The Death of Sweet Mister ***

By Daniel Woodrell.
Copyright 2001 by Daniel Woodrell.
Published G.P. Putnam' Sons, Penguin Putnam
Pages 196.

Woodrell is one of my favorite authors so I have read several of his books already.  This is fairly typical of his work, and I like his work, so of course I liked it!  He specializes in stories about the Appalachian Mountains and the people who live there.  His books are full of violence, drug abuse, poverty and a bit of black humor.  My kind of book! 

Here's the story.  It's about a dysfunctional nuclear family of three who live somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains.There's a mom, Glenda, her brutal husband/boyfriend, Red and a young 13 year-old chubby boy called Shug, who is also called by his mother the tile character - Sweet Mister.  That's the nickname that his mom gives him.  So the mom is very submissive towards the brutal husband and pretty much lets him have his way in every way - especially sexually.  She has a strong affection for her son, which kind of leads to a teasing, flirty behavior.  Red abuses the two and has the young boy steal drugs from the homes of doctors and very sick patients.  Eventually a guy in a Green T-bird comes along , Jimmy Vin, and sweeps her off her feet so to speak.  This leads to the fact that Glenda now has two lovers. Shug witnesses this all, but he hates Red enough that he doesn't care except for the jealousy of the attention that his mother is getting.  It all predictably comes down to a violent ending in which we are the witness to the aftermath.  He doesn't actually describe the scene in the book.  Jimmy plans to take Glenda away from it all as he has found a new job, but Shug can't come along because his job is on a cruise ship.  Jimmy is a cook, and there is no room.  So that's the plan, but Jimmy never shows up for reasons discussed below.

Lots of spoilers already not spoiled above to follow.

So as I was reading this and when I figured out who Sweet Mister was, I was very concerned for the boy since he seemed, relatively, a nice gentle should caught in the wrong place.  By the title, I thought he would die, but he doesn't.  It's his innocence that dies.  I think the message is that this type of life style is circular. Even though Shug is a good kid, it seems reasonable that he will turn out the same as Red- criminal, abusive, misogynist and addicted to drugs, though there is a bit of hope for him maybe because of his sensitivity, he might, more or less, escape all that.  The ending would seem to prove that that probably WON'T be the case.

After all the sensual teasing from his mother and all the out and out sexual behavior he witnessed from the adults, the husband Red took minimal efforts to hide those exploits, Shug seemed ti think he deserved some of what his mother had been giving out.  Yes it seems cliche, but were talking about mother and son, hence the end/death of his innocence.  She tells him no when he begins to make a move, but Shug insists, and whines about not getting what everyone else does.  Glenda is able to fend off Shug's advances at first, but when she realizes that Jimmy is not coming  to pick her she resignedly gives in to her boy's wishes - She has given up hope.

So that's the death of his innocence, but there are more examples of how his innocence has been murdered.  When Shug learns that he wont be going with his mother he is the one that puts everything in play.  It's that Glenda and Jimmy have to leave because they  murdered Red.  Shug knows it, but keeps their secret to protect his mother.  But when he finds out he's not going, he goes and tells Red's best friend who makes it happen that Jimmy is NOT capable of running off with Glenda. So Glenda, in her "not very motherly shorts", allows Shugs hands to move higher and higher on the very last page.  Life as they knew for Shug and Glenda was over.