The Death of Sweet Mister Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

The Death of Sweet Mister Book

Penzler Pick, June 2001: This is Daniel Woodrell's third book set in the Ozarks and, like the other two, Give Us a Kiss and Tomato Red, it peels back the layers from lives already made bare by poverty and petty crime, exposing the reader to the raw everyday hopes and fears of the poor and the helpless. Told through the voice of an overweight 13-year-old boy named Shuggy Atkins, this is the story of Shug; the one person who loves him, his mother Glenda; and her boyfriend Red, a brutal and ignorant man. Red hates Shug but uses him to break into houses to steal drugs and anything else that can be sold. Glenda makes a meager living looking after the local cemetery and spends her time trying to keep Red amused and away from Shug, whom he loves to humiliate but whom she adores. Glenda is Shug's only champion. She calls him Sweet Mister as she continually boosts his confidence and promises a better life for him, if not for herself. But when Glenda sees a beautiful, green Thunderbird with leather seats and its driver, Jimmy Vin Pearce, a chain of events is set into motion that will end in violence and bloodshed. Glenda must keep hidden from Red her infatuation with Jimmy Vin's money and fine clothes while she and Shug dream separate dreams of making a new life away from the violence. Woodrell writes books that are small in volume but large in scope. It is impossible to put down this story of less than 200 pages until the final tragedy unfolds. --Otto PenzlerRead More

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  • Product Description

    Daniel Woodrell delivers his most powerful work to date in The Death of Sweet Mister.

    An overweight, lonely thirteen-year-old, Shuggie Akins is shrewdly observant. But not even he can fully comprehend the nature of the forces working against him. His distracted, frequently tipsy mother, Glenda, turns a blind eye to the effect her sexually provocative teasing has on him. His putative father, Red, a brutal man with a short fuse, mocks and despises the boy. The three tentatively coexist in a ramshackle house situated in a "boneyard" in a rough-hewn Ozark town. Then along comes Jimmy Vin Pearce with his shiny green T-bird and his smart city clothes. Soon he and Glenda are engaged in a torrid affair setting in motion a series of events that are violent, shocking, and totally unpredictable-yet irredeemably inevitable.

    Like Holden Caulfield and Huck Finn, Shuggie Akins tells his story of a reluctant descent into the world of adults in this unforgettable and ultimately moving novel.

    "Wonderful...noir at its darkest, and affecting, and utterly convincing." (The Washington Post Book World)

  • 0452283302
  • 9780452283305
  • Daniel Woodrell
  • 1 June 2002
  • Plume Books
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 208
  • Reprint
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