Meely LaBauve

You are truly in for a treat when you read this book. The author's feeling for time, place, and dialogue are outstanding. Other reviewers have compared Meely to Huckleberry Finn, and they are correct, but I was reminded of Faulkner in places, particularly in the author's treatment of Meely's relationship with family. In addition, some of the comedic scenes reminded me of sections of Falulkner's book the Rievers. There are undercurrents in the novel of serious social issues, too, and Wells does a very effective job in bringing these forward without preaching, especially in the parts of the story about Meely, his daddy (I have known folks like him), and Meely's friend, Chilly. I hated to see the book come to an end, but the author has the gift - often lacking in contemporary fiction - of knowing when to stop. In conclusion, buy this book, read it, and share it with friends - it's that good.

I spent some time in South Louisiana where this book is set but I'm not sure that matters. Meely's one of the best books I've read in a long, long time set anywhere. Meely himself is a great character--a kid full of heart and honor, but a bit of a rascal too. His daddy is an alligator hunter, part Native American, who never quite got over the death of his wife years before. Meely's being left to pretty much raise himself on the "lonesome end of Catahoula Bayou." He shoots his food, including a mocking bird when he's hungry enough. He runs afoul of the bayou bully, a hulking, mean-spirited farm boy who doesn't like Meely because he's a fearless runt and doesn't like Meely's pa because Junior is a bigot who holds the LaBauves' "Wild Injun" blood against them. When Junior and his pot-bellied, racist uncle, a local cop, get after Meely, it forces Meely's dad to re-enter his son's life in a major way. I know a lot of people will compare Meely to Huck Finn but Wells writes nothing like Mark Twain. His, in fact, is a clear, simple, accessible prose and Meely's voice, though he speaks in dialect, is singular and pure. And there's a lot packed in this little book--insight into race and class, not to mention an amazing chase scene and one of the best, and most hilarious, sex scenes I've ever read. This is not a child's book, but I think teenagers would really enjoy it as much as I have.

After leaving Louisiana 35 years ago, Meely La Bauve took me back, shedding the years in betwen. I have never enjoyed an ethnic book as much as I did Meely. So many words and phrases that I hadn't heard for years came rushing back to me with lovely nostalgia. The descriptions of Meely's surroundings and his thoughts and actions were so vivid that I was in another world which I didn't want to leave. I look forward to more wonderful books, Mr. Wells!

As hard-bitten as I am, it's rare that a book sticks with me, much less makes me cry or affect my waking hours for so long after reading it. That's exactly the effect Meely LaBauve has on readers, it's a book that has "Hollywood Movie" stamped all over it. This debut novel is a vivid tour-de-force set in the backwoods of the Louisiana Bayou, a coming-of-age book that is so shot through with rich, textured landscapes and honey-combed with vivid dialogue that it ranks right up there with Call of the Wild and The Outsiders. I was sad to finish it, and wanted more. To cut to the chase, Meely LaBauve is a story about a lonely, little boy who has to survive on his own by fishing, who wears his sense of realism and dignity like a badge of honor, who lost his mother and has to routinely battle local toughs. His favorite recreation is fishing alligators with his derelict but lovable pa, an adult whose every element in him has a blood feud with his opposite tormentor, crooked, and emotionally constipated, cops. If you want to find out what it's like to eat Cajun sauce piquante, how to use fire ants in fights with bullies, or whether hogs eat people (they can), then read this book. After a long dry absence on the best fiction lists, Meely LaBauve is a welcome relief.

This novel was set in the area where I grew up, and I must say, Ken is successful in conveying a real sense of place, to the point of being archetypal. What I read began touching a deeper chord in me than just reading a humorous story. Country, swamp, wild life, sugar cane, palmetto and St. Augustine grass. Everything from crawfish clamping on your fingers, to hunting and fishing in order to eat, to Cajun schoolyard bullies, to fledgling encounters between the sexes in the cane fields, to corrupt cops, to class and race distinctions, to honor between folks who had little, regardless of race. This book is fiction only in one sense of the word. I've met some of the people in this book. What takes place in this story really happened, and still happens, somewhere, to someone. There are none of the overblown plot turns of a James Lee Burke story. These are real people in real life situations, just removed from the common experience of most of us. Hell, I bet the flying gator was drawn from real life too. My only regret is that the book ended.