Give Us A Kiss - A Country Noir ***

By Daniel Woodrell.
Published in 1996 by Henry Holt & Company, New York.
237 Pages.

I first heard of this author when I saw a movie Winter Bones based on one of his books by the same title.  I was deeply impressed, so comparisons will be made despite the fact that the books are different (but same author remember).

The author was born and raised in the Ozark hills and a certain amount of love is shown to the culture and especially the land.  The culture you say?  What kind of culture is there in the Ozark Mountains?  Why hillbilly culture of course.  This book is a celebration of that culture and land.

When I saw the film Winter Bones, it was the seriousness of it that impressed me.  It showed the poverty, drug addiction, rebelliousness against the law and the misogyny of the people who lived in the Ozarks.  It was a serious film - violent and intense.  Give Us a Kiss has all this, but it also has some humor.  The author makes fun of the characters' white trash roots.  He also gives the reader a sexy romance in which the protagonist hooks up with a an Elly May character right out of Beverly Hillbillies.  He even references that actress who plays her.  So funny, sexy violent  and add to that some good writing and what's not to like?  Well, it does have a lighter tone than the film Winter Bones so it was harder to take seriously.  But all in all a quick satisfying read which I read in the course of two days.

The story goes that a struggling author (Doyle Redman) who writes a series of crime novels based on his life in the Ozarks, returns to his roots and family to encourage his older brother (Smoke) to give him self up to the authorities to save the parents from the daily harassment that they are receiving from those same authorities.  He half-heartedly tries talking to his brother about it and then ends up joining his brother, the brother's girlfriend (Big Annie, named for her big boobs) and the girlfriend's 19 year old daughter (said hottie - Niagara) in a money making scheme involving the growing and selling of some marijuana.  But there is another tribe or family that is even more dangerous and despicable than our heroes' family, and of course they get involved and old and new feuds are lit up.  It ends in violent gunfight to the end.

I will be investigating more of this author's books.  I like gritty realism and you get plenty of that in his books.

Here's a trailer from the movie Winter Bones. I have halted my reviews of films since I keep finding my self terribly behind, so I never got around to blogging about this one. I couldn't find anything specifically about Give Us Kiss, this trailer does give a a taste of what the book/s are about.