Joe R. Lansdsale's
Mucho Mojo
Gollancz Indigo Paperback (0 575 06220 7)£5.99
& The Two-Bear Mambo
Gollancz Paperback Original (0 575 06220 7)£8.99
Mucho Mojo
introduces Leonard Pine and Hap Collins. One gay, one straight. One black, one white. And
both filled with the wildest mixture of toughness, passion and savage wit you'd ever want
to meet! Blend this with long days of blistering East Texan sun, boiling and sudden rain
storms, a mysterious death and not much to do and you've a recipe for a hot, sharp
smouldering tale that'll scorch your soul. After all, burning's quite a speciality with
Leonard, but that's another story! When Chester Pine dies he leaves his savings and dilapidated old house in the black neighbourhood to his favourite nephew Leonard. Never mind that he disowned him years before when he found out Leonard was gay. Now he's dead, Leonard feels sad about the old man. Hap and Leonard's friendship is such that they'd do anything for each other. So even though Hap didn't know Uncle Chester `from brown rice', Leonard talks him into going to the funeral and the two go shopping for clothes:
Hap: "...I paid up because I was the only one working these days, even if it was sporadically, and because Leonard never let me forget that it was my fault his leg was messed up. He'd say stuff like, 'You know I got this messed up on account of you,' then he'd pick something he wanted and I'd pay for it, because what he said was true. Wasn't for him, my funeral would have come before Uncle Chester's."
After the funeral, the friends move in to the house and set about fixing the roof and floorboards. They soon find that the house wasn't the only legacy that good old Chester left behind. Definitely not! What about the decomposing child's body in a box under the floorboards and the child pornography? Not to mention the jars filled with Burger King and other assorted food coupons! Was Chester trying to tell Leonard something or were these things only a product of an old man's deranged mind? A chaotic world of long-missing children, obsessive preachers, worthless drug dealers and a wide assortment of other creative and colourful personalities is split wide open as the pair pursue the truth. After all, Chester may have been a bigot but he surely wasn't capable of murder!?
All deadly serious stuff! But that's not all. The book's saturated with dark, laconic and corrosive wit. It's not even a case of if you don't laugh you'll cry (although too often true!). It's more that the humour can say things too harsh to put in any other way, it takes the bitterness and bite out of the truth. It doesn't make the truth easier, just brings it out in the open. And the big issues in life are all here - gay/straight, black/white, hellfire and damnation - all the things that make Hap and Leonard what they are, all dealt with in their own inimitable style. All life's possibilities, big and small are rolled up into one big ball of, well, life!
The Two-Bear Mambo,
Hap and Leonard's second adventure is altogether more stark and threatening. If I had to
choose one word to sum it up it would be 'harrowing'. While Mucho Mojo
explored the violence and inhumanity that lurks in men's souls, there was still a feeling
that the wickedness was due to ignorance, stupidity and/or a need for self-preservation,
that the villains at some point might have been redeemable, might have chosen a different
path. Perhaps. But from here the only way is down. The Two Bear Mambo
plunges headlong into a darker world of racial hatred, fear and the cruelty and iniquities
that this spawns. The tale opens on Christmas Eve with Leonard indulging his favourite pursuit - burning down the crack-house next door! From the outset there's a bad feeling to this violence. Although no one is killed, clothes and hair are on fire, and in an act of compassion Hap helps one man by knocking him to the ground, stepping on his neck and throwing dirt over his head to put the fire out!
The interesting thing is that when Leonard first burnt the house (this is the third time!) it wasn't so much shocking as justifiable, at least on an emotional (and perhaps practical) level. No one was in there at the time and the beating the inhabitants took only involved bruises and a few broken bones!! The dealers had been selling openly, ruining lives and causing deaths. The owner of the house, having powerful friends and making money out of this misery just re-built the house, re-installing the tenants. The police were powerless. So Leonard keeps burning it down. This time, the rage behind his actions seems to have escalated.
Hap and Leonard are taken into custody where Hanson, a cop and friend makes a deal. They get off charges if they help find his missing girlfriend, Florida Grange. Florida, a lawyer, is in Grovetown investigating the death of the son of a legendary black blues singer. The trouble is that Grovetown is in the heart of Klan country, a town which the civil rights movement has passed by. Not a safe place for anyone, let alone a young black girl.
Now Hap was once Florida's lover himself and he'd much rather not get re-involved with her but it seems that the pair have little choice. Their journey into Grovetown is a journey into hell. A storm is brewing, warning of them of impending trouble but Hap and Leonard, as with all trouble, like to meet it head on. Once there they meet all the hatred they expect and worse. They find few allies, it's almost impossible to even find food and a bed for the night! Nor can they find Florida. Racial tension, allied with a cover up over the death of the singer leads to horrific, savage violence. And the violence goes on and on! A tale that began at a manic level now ends in cataclysm. The rage of the Lord (or just that of the world) pours down on the inhabitants of Grangetown, as well it might! Hap and Leonard themselves are almost destroyed. If the violence didn't finish them, the cold truth behind it almost did.
Mucho Mojo and The Two-Bear Mambo embrace an extraordinary range of passion, fear, tenderness, humour, terror, hate, violence - in short all the contradictory emotions that the human heart can hold. Going along with Hap and Leonard is not a journey it's an experience! You'll never be the same again! This is the stuff that dreams (and if truth be told, nightmares) are made of! (EAL)
