By Wayne C. Rogers
This is not a review of a horror novel, but the author of the book is Joe R. Lansdale.
Since Mr. Lansdale’s latest novel, The Thicket , is currently selling very well in hardback, I wanted to talk about the author’s first Western novel, The Magic Carriage .
I had never been interested in Westerns until I read the works of Joe R. Lansdale. I mean, I had read some Westerns over the years by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Louis Lamour, and Larry McMurtry, but my favorite genres were horror, thriller, suspense, and crime noir. When I picked up Mr. Lansdale’s The Magic Carriage, I had already read all five of his Hap/Leonard novels, as well as The Bottom and A Thin Black Line. The author’s writing style and East Texas sense of humor kept me hooked on his books, especially his Westerns.
The Magic Carriage tells the story of Buster Fogg, a fifteen-year-old boy who loses his parents in a 1909 Texas tornado. After his father is buried (his mother is never found), the local bank reclaims the gravestone on the family’s land. It’s then that Buster decides it’s time to start walking his own path in life and never look back.
One morning in the dead of winter, he injured his leg and limped on crutches on the icy road into the city. By noon, he was exhausted and ready to give up when a red carriage suddenly stopped beside him. The carriage was pulled by eight mules and the driver was a burly black man.
The driver, Old Albert, offered to give Buster a ride.
At first, the carriage’s owner, trick-shooting artist Billy Bob Daniels (who claims to be the illegitimate son of Wild Bill Hickok and perhaps the fastest pistol shooter in the world) objects to the boy coming with them, but soon and reluctantly agrees to Albert’s wish. Thus begins Buster’s adventure as he travels from town to town on a magic carriage with Albert, Billy Bob, the body of Wild Bill Hickok, and the wrestling chimpanzee Rottoy, and becomes a man.
During a stop in the small town of Muddy Creek, a gunman named Texas Jack Wentworth challenges Billy Bob to a shootout. The outcome of the shootout has a terrible impact on Buster’s life, and his life will never be the same again.
The Magic Carriage is a perfect example of what great storytelling is all about. Although it is a short novel, it is filled with memorable characters (both good and bad) that leave a lasting impression on the reader. There is also tragedy and humor in the book, both of which take the reader through a range of raw emotions. Few scenes in the novel are as powerful as the moment a tornado hits Buster’s home without warning, ripping the barn to pieces, piercing his father’s chest with a pitchfork, and sweeping away the farmhouse, taking his mother with it.
And if that weren’t enough, there’s the grandest adventure of all. As Old Albert tells Buster how they found Wild Bill’s body and nearly lost their lives, the reader is subtly drawn into the scene, becoming one with it, experiencing the fear and distrust as everything unfolds into a life-or-death battle.
Now, I don’t know if there really were pistol-shooters in the Old West who could shoot as well and as fast as Billy Bob Daniels, but Mr. Lansdale certainly convinced me that there were such men. I felt like a kid in a circus when Billy Bob shot small coins out of the air, split playing cards in half, and fired a bullet that drove a cork into a wine bottle, knocking off the bottom of the bottle without breaking the neck of the bottle.
With “The Wonder Carriage,” the author paints a vivid picture of the West: dirty, cow-dung-smelling towns, fictional heroes from cheap novels, and sudden violence and death. Mr. Lansdale writes in a style that is so fluid, natural, charming, and down-to-earth that not even the wrestling chimpanzee Rott Toye can break it.
Stephen King once wrote, “It’s the story that matters, not the storyteller.” I agree, and I’m grateful to Joe Lansdale for writing some of the best stories ever. Mr. Lansdale was lucky as a writer because he was able to write what he wanted. And it turned out to be the right thing to do. Each of his short stories, novellas, and novels is a masterpiece (or at least very close to it). You won’t be disappointed with Joe Lansdale’s stories, and you may become addicted to his work like I have, and like millions of others.
Order yours here.
grade:5/5
