar attempt—when dead Timmy Baterman was "transformed into some sort of all-knowing daemon?" Will Gage return to the living—but as "a thing of evil?" He will indeed, spouting obscenities and committing murder. . .before Louis must eliminate this child-demon he has unleashed. Filled out with overdone family melodrama (the feud between Louis and his father-in-law) and repetitious inner monologues: a broody horror tale that's strong on dark, depressing chills, weak on suspense or surprise—and not likely to please the fans of King's zestier, livelier terror-thons.
Pub Date: Nov. 4, 1983
ISBN: 0743412281
Page Count: 420
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1983
BOOK TO SCREEN
Catch-22 is also concerned with some of war's horrors and atrocities, and it is at times painfully grim.
Catch-22 is an unusual, wildly inventive comic novel about World War II, and its publishers are planning considerable publicity for it.
Set on the tiny island of Pianosa in the Mediterranean Sea, the novel is devoted to a long series of impossible, illogical adventures engaged in by the members of the 256th bombing squadron, an unlikely combat group whose fanatical commander, Colonel Cathcart, keeps increasing the men's quota of missions until they reach the ridiculous figure of 80. The book's central character is Captain Yossarian, the squadron's lead bombardier, who is surrounded at all times by the ironic and incomprehensible and who directs all his energies towards evading his odd role in the war. His companions are an even more peculiar lot: Lieutenant Scheisskopf, who loved to win parades; Major Major Major, the victim of a life-long series of practical jokes, beginning with his name; the mess officer, Milo Minderbinder, who built a food syndicate into an international cartel; and Major de Coverley whose mission in life was to rent apartments for the officers and enlisted men during their rest leaves. Eventually, after Cathcart has exterminated nearly all of Yossarian's buddies through the suicidal missions, Yossarian decides to desert — and he succeeds.
Catch-22 is also concerned with some of war's horrors and atrocities, and it is at times painfully grim.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 1961
ISBN: 0684833395
Page Count: 468
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1961
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