Overview:
Joe Ransom, a forty something ex-convict spending his time poisoning trees for a large lumber company. He has got a wife who left him after years of dealing with his gambling, drinking, and carousing. He's got a couple of kids he rarely sees. Joe's got a broken down truck, a pit bull guarding his house, a girlfriend roughly the age of his own daughter, and blood vendettas going on with several dangerous locals. He's also got a huge authority problem, a problem that landed him in the stir a few years back and threatens to do so once again if he doesn't keep his nose clean. For all of Joe's faults, and there are many, many faults, he's essentially the good guy of the story. His work ethic is exemplary; in fact, he seems to be about the only person in this region of Mississippi who actually holds down a decent job. Moreover, the guy actually has a sense of the wrong he's committed in his life against his family. Even as Ransom heads towards another confrontation with the men in blue, fate is about to plunk down in his lap the opportunity to redeem his past sins. This manna from heaven takes the form of one Gary Jones, a teenager with a bleak past and an even bleaker future.
Young Gary's family constitutes the second significant plot thread in "Joe." Led by patriarch Wade, the Jones clan wonders the highways of the South from Oklahoma to Florida, always in search of food and a place to stay. This family suffers such excruciating depravation, such a horrific hand to mouth existence, that they make the Joads look like pleasure seekers taking a scenic trip to the seashore. The Jones find an abandoned cabin up in the woods in which to settle for a time, long enough for Wade to head out and perform his usual tricks. Papa Jones steals, connives, and even kills as he embarks on a perpetual quest for another jug of liquor and a pack of smokes. Abuses of the most horrible descriptions reign supreme in the Jones household, abuses so hideous that Fay, the eighteen year old daughter, decides to strike out on her own. Gary stays out of a sense of misguided loyalty-and out of sense of complete ignorance since he can neither read nor write. The boy does work, though, and a special bond forms between Ransom and Gary when the lad hires on to the older man's work crew. But in the background roams the monstrous Wade. The inevitable showdown between Gary's father and Joe Ransom is shattering in its implications.
A whole lot of stuff goes on in this book, always wrapped in the heat blasted landscapes of rural Mississippi and in language of such utterly simplistic beauty. What I liked most about "Joe" is the author's construction of the characters. Brown seems to believe that most individuals' personalities consist of shades of grey when it comes to good and bad behavior, especially someone like Ransom. Joe is hardly a paragon of saintly virtue, but he does possess a keen sense of what is abhorrent along with the ability to take action when confronted with evil. Wade, on the other hand, is simply a monster of epic proportions. There's no good in this man, only an endless hunger to satiate personal needs and desires no matter what the cost. Even worse, his malevolence is shockingly mundane; a soul crushing yet understated wickedness that evokes Hannah Arendt's "banality of evil" moniker. Wade Jones may well be one of the most repugnant characters to ever grace a novel, and he accomplishes this feat by merely turning his head at inopportune times or by remaining silent when he should speak.
It would be necessary to pen several reviews to cover the various themes running through the novel, but it's sufficient to say that Brown pulls the whole thing off with shining brilliance. "Joe" is must read material for anyone who enjoys magnificent literature. My rather shaky comparison of Brown to Maugham is probably not appropriate, but I can't compare this writer to that other great writer of the South, Faulkner, because I haven't gotten around to perusing any of that author's books. Maugham I know, and Brown reminds me of him in a way. No matter, however, since you don't need to know any of the "big" writers to enjoy this sublime experience. You owe it to yourself to check this one out.
Jeffrey Leach HALL OF FAMEVINE™ VOICE
ENJOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!
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