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A review by katmackie
Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell
4.0
I've been wanting to read Woodrell for a while, but I wanted to start somewhere besides Winter's Bone since I've seen the film adaptation a few times. I wanted to jump into his work without already knowing the plot. But, now that I've read Tomato Red I want to read as much of his work as possible.
Woodrell does an amazing job at conveying the in struggle defeating "where you're born is what you are". He adds to the hopelessness of this by showing many failing routes of escape: beauty, sex, scheming, crime... these said routes being attempted by the unfortunate criminal protagonist, Sammy, and a family of three he happens to meet at the start of the short novel. I couldn't help but feel bad for him, though he continued to make some frustrating (and sometimes hilarious) choices. Woodrell was really successful in conveying an optimistic endurance in Sammy, even when his darker side took hold of him, as he was always happy to go along with others aspirations for lack of his own. It's all this, and the sad compromises that have to be made to survive, that make this novel one to be read.
Recommended!
Woodrell does an amazing job at conveying the in struggle defeating "where you're born is what you are". He adds to the hopelessness of this by showing many failing routes of escape: beauty, sex, scheming, crime... these said routes being attempted by the unfortunate criminal protagonist, Sammy, and a family of three he happens to meet at the start of the short novel. I couldn't help but feel bad for him, though he continued to make some frustrating (and sometimes hilarious) choices. Woodrell was really successful in conveying an optimistic endurance in Sammy, even when his darker side took hold of him, as he was always happy to go along with others aspirations for lack of his own. It's all this, and the sad compromises that have to be made to survive, that make this novel one to be read.
Recommended!