Maybe this won't bother you, maybe for you the language is justifiable because it is delivered in character. In 2021, Hap's banter is performative at best - and interestingly, Joe Lansdale even uses the term "performing" in that exact sense long before it became a common term. Or put it another way: in 2021, there are more important ways for a skillful writer to demonstrate one character's post-racism and another character's persistent racism than by simply using racist slurs ironically vs. Maybe in 1990 it was a mark of one's post-racist, post-sexist, post-homophobic character for a liberal white guy to playfully make fun of his gay black friend and the woman he loves, and maybe it was OK for the real racists to use extreme language as a form of contrast, but by today's standards, the dialogue is just plain offensive and hard to listen to, even harder to justify. The whole point of the first two-thirds is relentlessly acerbic banter, the only point of the last third is mindless violence. Hap and Leonard, devoid of any skill other than busting each other's chops affectionately, are tasked with finding a long-lost treasure by the aforementioned group of hippies who are devoid of any skills other than busting chops cruelly, and then run afoul of a couple of evil psychopaths. But that might have still worked if there was any sort of reasonable plot line. The 60s idealism that had already soured for these characters at that time was already a thing of the past when written - fast forward thirty more years into an era where fascism is the new radicalism and it's just laughably obsolete and pointless. Originally published in 1990, taking place during the 1980s, about a bunch of ex-hippies still mired in 1960s counter-culturalism, the first Hap and Leonard book is hopelessly dated. Narrator is excellent and adds to the enjoyment of the book.ĭated, Poorly Plotted, Unendurable Banter Having been born in 1958, I was fairly young in the sixties, but I do remember the attitude of the young people of that time and this is spot on. This is basically an adventure story and a remember the sixties story.
Lansdale writes a lot of short stories and this is suitable to that, but in novel length it does not work as well. As mentioned above I liked it except for the middle of the book, when I got tired of the all the silliness. It is a fun story, with lots of joking about Blacks, gays, gangsters and sex. Lansdale is known best for his western horrors, but this is not even close to those. I got this during the horror sale, and it is not a horror story. If you are listening and you are between these chapters and tired of all the sophomoric joking, skip to chapter 17, you will not miss any of the story.
You take out chapters 8 thru 16 and this is a five star book.
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