THE DEATH OF SWEET MISTER: DANIEL WOODRELL

Another one of Woodrell's short novels, a quick read, set as usual in the Ozarks, peopled with losers, wife beaters, ex cons and, usually, a poor kid, in this case Shug, a 13 year old who lives with his Mom in a house next to a cemetery.  She has some how cottoned to Red and his buddy Basil, two small time drug addicts and crooks.  They force young Shug to break into the houses of the infirm and steal their pills.  Gradually, this gets too much for Shug, his Mom, Brenda, especially the way Red treats his Mom.  She ends up befriending Jimmy Vin, chef and a Ford Thunderbird owner.  Once this happens, you know no good will come of it.  Shug knows it, grows up quick and must figure out how to get  both his Mom and him out of this alive and together.  The writing is wonderful, as I mentioned high and low, the characters well drawn if disgustingly violent and mean, yet the story draws you in, wondering how all this 'awful stuff' will end.  Woodrell's usual combination of language, white trash, violence, sex, and family keeps bringing me back to yet another text.