Nightrunners
by Joe R. Lansdale
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joe R. LansdaleEdition: Hardcover
Published: 1987-06
ISBN: 0913165174
Publisher: Dark Harvest Books
Book Reviews of Nightrunners
Book Review: A rare gem . . .
Summary: 5 Stars
This is Lansdale's first, and finest, work -- unfortunately, it's long been out of print and collectible prices are astronomical. Apparently now that Joe has gone onto bigger and "better" things (like his bestselling series about a gay Black southern civilian detective-hobbyist), he'd prefer to forget about his past. Woe be unto any fan of his mainstream novels who stumbles upon this nasty little secret by "that nice Mister Lansdale."
I'd never heard of this book before -- nor had a friend, who is a huge Lansdale fan. Looking up "splatterpunk" on Wikipedia I was surprised to see mention of the same Joe Lansdale I'm familiar with -- and the amazon reviews convinced me that this was going to be page after page of gratuitous and highly explicit violence, so I just had to add it to my Inter Library Loan queue.
If you're familiar with the splatterpunk sub-genre, or "extreme horror" as it's nowadays called, you'll probably find the violence somewhat tame. Yes, it is violent, but Lansdale is a skilled writer who doesn't need to linger unnecessarily on the description of said violence for the titillation of freaks attracted to such. Not a mainstream book by any stretch of the imagination . . . but it really should be.
Like King, Lansdale knows that it is not spooks and monsters that terrify us, but the atrocities of which humankind is oh so capable. The casual violence of the sociopath -- which degrades into rape and slow torture when he realizes that, hey, he's got a few hours to kill and ain't no-one gonna interrupt. This is what the goblins lurking outside our civilized society like to do. They are sadistic, they are vile, and they are REAL. Like the boogyman, wussified liberal dingbats want to deny their existance -- until, like the protagonists -- they come face to face with their worst nightmare . . . and Officer Friendly ain't there to save the day (or he's rapidly cooling on the front lawn with a bullet in his head -- several cop-killings in this story).
One thing that surprised me was the startlingly accurate depiction of demonic possession portrayed within. I've studied Comparative Demonology for years (accounts and legends from all cultures throughout recorded history), and folks, it ain't anything like "The Exorcist". The typical possession involves a malevolent entity taking near total control of a human host almost like slipping into a skin suit. They appear to be "normal", but the perceptive can see the malice in their eyes, hear it in their voice, and note it in their actions. Most sadistic sociopaths seem to have much in common with the demonically possessed. "The God of the Razor" takes possession of a youth gang leader -- and when he dies, transfers the leader's mind to his lieutenant in a form of dual possession. The astral/oneric interaction with "The God of the Razor" seemed quite authentic to me.
This novel was very well written, sensitive to the delicate subject matter (without going into lurid detail), and an utterly absorbing read. The motivation of the sociopathic gang members is consistant with that of goblins I've met in the past (Clyde sodomizes a former teacher because, "She was nice to me once, and I've been thinking about that *** ever since"). This book should be more widely read: there are genuinely evil creatures walking amongst us, and that fact is ignored at your peril.
Summary of Nightrunners
In the field of country noir--the dark side of rural and small-town America--Lansdale staked his claim to East Texas with The Nightrunners. A '66 Chevy bears down on the countryside, with a carful of vicious teenagers and evil of Biblical proportions, in this terrifying morality tale of sex and violence.Becky got raped. Her husband Monty has the "lack of balls blues." Bad dude Brian blames Becky for the death of his closest friend. When Becky and Monty drive north from Galveston into the piney woods of East Texas, and hole up in a cabin to recover, Brian and his compadres make a date for revenge. Then the God of the Razor shows up. A brilliant, hypercharged horror novel with sex, violence, a black '66 Chevy and a plastic Jesus with a lightbulb inside.
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