Bumper Crop

by Joe R. Lansdale

Paperback, 2005

Status

Available

Call number

PS3562.A557 B86

Genres

Horror

All Topics

Fiction

Collections

Your library, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Publication

Golden Gryphon Press (2005), Paperback, 199 pages

Description

This collection of 26 stories contains some of Joe R. Lansdale's favorite and most violent dark horror tales. "God of the Razor" introduces the dark god behind serial killers. A martial arts fight to the death between a reluctant champion and a sadistic alpha male, is featured in "Master of Misery." Human sacrifice, to ensure prosperity or as a coming-of-age ritual, are themes of "On a Dark October" and "Duck Hunt." In "The Fat Man," young boys learn the hard way that some mysteries should not be investigated. Many of the tales are truly weird, such as "Chompers," the story of the false teeth with an appetite. All stories are individually introduced by Lansdale, who explains the humorous, weird, and sometimes sad genesis for each.

User reviews

LibraryThing member timdt

Joe Lansdale, as he has stated, started his writing career in short stories. His objective was not only to make a living but to find his style and hone his craft. And that is basically what we get in Bumper Crop. This collection represents Joe Lansdale before he refined his politically incorrect,

horrifically comic imagination.

I want to grade this as a 2 star book. There are a few good stories here. You just have to wade through many, very short, average stories. But I think it only fair to look at it as it is: an introduction to a very good writer’s early work. You can see the Mojo story telling lurking beneath these stories, and I find that very interesting.

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LibraryThing member dagon12

It's hard to not enjoy a Lansdale novel. Or in this case a Lansdale collection of short stories. Everything he writes is extremely enjoyable. They are just pure fun and this is no exception. The collection contains twenty six excellent short stories with the only negative being that you've most

likely read several of them elsewhere. I know that I did. Many of the stories are pretty short too. With twenty six stories and not even 200 pages and each story has one page of an author's note, you can see that some are really short. Even with all that and it not being a completely new collection, it still is a must read. My favorites of the bunch are listed below.

"The Man Who Dreamed" - An old man who sees the future does his best to improve it
"Pilots" (with Dan Lowry) - Two sets of life's victims do their best to adapt to regular life
"Listen" - A fun story of someone who is permanently ignored and forgotten
"Bestsellers Guaranteed" - How to write a best selling novel
"Master of Misery" - A man is pushed into a fight he does not want

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LibraryThing member Carl_Alves

Bumper Crop was a bit of a mixed bag. There were some stories that I really enjoyed, and some that were complete duds that I wanted to get past quickly, hoping that the next story would be better. In general and in this short story collection, Lansdale has a very easy going and pleasing style. I

think he leans on a first person narrative a bit more than he should to my liking. Because of this easy going style, this collection was a breeze to get through. Mostly, the problem was that some of the stories were just out there, and I didn’t get.

My favorite story in the collection was the final one. Lansdale put to good use his extensive martial arts background in crafting a tightly written tale about a kickboxer going through hard times living in a tropical locale after he inadvertently killed a competitor in a kick boxing match. The villain in this story is a Muay Thai fighter, who is a complete and utter bastard, and treats his girlfriend absolutely horribly. He lures the story’s hero into a battle to the death—a fight that is completely unsanctioned with no witnesses other than the girlfriend. To add to the epicness of this confrontation, a massive tropical storm is about to hit the island. This had a great setup and a great climax.

Carl Alves - author of Battle of the Soul

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LibraryThing member Stahl-Ricco

Well... overall, I was entertained, but honestly, most of these stories just sort of gave me a "hmpf" when I finished them. They weren't bad, but they just didn't do it for me. I like Lansdale's western stuff, his straight horror stuff, and his Hap & Leonard stuff. The fantasy, or more slap-sticky

horror items don't hit me like his other stuff. For me, the highlight of this collection is the last tale, "Master of Misery". It reappears in a different form in the H&L book "Captains Outrageous". Cool to see it in it's "original" form.

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