A review by tasharobinson
Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell

3.0

Still working my way through a stack of Daniel Woodrell. This one didn't hit me as powerfully as The Death Of Sweet Mister, in part because it seemed less focused on one fascinating character with a unique inner life and a really ugly dilemma, and in part because the narrator's very stylized voice was distancing and distracting for me. Looking at any one paragraph on its own, I loved it: This is extremely creative and colorful writing where no simple statements are made, and the narrator never approaches anything directly and head-on, though he's a direct, head-on kind of guy. (This collection of quotes gives some hints about the writing style.) It's beautifully crafted—but trying to read it for the what-comes-next of the story was a slow, deliberate, not entirely compelling process, and the story itself feels like it could stand to be expanded. It still keeps striking me, though, how well Woodrell creates different voices and makes every book feel radically different even when he's fundamentally writing about the same things: back-woods, poverty-stricken, proud young people trying to get by.