Order THE TWO-BEAR MAMBO here
(also reviewed)
Order THE DRIVE-IN here
Order COLD IN JULY here
Order SAVAGE SEASON here
Order MUCHO MOJO here
Order THE BOTTOMS here
Order SUNSET AND SAWDUST here
Order PRISONER 489 here
When I got over to Leonard's Christmas Eve night, he had the Kentucky Headhunters turned way up over at his place, and they were singing "The Ballad of Davy Crockett," and Leonard, in a kind of Christmas celebration, was once again setting fire to the house next door.
I do not know any successful author with more creative freedom than Joe R. Lansdale. He built a unique and enviable writing career for himself using his uncanny talent for storytelling and an unyielding attitude about writing whatever the fuck he wants: horror, western, adventure, hardboiled, gothic, young adult, he's done them all. I've been savoring his Hap & Leonard series (soon to be on television) for over a year now and getting quite the kick out of his two backwoods, smart-mouthed intellectuals. They have a thing for social justice that sometimes gets on my nerves, but Joe R. Lansdale seems well-aware of that issue in THE TWO-BEAR MAMBO, a novel that got me on the first sentence, lost me and got me again. Only Lansdale can pull this kind of storytelling stunt on me.
Only Lansdale.
Hap Collins and Leonard Pine are best friends, but they don't have much going for themselves beside each other. After a brooding Leonard sets fire to the crackhouse next door on New Years Eve, the police Lieutenant Marvin Hanson offers them one chance to stay out of jail: they need to travail to a white supremacist cesspool called Grovetown in order to check on Hanson's girlfriend and Hap's ex-lover Florida Grange, who went over there to investigate the death of a legendary bluesman's son, found hanged in his jail cell. It seems easy enough for Hap and Leonard: kick some ass, inflict some righteous justice on racist assholes and save the girl. It's became it looks easy though, that they run into this adventures without thinking twice and it's not a good thing, this time.
I loved the first Hap and Leonard novel SAVAGE SEASON because it was a hardboiled/adventure novel set from the point of view of a man trying to manage his emotions for his ex-girlfriend, which I thought both profoundly original and hilarious. but the sequel MUCHO MOJO had more of a social justice edge to it, which is more problematic to me in more than one way. The genius of THE TWO-BEAR MAMBO is that it's a somewhat self-aware social justice novel. Just as you start believing Hap and Leonard are simply going to walk in there, pick things up where the law turns its back and walk in the sunset, Joe R. Lansdale (which I repeat, is REALLY good at that storytelling thing), steers the novel in an entirely new direction and by that, I mean in a direction you have never read before. Not in any other novel. Ever.
When I was growing up, guy with a badge was just assumed to be honest, and the Lone Ranger didn't shoot bad guys in the head either. These days, Jesus would carry a gun, and the disciples would gold down and corn-hole their enemies.
What I thought makes THE TWO-BEAR MAMBO special is that there is no day to save. The murder being investigated already happened, the victim was somewhat of a scumbag and there are no teary-eyed survivors to feel sorry for. That veils the entire purpose of Hap and Leonard in Grovetown with a layer of doubt that should come with any social justice endeavor in the first place. Of course, the guys are after Florida too, which Joe Lansdale plays quite smartly. Grovetown is so intense and violent that there is always something happening right in front of Hap and Leonard, that turns Florida into an afterthought. A checkbox on the to-do list. Because it's about Florida and not. It's about Hap and Leonard's suicidal impulse to throw themselves at hopeless situations in order to give meaning to their lives and Joe Lansdale NAILED this psychological quirk in THE TWO-BEAR MAMBO.
Only Joe Lansdale can lose me and win me over again inside the same novel. Only him. THE TWO-BEAR MAMBO turned out to be my favourite Hap and Leonard novel, because it examines their motives for being who they are and doesn't spare them one bit. Seeing them struggle and fight their demons made me like them even more than witnessing the badassery they displayed in earlier novels. This is how you write a successful series, ladies and gentlemen. To keep it from growing stale, you have to get closer to you characters, question their bullshit and help them evolve along their journey. Joe R. Lansdale is the heavyweight champion storyteller, guys. There's not other way to put it, and Hap and Leonard are his signature left hook. Only thing I like better than reading a Hap and Leonard novel at this point is knowing there is several more left in the pipeline for me.