Heart of Whitenesse

by Howard Waldrop

Howard Waldrop made his reputation with such collections as Howard Who? and stories like "The Ugly Chickens." Here are the latest emanation from the strange waters of Howard's brain.

Genres: Science Fiction, Collections, Fantasy

274 pages, Hardcover

First published May 31, 2005

About the author

Howard Waldrop was an American science fiction author who worked primarily in short fiction, with shorties that combined elements such as alternate history, American popular culture, the American South, old movies, classical mythology, and rock 'n' roll music. He received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2021.

Reviews

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in the 1970s, one of the main reasons I tried never to miss ArmadilloCon was the opportunity to hang around as much as possible within earshot of Howard Waldrop, just listening to him talk. To anyone. About anything. He has the mind of a Van de Graaff generator, throwing off ideas and comments and observations of the most original sort, the kind of thing that makes his listeners pause and go “Hmmmm.” As he demonstrates in all his fiction, including the ten in this new collection, he never forgets anything and seems to have a total grasp of popular culture within, and frequently before, his lifetime. And since he and I are almost exactly the same age, I’m always fascinated at his crystal-clear memories of things and people I can only vaguely recollect. And then there’s his style; face it, the man could make a guacamole recipe mesmerizing.

Take the title story here: There’s Marlow, the narrator from Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, there’s Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe, the private eye, and there’s Christopher Marlowe, the Elizabeth playwright and spy. Mix ‘em all together and whattaya got? A trip up a river (instead of down) on an iceboat, a run-in with Dr. Faustus, and a Queen Elizabeth who steals lines from Bette Davis. And who else could write an existential story about pedal cars? “Us,” my favorite, is a series of alternate-reality shorts about what happened to the Lindbergh baby who survived. And “The Other Real World,” the most complicated story here, is also a lot of fun, though it requires careful reading to pick up all the references before you get to the give-away footnotes. If only Howard’s rate of production weren’t so bleeding slow!

[David H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection has 10 stories, and similarly to the last collection I read of his (Going Home Again), it doesn't hit for me emotionally as well as his earlier work. He's definitely a great writer who can really get into a time and place, but his love of obscure moments (and movies and songs and ...) in history can make it hard to figure out what he's getting at, even with his very interesting afterwords he includes after each story. I would probably say that my favorite is probably "Mr. Goober's Show" and "Major Spacer in the 21st Century!", and something like "Our Mortal Span" is going to be absolutely hilarious for the right person. The title story of "Heart of Whitenesse" was fantastic as well, and the creativity behind "The Dynasters, Vol. I: On the Downs" was great fun, even if I didn't understand who they were at first.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of Waldrop's unique stories from the ominous Lafferty like "Mr. Goober's tv show" to allusion dense title story. More fun with alternative history, robots, and pop culture from Waldrop.