What do you think?
Rate this book
Writer of the Purple Rage
Containing stories from the dark side, the light side, and all shades in between, this is a masterful collection by one of America's rising storytellers. Storylines include that of a woman who discovers grisly horror on a mountain road, a plastic love doll who becomes liberated, and a baby's diaper that is possessed by aliens.
Contents:
Mister Weed-Eater (1993)
Steppin' Out, Summer, '68 (1991)
Love Doll: A Fable (1991)
Bubba Ho-Tep (1994)
Man with Two Lives (1994)
Pilots (1989)
The Phone Woman (1990)
The Diaper, or The Adventure of the Little Rounder (1990)
Everybody Plays the Fool (1993)
In the Cold, Dark Time (1990)
Incident On and Off a Mountain Road (1991)
By Bizzare Hands: The Play (1991)
Godzilla's Twelve-Step Program (1994)
Drive-In Date (1991)
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
2 people are currently reading
323 people want to read
About the author
Joe R. Lansdale
826 books3,920 followersChampion Mojo Storyteller Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over forty novels and numerous short stories. His work has appeared in national anthologies, magazines, and collections, as well as numerous foreign publications. He has written for comics, television, film, newspapers, and Internet sites. His work has been collected in more than two dozen short-story collections, and he has edited or co-edited over a dozen anthologies. He has received the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker Awards, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award, the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy, and many others. His novella Bubba Ho-Tep was adapted to film by Don Coscarelli, starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis. His story "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" was adapted to film for Showtime's "Masters of Horror," and he adapted his short story "Christmas with the Dead" to film hisownself. The film adaptation of his novel Cold in July was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Sundance Channel has adapted his Hap & Leonard novels for television.
He is currently co-producing several films, among them The Bottoms, based on his Edgar Award-winning novel, with Bill Paxton and Brad Wyman, and The Drive-In, with Greg Nicotero. He is Writer In Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University, and is the founder of the martial arts system Shen Chuan: Martial Science and its affiliate, Shen Chuan Family System. He is a member of both the United States and International Martial Arts Halls of Fame. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife, dog, and two cats.
He is currently co-producing several films, among them The Bottoms, based on his Edgar Award-winning novel, with Bill Paxton and Brad Wyman, and The Drive-In, with Greg Nicotero. He is Writer In Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University, and is the founder of the martial arts system Shen Chuan: Martial Science and its affiliate, Shen Chuan Family System. He is a member of both the United States and International Martial Arts Halls of Fame. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife, dog, and two cats.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
April 3, 2012
awesome. I had read several Lansdale novels, but had never delved into the short stories. These are great. There's only one total-miss in this collection ("The Diaper"), but several very very strong stories that have been sticking in my head ("Pilots", "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road", "In The Cold, Dark Time", "Steppin Out, Summer, '68", "Bubba Ho-Tep"), a pretty hilarious piece about Godzilla being in a twelve-step program, and a rad nonfiction piece about Lansdale's hard-on for horror.
Highly recommended if you like his style.
Highly recommended if you like his style.
November 20, 2014
At turns bizarre, surreal, hilarious, demented, terrifying and disturbing, this is an awe inspiring collection of Joe R. Lansdale's short fiction. His imagination is amazing and knows no boundaries. Highest recommendation possible, just be warned, some of these stories are very intense.
April 16, 2010
Joe R Lansdale is a writer who can't resist a gimmick. In reading his novel "Freezer Burn" I was initially captivated by his folksy style, his strong dialog and deft hand at characterization, but a third of the way into the book things take a turn for the uninspired, with characters and plot proceedings not cribbed from real life or his own fertile imagination but appropriated from beloved b-movies. Lansdale seemed not to have anywhere to take his story, and rather than wrapping it up and making it a killer short story, he plods on toward a novel's length and a nonsensical wrap-up.
His short stories are a better at balancing out the gimmickry. For one thing, it allows him the space to spin more gimmicks, and at the length of 20 or so pages even his sillier flights of fancy are less likely to wear out their welcome. Take for instance "Godzilla's Twelve Step Program", in which our beloved kaiju tries to find steady employment and leave bad habits like stomping cities in the past. This is as silly a concept as you could have for a story, but in Lansdale's hands its fun and funny, when all's said and done not a bad way to waste the time. "The Man With Two Lives" postulates that Bill Hickok faked his death and lived to a dull old age in Texas, and though I didn't care for it one way or the other, that may be because I don't share Lansdale's fannish passion for tales of the west. And if the gimmick is just awful, like in "The Diaper", in which an alien signal from the tv zaps a toddler and his diaper with super intelligence, well, at least it didn't waste much of your time. "The Diaper" is the only story here that isn't worth a read. There are a number of superb genre exercises: "Pilots", is an exciting harrowing-tale-of-survival type yarn, "a high-octane horror story" as I might say if I wrote the blurbs on paperback covers; the mininalist "In the Cold Dark Time" gives us a tiny, chilling glimpse into a war-torn future; and "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road", which is a little familiar (woman-in-peril, game-of-cat-and-mouse) but has a really great ending and some thrilling moments besides. "Love Doll: a Fable" is a surreal mediation on how two people in a relationship will dehumanize each other.
Most of the stories are more peculiar to the author than those described above. They are cut from a gleeful vein of Southern gothic, black-comic and stranger than what we can safely call fiction. "Steppin' Out, Summer '68" follows three high-school-aged boys out for a night on the town, in which things soon take a hilarious, morbid turn. "Mister Weed-Eater" is an absurdist trailer park spin on the Book of Job. "Drive-In Date" is a humanizing but chilling look at two hard-bitten sad-sacks based on Henry Lucas and Ottis Toole. Sometimes the pathetic characters seem like safe targets for our comfortable derision (this may be why I didn't much care for "Everybody Plays the Fool", a story that just didn't sit with me) but usually not, and this feeling of mine was put to rest by the excellent "The Phone Woman" in which our mild-seeming, erudite narrator turns out to be quite a creepy fucker.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention that a play based on Lansdale's excellent story "By Bizarre Hands" is included, as well as the famous "Bubba Ho-Tep", which I was shocked to find I didn't care too much about. I guess I just couldn't get invested in Elvis Presley as a character. In Don Coscarelli's enjoyable movie based on this story, I guess I could pretend that the guy who thought we was Elvis was just another crazy old fart, but the effect of seeing text that says "Evis did this" or "Elvis said that" was uninvolving, as it was in the story about Bill Hickok. There are fun moments in the story, and lots of quotable dialog that could've been in the movie, as well as some of the most scatological metaphors ever put to paper, something of a trademark for Lansdale.
His short stories are a better at balancing out the gimmickry. For one thing, it allows him the space to spin more gimmicks, and at the length of 20 or so pages even his sillier flights of fancy are less likely to wear out their welcome. Take for instance "Godzilla's Twelve Step Program", in which our beloved kaiju tries to find steady employment and leave bad habits like stomping cities in the past. This is as silly a concept as you could have for a story, but in Lansdale's hands its fun and funny, when all's said and done not a bad way to waste the time. "The Man With Two Lives" postulates that Bill Hickok faked his death and lived to a dull old age in Texas, and though I didn't care for it one way or the other, that may be because I don't share Lansdale's fannish passion for tales of the west. And if the gimmick is just awful, like in "The Diaper", in which an alien signal from the tv zaps a toddler and his diaper with super intelligence, well, at least it didn't waste much of your time. "The Diaper" is the only story here that isn't worth a read. There are a number of superb genre exercises: "Pilots", is an exciting harrowing-tale-of-survival type yarn, "a high-octane horror story" as I might say if I wrote the blurbs on paperback covers; the mininalist "In the Cold Dark Time" gives us a tiny, chilling glimpse into a war-torn future; and "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road", which is a little familiar (woman-in-peril, game-of-cat-and-mouse) but has a really great ending and some thrilling moments besides. "Love Doll: a Fable" is a surreal mediation on how two people in a relationship will dehumanize each other.
Most of the stories are more peculiar to the author than those described above. They are cut from a gleeful vein of Southern gothic, black-comic and stranger than what we can safely call fiction. "Steppin' Out, Summer '68" follows three high-school-aged boys out for a night on the town, in which things soon take a hilarious, morbid turn. "Mister Weed-Eater" is an absurdist trailer park spin on the Book of Job. "Drive-In Date" is a humanizing but chilling look at two hard-bitten sad-sacks based on Henry Lucas and Ottis Toole. Sometimes the pathetic characters seem like safe targets for our comfortable derision (this may be why I didn't much care for "Everybody Plays the Fool", a story that just didn't sit with me) but usually not, and this feeling of mine was put to rest by the excellent "The Phone Woman" in which our mild-seeming, erudite narrator turns out to be quite a creepy fucker.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention that a play based on Lansdale's excellent story "By Bizarre Hands" is included, as well as the famous "Bubba Ho-Tep", which I was shocked to find I didn't care too much about. I guess I just couldn't get invested in Elvis Presley as a character. In Don Coscarelli's enjoyable movie based on this story, I guess I could pretend that the guy who thought we was Elvis was just another crazy old fart, but the effect of seeing text that says "Evis did this" or "Elvis said that" was uninvolving, as it was in the story about Bill Hickok. There are fun moments in the story, and lots of quotable dialog that could've been in the movie, as well as some of the most scatological metaphors ever put to paper, something of a trademark for Lansdale.
November 28, 2019
Od doby, co jsem se rozhodl, že vyzkouším Lansdalea a s hrůzou zjistil, kolik toho napsal, jsem přešel do stádia, kdy už mám skoro všechno přečteno a teď už jen vyhledávám opomenuté a vyprodané tituly… pokud tedy za ně nechtějí osmdesáti dolarů. Lansdale je rozený vypravěč – a je fakt, že na to už v posledních románech často hřeší. Ale v povídkách nemůže pustit své vyprávěcí schopnosti jen tak na volnoběh, takže jsou pořád úderné a zajímavé. Člověk si hodně uvědomuje, jak Lansdale sází na kombinaci poklidného vyprávěcího tempa s kontrastem náhlého nástupu přepáleného násilí.
Je to dobrý sborník, i když tu jsou některé povídky, které už vyšly i u nás. Především Bubba Ho-Tep, příběh se starým Elvisem žijící v domově důchodců, kde něco začíná zabíjet jeho obyvatele. Nebo absolutně klasický hororový příběh Incident On and Off a Mountain Road. Je tu i pokračování povídky Bizarníma rukama, pojednané jako divadelní hra. A už jsem četl i Godzillas Twelve Step Program, který dokazuje, že i když Lansdale začne povídku jako rozjuchanou parodii o Godzille, která si odvyká šlapat po městech, končí to jako poměrně temné drama.
Jsou tu civilní příběhy… ovšem jižansky civilní příběhy, takže postavy jsou občas dost zvláštní a jejich osudy naberou dost nečekané obraty. Máte tu madmaxovský boj s kamiony, příběhy o cestě za holkama, která se změní v masakr, povídku o posedlé pleně či o člověku pronásledovaném hurikány. A překvapivě, jsou tu příběhy i s pointami, které sice nejsou zase tak šokující, ale zasáhnou - jak z vteřiny na vteřinu změní náladu vyprávění.
Lansdale je prostě borec a je škoda, že ho u nás nevychází víc.
Je to dobrý sborník, i když tu jsou některé povídky, které už vyšly i u nás. Především Bubba Ho-Tep, příběh se starým Elvisem žijící v domově důchodců, kde něco začíná zabíjet jeho obyvatele. Nebo absolutně klasický hororový příběh Incident On and Off a Mountain Road. Je tu i pokračování povídky Bizarníma rukama, pojednané jako divadelní hra. A už jsem četl i Godzillas Twelve Step Program, který dokazuje, že i když Lansdale začne povídku jako rozjuchanou parodii o Godzille, která si odvyká šlapat po městech, končí to jako poměrně temné drama.
Jsou tu civilní příběhy… ovšem jižansky civilní příběhy, takže postavy jsou občas dost zvláštní a jejich osudy naberou dost nečekané obraty. Máte tu madmaxovský boj s kamiony, příběhy o cestě za holkama, která se změní v masakr, povídku o posedlé pleně či o člověku pronásledovaném hurikány. A překvapivě, jsou tu příběhy i s pointami, které sice nejsou zase tak šokující, ale zasáhnou - jak z vteřiny na vteřinu změní náladu vyprávění.
Lansdale je prostě borec a je škoda, že ho u nás nevychází víc.
October 12, 2011
Face it, folks: Joe Lansdale is a cool cat, and this collection of short stories is a great way to spend an evening or two. It's a book of weird, weird shit, and if the title "Godzilla's Twelve-Step Program" gets you off, then you've come to the right place.
December 21, 2015
the writing is just as powerful in this collection of stories, but it is very raw--language and action.
January 17, 2018
If By Bizarre Hands was Joe at his scariest (and best), Bestsellers Guaranteed his weirdest, then I'm going to have to say Writers of the Purple Rage is Joe at his funniest. "Steppin' Out, Summer, '68", "The Phone Woman", "Mister Weed Eater", "Everybody Plays the Fool" and of course the famous "Bubba Ho-Tep" (the longer, almost novella story included this time out) are all laugh out loud hilarious. The other, darker stories also frequently make me chuckle (like the pitch-black humour of the deeply disturbing "Drive-in Date"). Also included of note is the action-packed b-movie thriller "Pilots", which would be an excellent highway-horror-chase movie, "In the Cold, Dark Time" which does more in a handful of pages than most do with a novel, and "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road", possibly the best, most excellent illustration of Joe R Lansdale's strengths as a suspense writer. The story is a little over familiar to me since I've read it three times now (it's also in "High Cotton") and watched Don Coscarelli's rather good adaptation (as part of the "Masters of Horror" TV show) a few times to boot.
While I still prefer By Bizarre Hands (for sure), this one might be the most consistant. It also has an excellent flow - the book starts with "Mister Weedeater" which manages to be nightmarish and, as I said, hilarious at the same time - and follows the lengthy "Bubba Ho-Tep", which is of course about an icon who traded in his identity, with the very short "The Man with Two Lives", which is also the same thing, but done serious.
While I still prefer By Bizarre Hands (for sure), this one might be the most consistant. It also has an excellent flow - the book starts with "Mister Weedeater" which manages to be nightmarish and, as I said, hilarious at the same time - and follows the lengthy "Bubba Ho-Tep", which is of course about an icon who traded in his identity, with the very short "The Man with Two Lives", which is also the same thing, but done serious.
April 22, 2021
I've chipped away at the oeuvre of Joe R. Lansdale, here and there, and have seen his stuff get the big screen treatment with "Bubba Hotep," but this is my first foray into one of his solo anthologies. This was money and time well-spent, and I'm not saying that just because I got it cheap and have nothing better to do with my time (though I did get it used and I have no life).
Lansdale's aesthetic could best be described as how Flannery O'Connor might write, had she been weaned on low budget horror movies instead of Catholic doctrine. It's this tension, in fact, between the trashy subject matter and weighty themes that makes Joe R. Lansdale so hard to categorize. He writes very well, which should make him literary, but it's too much fun for his stuff to merit the slur of "serious."
The stories range from the solid to the masterful, with "Mister Weed-Eater" the best of a good bunch. It's a story about a blind man with a weed-eater who doesn't just damage lawns. It, like a lot of Lansdale's best pieces, has a lived-in southern gothic feel that's at once charming and alienating. He makes you want to stay but also makes you want to run away with every one of these stories. Great stuff, and I'm churlish, "ornery" I guess you'd say if you were southern. Highest recommendation.
Lansdale's aesthetic could best be described as how Flannery O'Connor might write, had she been weaned on low budget horror movies instead of Catholic doctrine. It's this tension, in fact, between the trashy subject matter and weighty themes that makes Joe R. Lansdale so hard to categorize. He writes very well, which should make him literary, but it's too much fun for his stuff to merit the slur of "serious."
The stories range from the solid to the masterful, with "Mister Weed-Eater" the best of a good bunch. It's a story about a blind man with a weed-eater who doesn't just damage lawns. It, like a lot of Lansdale's best pieces, has a lived-in southern gothic feel that's at once charming and alienating. He makes you want to stay but also makes you want to run away with every one of these stories. Great stuff, and I'm churlish, "ornery" I guess you'd say if you were southern. Highest recommendation.
did-not-finish
September 17, 2023Tw/cw- racist slurs, animal abuse & death
After 2 stories in, deciding not to finish this one. I have a big problem with white male authors using the n word, and in two short stories it was used dozens of times. Animal abuse & death was also used heavily, so I have to assume most of his writing relies on these 2 things that I can’t get on board with. Heavy use of misogyny as well.
After 2 stories in, deciding not to finish this one. I have a big problem with white male authors using the n word, and in two short stories it was used dozens of times. Animal abuse & death was also used heavily, so I have to assume most of his writing relies on these 2 things that I can’t get on board with. Heavy use of misogyny as well.
July 20, 2017
Joe Lansdale it the most unique, quirky, interesting, eccentric talent you will ever have the pleasure to read. You'll love him!
June 20, 2020
Pretty uneven, though there were a couple of gems. I liked the introduction, story notes and essay more than I liked most of the stories in this collection.
July 21, 2021
Like all short story collections they can't all be winners, but when he hits he hits hard
August 15, 2024
My first Lansdale. Honestly, this is the first book that got me into reading. All the stories are punchy and not a bad one in the lot.
January 13, 2025
I don’t know how this book is rated so high or got an award. I’ve had my copy for 30 years. I read it when I got it and thought it was kinda dumb and I felt like the author would be someone I would never want to have in my circle. 30yrs later I give it another shot, and I still feel the exact same way. Bad writing, and he still seems like a creep.
BUT…I know Joe R Lansdale is a reputable writer, so I’ll check out another book if I find one. Who knows, maybe this one is the dud in his portfolio.
BUT…I know Joe R Lansdale is a reputable writer, so I’ll check out another book if I find one. Who knows, maybe this one is the dud in his portfolio.
July 17, 2010
Grab any of Lansdale's short story collections and you'll have a good time. Again, Lansdale is one of the pros that new writers can learn much from. Voice, setting, and plot; Lansdale's stories show you how it's done.
August 1, 2008
Another collection of horror short stories.
March 15, 2009
Pretty good short story book. Worth reading just to read Bubba Ho-Tep (classic).
September 21, 2010
I liked some of the stories a lot, others not so much. Landsdale sure has a way with language, though.
October 29, 2009
Absolutely awesome in every way and it was a great read from front to back.
February 16, 2010
Contains the short story "Bubba Ho-Tep", so, a must-read!
October 28, 2010
Another winner. Too many great stories to choose from.It kicks off with Mister Weed-Eater and the fun continues from there.
September 1, 2012
Worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews