The Magic Wagon

Back to the town of Mud Creek!
“Mud Creek felt like a town with a soul, and a bad soul at that.”

In rides a traveling medicine/side show, with a curse on their sideboards, and a angry storm at their heels! I really enjoyed this tale, and I'm only disappointed that it wasn't longer! I lost myself in the story, and at times, felt like I was actually there in that "godforsaken East Texas town..."! Lansdale sure can spin a pretty yarn! And the showdown at the end was just as a western should end!

I sure am going to miss Little Buster, Albert, Rot Toe, and even Billy Bob.

'HERE LIES A BUNCH OF FOLKS AND ONE CRITTER THAT LIVED OUT A DIME NOVEL"

This book is one heck of a dime novel itself, and I wish there were more of it!

Joe Lansdale always delivers! It doesn't matter in which genre he writes, I'm down for reading it. I came to this discovery kind of late, but I'm happy to know that that fact gives me tons of stuff to read in the future and I couldn't be more happy about that.

This here tale was a horror/western/humorous novella and I just loved it. From the man-wrestling chimpanzee Rot Toe, to the dead corpse riding around on the Magic Wagon with a coffin made of magical wood, what's not to like? Gunslingers, nose pickers and saloon gals, it's all here, and what fun it was. I'll be reading you again soon, Mr. Lansdale. Real soon!

Highly recommended to fans of westerns, western horror and comedy!

http://fireandsword.blogspot.com/2006/12/magic-wagon-by-joe-r.html

Take an orphaned youngster, a legendary gunfighter’s mummified remains, an ill-tempered travelling showman, a strong-willed black man, and a wrestling ape and what more could you ask for in a novel? Cannibalistic zombies on a haunted zeppelin controlled by a demonic inter-stellar squid? OK, sure who wouldn’t want that, but The Magic Wagon was only Lansdale’s first novel so give him a break.

#1396 in our old book database. Rated: Indifferent.

È il romanzo più cupo e noir di Lansdale che ho letto. È breve per fortuna, solo 176 pagine, perché l'autore racconta avvenimenti tremendi e con la sua penna aguzza li pianta nello stomaco del lettore.
Questo è il Texas orientale del 1909, dove un tornado (descrizione raggelante) lascia orfano un adolescente che per sopravvivere si aggrega a un paio di persone dedite a spettacolini itineranti e vendite di falsi elisir. Quando la scena si sposta in una cittadina dall'aria esecrabile, ecco l'insieme dei mali che travolge tutto: razzismo, codardia, alcolismo, brutalità, idolatria per i campioni dell'arte di estrarre velocemente l'arma con cui freddare chiunque, sia uno sfidante che un povero disgraziato.
È un Texas crudele che merita show more il castigo divino evidenziando il lato oscuro di tutte le sue leggende. Lo popolano personaggi quasi tutti maschili con i loro peggiori difetti e l'unica protagonista femminile è, esemplarmente, una ballerina-prostituta che non pronuncia neanche una parola.
Poiché è molto ben scritto è senz'altro da leggere, ma a patto d'essere disposti ad assaggiare tante amarezze e crudeltà. show less