October 2013: Tomato Red
Talk Missouri Readers
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1tloeffler
This will be the discussion thread for Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell, which we'll start discussing on October 14, 2013. Stay tuned!
2tloeffler
Oh! Didn't anyone read Tomato Red? I read it a while back & I was going to re-read it, but I got swept away by my SIGNED COPY of The Maid's Version. Anyone with more recent memories of the book want to start the discussion?
3sjmccreary
I thought it was NEXT week! I was saving my book for the weekend.
4Donna828
Sandy, it is a quick read. I read it in one sitting on Thursday night. It was no surprise to me that I really liked this one. Woodrell can make the most unappetizing characters appealing to me. I had a lot of sympathy for Sammy, Jam, and Jason. The mother? Not so much, although I liked her upbeat approach to life. She liked to laugh.
While you're reading it, Sandy, pay close attention to the country club scene. When I first read it, I thought that no way people would act like that. I've been thinking about it ever since and may have changed my mind a bit. It's amazing to me what people are capable of when "mob mentality" takes over.
Terri, I'm jealous that you have a signed copy of The Maid's Version. Too bad it is inscribed to Chris!
While you're reading it, Sandy, pay close attention to the country club scene. When I first read it, I thought that no way people would act like that. I've been thinking about it ever since and may have changed my mind a bit. It's amazing to me what people are capable of when "mob mentality" takes over.
Terri, I'm jealous that you have a signed copy of The Maid's Version. Too bad it is inscribed to Chris!
5sjmccreary
Well, it took me more than a single sitting to finish the book, but I've done it. I've been thinking about the different Woodrell books we've read. Except for Woe to Live On, they all seem to have the common theme of a smart teenage girl (usually) trying to engineer a way to escape the grinding poverty they've grown up in. And Tomato Red is the same.
It's heartbreaking. And as hard as it is to change your life, how impossible would it be with that crowd at the country club working just as hard to keep you down?
I could never get a feel for Sammy - just what he was about, and what he really wanted. I had more sympathy for Bev - at least she had made the best of the life she had, and had a positive attitude. She knew her life was crap, but she was resigned to getting what pleasure she could out of it. Sammy was only, what? 20? 22? (does it ever say?) But he sounded like an old man just waiting to die.
I happened on Jamalee all curled in a baby ball, her droopy blinky eyes ringed with tired from loss and pills, and she looked at me and said, "I'm trying to escape. Escape to anywhere, but I'm not. I'm not going anywhere. There isn't anywhere, is there? Another hoax on me." (pg 145)
It's heartbreaking. And as hard as it is to change your life, how impossible would it be with that crowd at the country club working just as hard to keep you down?
I could never get a feel for Sammy - just what he was about, and what he really wanted. I had more sympathy for Bev - at least she had made the best of the life she had, and had a positive attitude. She knew her life was crap, but she was resigned to getting what pleasure she could out of it. Sammy was only, what? 20? 22? (does it ever say?) But he sounded like an old man just waiting to die.
6Donna828
Sandy, I seem to recall that Sammy was 24 but I may have just thought that in my head. He was my favorite character! He was like a little lost boy (to me) who wanted to fit in with some friends that could take the place of family. It looks like he'll have to find them in prison!
The part that didn't ring true to me was at the country club when all those good citizens were calling Jamala white trash and worse. After all, she was there to apply for a job not to rob the place!
You are right about the common theme that runs through many of Woodrell's books. I haven't read all of them - yet. That was a heartbreaking quote you cited. Actually, the whole book was a heartbreaker.
I'll copy the comments from my thread here rather than retype the quotes I used. I think Woodrell is such a good writer.
..."I suppose I had a sad need to fit in socially with those trailer-park bums, since I imagined they were the only crowd that would have me, because when that first chunk of wood merely glanced from the glass door and skidded across the patio I became bulldog-determined to get the job done for my new friends, and damn the effort or obvious risk."
Book No. 99: Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell. 4.1 stars.
I am becoming more and more of a Woodrell fan with each gritty Ozarkian tale that I read. Sammy has just moved up in the world from Arkansas to Southern Missouri (kind of a local joke there). He's working at the dog food factory in West Table, which is really West Plains, a small town about an hour or so from where I live, and where Mr. Woodrell is a resident. Sammy is in his early 20s...a drifter with a dark past and a real need to fit in and be somebody. His new "friends" don't stick around because they are afraid the police will come after the mansion has been broken into. Sammy finds a bottle of quality Vodka and decides to settle into luxury and get drunk. He wakes up duct taped to a chair being examined by two young people, 17-year-old Jason and his red-headed sister, 19-year-old Jamala. They decide to take a chance on Sammy to be their "protector" and release him just before the police come and they all make a run for it. All this happens in the first twenty pages...and I was hooked.
Daniel Woodrell writes about the kind of people we look away from when we see them on the street or in Wal-Mart. He doesn't varnish the truth about the kinds of lives they lead but he shows us that they are much like us without any of the advantages.
Sammy: "I began to thrash through the cabinets hunting for peanut butter because I'd seen mayonnaise in the fridge, and peanut butter and mayonnaise meant I could sleep...I can't sleep anywhere until I know I'll get to eat again if I need to. I don't have to eat, yet I can't rest without bein' positive sure there's food at hand..." (Pg. 8)
Jamala: "God damn, you know, that big rotten gap between who I am, and who I want to be, never does quit hurtin' to get across...Ah, if I was only stupid, it wouldn't be so hard." (Pg. 74)
Jason: Jam talks about her brother -- "All the tomorrows were planned around him. He was the beautiful one, the one with special talent, the one who could just stand in the right spot somewhere else and have the big breaks in life flock right to him..." (141)
It doesn't take long to read this 169-page book. I urge you to read this one or one of the other stories DW has written with love and humanity about the people that are all around us yet are unable to break through the barrier to what we call a normal life. It may or may not change your feelings about people who are down and out, but I guarantee you will have a memorable reading experience.
The part that didn't ring true to me was at the country club when all those good citizens were calling Jamala white trash and worse. After all, she was there to apply for a job not to rob the place!
You are right about the common theme that runs through many of Woodrell's books. I haven't read all of them - yet. That was a heartbreaking quote you cited. Actually, the whole book was a heartbreaker.
I'll copy the comments from my thread here rather than retype the quotes I used. I think Woodrell is such a good writer.
..."I suppose I had a sad need to fit in socially with those trailer-park bums, since I imagined they were the only crowd that would have me, because when that first chunk of wood merely glanced from the glass door and skidded across the patio I became bulldog-determined to get the job done for my new friends, and damn the effort or obvious risk."
Book No. 99: Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell. 4.1 stars.
I am becoming more and more of a Woodrell fan with each gritty Ozarkian tale that I read. Sammy has just moved up in the world from Arkansas to Southern Missouri (kind of a local joke there). He's working at the dog food factory in West Table, which is really West Plains, a small town about an hour or so from where I live, and where Mr. Woodrell is a resident. Sammy is in his early 20s...a drifter with a dark past and a real need to fit in and be somebody. His new "friends" don't stick around because they are afraid the police will come after the mansion has been broken into. Sammy finds a bottle of quality Vodka and decides to settle into luxury and get drunk. He wakes up duct taped to a chair being examined by two young people, 17-year-old Jason and his red-headed sister, 19-year-old Jamala. They decide to take a chance on Sammy to be their "protector" and release him just before the police come and they all make a run for it. All this happens in the first twenty pages...and I was hooked.
Daniel Woodrell writes about the kind of people we look away from when we see them on the street or in Wal-Mart. He doesn't varnish the truth about the kinds of lives they lead but he shows us that they are much like us without any of the advantages.
Sammy: "I began to thrash through the cabinets hunting for peanut butter because I'd seen mayonnaise in the fridge, and peanut butter and mayonnaise meant I could sleep...I can't sleep anywhere until I know I'll get to eat again if I need to. I don't have to eat, yet I can't rest without bein' positive sure there's food at hand..." (Pg. 8)
Jamala: "God damn, you know, that big rotten gap between who I am, and who I want to be, never does quit hurtin' to get across...Ah, if I was only stupid, it wouldn't be so hard." (Pg. 74)
Jason: Jam talks about her brother -- "All the tomorrows were planned around him. He was the beautiful one, the one with special talent, the one who could just stand in the right spot somewhere else and have the big breaks in life flock right to him..." (141)
It doesn't take long to read this 169-page book. I urge you to read this one or one of the other stories DW has written with love and humanity about the people that are all around us yet are unable to break through the barrier to what we call a normal life. It may or may not change your feelings about people who are down and out, but I guarantee you will have a memorable reading experience.
7tloeffler
Tomato Red wasn't my favorite of Woodrell's (that is still The Death of Sweet Mister, but like all of his books, it sucked me right in.
I can't improve on what Donna and Sandy had to say!
I can't improve on what Donna and Sandy had to say!
