A Fine Dark Line

It is unusual for a writer to successfully cross the boundaries between literary genres, but Joe R. Lansdale does so with ease. He's written horror stories and novels, science fiction, and mysteries. What's more, the author has won awards in different genres, from six Bram Stoker Awards for horror to the Edgar Award and the American Mystery Award. Up until a month ago, I never read a Joe Lansdale book. I heard of him over the years, always meant to pick up one of his books, but just never got around to it. The recent release and the subsequent clamor of praise for "Bubba Ho-Tep," a Lansdale short story adapted for the big screen by "Phantasm" creator Don Coscarelli, finally inspired me to sit down with a Lansdale tome or two. Surprisingly, I picked two of his mystery stories, the recent "Sunset and Sawdust" and "A Fine Dark Line." I liked the former, a whodunit set in the steamy environs of East Texas during the Depression. I also, it turns out, enjoyed the former, a whodunit set in East Texas during the late 1950s. Lansdale writes about East Texas because he knows the region like the back of his hand. It's possible the writer may well do for the Lone Star state what Stephen King did for Maine and what Bentley Little is trying to do for Arizona."A Fine Dark Line" stars Stanley Mitchel, Jr., a man in his late fifties recalling a series of startling events that occurred in the Summer of 1958 when he was thirteen years old and living in Dewmont, Texas. The Mitchel family was well off in Dewmont since they owned the local drive-in theater. Stanley Mitchel, Sr., the patriarch of the clan, is a no nonsense type of guy who doesn't hesitate to hand out a few slaps to keep peace in the family. For instance, when daughter Callie falls under suspicion for sleeping with the local bad boy, Chester, Stanley Mitchel makes sure the lout doesn't come around anymore. With his family and employees, the father is different; a loving, caring man who believes that his children and wife should have all the decent things in life. Although he embodies many of the racial attitudes of the day, he acquiesces to his spouse's demand to take in a black woman named Rosy Mae when domestic problems with her abusive boyfriend Bubba Joe threaten to put the woman in the local morgue. Mitchel Sr. puts up with the taciturn Buster Abbot Lighthorse Smith, an alcoholic black man who runs the projection booth at the theater. In short, the family is what you would call liberal today, but radical in 1950's Texas.The mystery begins in earnest when Stanley Mitchel Jr., with loyal dog Nub in tow, uncovers a cache of letters in the wooded area behind the drive-in. These epistles, written back during the Second World War, detail an enigmatic relationship between two people known only as 'M' and 'J'. Intrigued, Stanley investigates the origins of these love letters and in the process uncovers several nasty secrets about the town's richest residents. Soon, Stanley joins forces with the moody Buste

Lansdale describes a summer in 1958 when 13 year-old Stanley Michel Jr and his family moved to a house that formed the screen of the drive-in theater in Dewmont Texas. During that summer, Stanley loses his childhood innocence when he learns about racial bigotry, passion, cruelty and violence. He also becomes close to his 16 year old sister, befriends the aged black man who runs the projector and solves a 20 year old murder mystery.This "not to be missed" story draws its characters and their personalities so finely, you feel like you can actually see them. I enjoyed some of the dialogue of the characters so much, I reread parts of the story.The title, Fine Dark Line, signifies many things in the story. There is a quote by Stanley in the story in which he feared that a force he felt in his room would take hold of him and drag him with them "across the fine dark line that made up the border between the world of the living and the world of the dead." I also think there was a fine dark line between the lives of the blacks and the whites in the town, the poor and the rich, and instances we see of both cruelty and love.There are lots of memorable characters. In addition to Stanley Jr. who narrates the story, we meet his friend Richard, who receives regular beatings my his religious fanatic father but finds the courage to stand up to him; the aging black projectionist, Buster Lighthouse Smith, who helps him solve the mystery letters found in an abandoned house. Buster teaches him how to research what actually happened to two murdered teenage girls, but more importantly, teaches Stanley many life lessons. His sister Callie, a co-conspirator in his investigations, introduces him to many adult issues. This book has been compared to "To Kill a Mockingbird" and is as memorable. Highly recommended

Opening with a sweetly melancholic passage recounting some of his earliest memories, Stanley Mitchell, the now fifty seven year old narrator of A Fine Dark Line, quickly gets down to the business at hand, telling a story which began in the summer of 1958. That summer, Stanley's discovery of a long buried diary eventually leads to the revelation of the truth behind a scandal in the town's past, involving the deaths of two young women from opposite ends of the social spectrum. A modern day Tom Sawyer, Stanley finds himself in the middle of things, his curiosity and naiveté placing him in the path of mortal danger. Given Lansdale's notorious sense of the bizarre, much of the novel concerns itself with Stanley`s often harrowing adventures around his hometown of Dewmont, Texas. The strongest portions of the novel, however, deal not with Stanley's investigations, nor with their macabre side effects, but with his mundane, day to day life: his loving, if sometimes embattled relationships with his father, mother, and sister, his comradery with his friend Richard (Huck to Stanley's Tom), his affectionate reliance on the family housekeeper Rosy Mae, and his often contentious association with Buster Lighthorse Smith, an elderly black man who runs the projector at the Mitchell family drive-in. Lansdale's portrait of Stanley's family life and 1958 Dewmont possesses all the detail and authenticity of an old home movie; he chronicles the townspeople's prejudices, dreams, and petty squabbles with deceptive ease. Doing so, he demonstrates that the "fine dark line" of the title delineates not only the barriers between races and social classes, and between the past and the present, but also the ones that exist between childhood and adulthood, and between spouses and friends. Wise and knowing, A Fine Dark Line is blessed with the same air of authenticity as Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, or Stephen King's "The Body," making it a worthy successor to Lansdale's Edgar Award winning regional gothic The Bottoms. Lansdale's writing continues to climb to higher levels--always a distinctive voice, he continues to hone his craft, producing ever more suspenseful, colorful, and engaging work, creating books which are increasingly more personal and heartfelt.

Remember the days of drive in movies? Remember reading books and comics about your heroes late at night? Remember solving murders and trying not to get killed? Well, maybe you don't remember the last one but Stanley Mitchel does and Joe R. Lansdale has done a masterful job of telling Stanley's tale. This book takes us back to a much simpler time when life was slower but there were still terrors. Stanley and his friends are working on solving the mystery of some old murders and get caught up in a very dangerous chain of events. As in most of Mr. Lansdale's books he does a wonderful job of mixing the mystery and terror with humor and heart.

In Joe R. Lansdale's newest novel, A FINE DARK LINE, the reader is carried back to the summer of 1958 when thirteen-year-old Stanley Mitchell, Jr. and his family move to Dewmont, Texas to take over the ownership of the town's only drive-in movie theater. This is the summer that Stanley will lose his childhood innocence and learn that there's no Santa Claus, what sex is really about, the ugly truth concerning racism, and the painful reality about death, murder and the human monsters that hide behind the masks of one's next-door neighbors. It's also the summer that young Stanley begins to learn about the power of friendship, family, love, and the unrelenting courage that's needed in the face of horror. Stanley's journey into adulthood begins when he finds a half-buried metal box filled with old love letters near a burnt-down house in the woods behind the drive-in theater where he and his family now live. The letters belonged to a young girl who was gruesomely murdered almost two decades before. The fact that the crime was never solved triggers Stanley's curiosity. With the help of his older sister, Caldonia, and his new friends Richard Chapman and old Buster Lighthorse Smith, he begins to slowly, but persistently, dig into the past, not knowing that what he discovers will change his life forever. Brilliantly written by one of America's top authors, A FINE DARK LINE carries us back to when comic books were a nickel, Tarzan movies played on TV in the mornings, and a young boy could believe that the fictional John Carter of Mars actually existed. This was a time when anything seemed possible, and small-town life during the hot, sweltering summer months was slow and relaxed, and the local teenagers flocked to the drive-in theater at night to see the newest movies and to make out in their cars. Mr. Lansdale is able to capture the pure ambience of these forgotten memories with a simplicity of words that draws the reader into the story as if he/she was walking the streets of Dewmont with Stanley and his dog, Nub. Each of the main and supporting characters are fully developed individuals that you either love or hate, and one can't help finding themselves laughing out loud as Stanley learns about the "birds and the bees" from Caldonia and Buster, or feeling the soul-wrenching emptiness as he experiences first hand from the Mitchell's housekeeper, Rosy Mae, how terrible men can be toward the women they love. This is not only a journey for Stanley, but one for the reader as well. You'll come away with a little more knowledge of what it means to be a human being in all of its mixed-up aspects. Like Mr. Lansdale's previous award-winning novel, THE BOTTOMS, this book is what I would call a "life experience," and it's one I would highly recommend to any person wishing more than a casual read. Entertaining, thought provoking, and nostalgic, A FINE DARK LINE is a true masterpiece from one of America's most gifted writers.