Daniel Woodrell

[DuncanEwart]

I've been working my way through the novels of Daniel Woodrell and was wondering if anyone else had read any of his work. I guess "Winter's Bone" is probably his most famous book (due to the film version starring Jennifer Lawrence) and arguably his best, although I particularly liked his American Civil War novel, "Woe To Live On" (the basis for another film, "Ride With The Devil"). His writing has been labelled "country noir" and he himself as "a back-country Shakespeare" due in no small part to his novels "Tomato Red", "The Death Of Sweet Mister" and "Give Us a Kiss" being, like "Winter's Bone", set amongst the poor white people of the Ozark Mountains in Missouri. Hillbillies, I suppose, and Woodrell is one. 

[Graeme S]

Not read any of his books but thanks for the suggestions! Ill purchase next time in Waterstones as I need some fiction having been reading about the middle east recenetly.

[DuncanEwart]

I've just finished re-reading "Winter's Bone" and it's even better than I remember. I would love him to write another novel about Ree Dolly. What a girl.

[historyman]

I've read the 'Death of Sweet Mister', a disturbing and ultimately tragic book. I saw Winters Bone on a plane and I didn't realise until you mentioned it that Woodrell had written it as well  

Another author you might like is Willy Vlautin. I would recommend This Motel Life and The Free. Also a book called The Cutter and The Bone but I can't remember the author. 

[DuncanEwart]

It's the brevity of his work I admire @historyman- almost all of his novels are less than two hundred pages long but no less powerful for that. I remember Ian Rankin saying he would no longer be writing any novels or reading any novels over three hundred pages long as life is too short. He must love Daniel Woodrell.

I've just finished Woodrell's enjoyable short story collection "The Outlaw Album". These are short short stories, as you would expect from a writer with such an economical style.

I will put Willy Vlautin on my list. If, like me, you like your fiction Southern-fried, I would recommend William Gay's "Provinces Of Night".

 

[jasper]

James Lee Burke's series of novels about the alcoholic, introspective policeman Dave Robicheaux is excellent. Try to read them in chronological order . They create the atmosphere of Southern Louisiana so completely you could chew the air. As Duncan Ewart says, if you like your fiction southern-fried, this will hit your boudin-and-catfish taste-buds. I like Willy Vlautin, but he tends to hammer the reader over the head with his moralising. Thanks for the recommendation of Woodrell. I'll get the Kindle elves onto him immediately.

[DuncanEwart]

I've not read a lot of James Lee Burke but what I have read I've really enjoyed. The only Robicheaux novel I've read is "The Tin Roof Blowdown" and I've always meant to read more and I'll take heed of your advice about reading them in chronological order. I've read a couple of his Holland family books- "Wayfaring Stranger", "The Jealous Kind" and "House Of The Rising Sun"  (my personal favourite) and his Civil War novel "White Doves In Morning" and I would recommend all of them. I particularly like the almost mythical character of Hackberry Holland and wish there were more novels about his adventures.

[DuncanEwart]

I treated myself to Woodrell's "The Bayou Trilogy" for Christmas- three detective novels originally published in 1986, 1988 and 1992 but later released in an omnibus edition in 2011. The detective in question is Rene Shade, a man of Franco-Irish extraction, and his beat is the fictional Louisiana city of St. Bruno, in the bayou upriver from New Orleans. Cajun country. Although these are some of his earliest work, Woodrell's trademark taut plot lines, conciseness and vivid characterisations are already very much in evidence. Recommended.

Edited January 12, 2020 by DuncanEwart