TOMATO RED-DANIEL WOODRELL

This is the second book I have read by Daniel Woodrell, after his BAYOU TRILOGY.  Unlike the TRILOGY, which was set in the bayous of Louisiana, this novella is set in the Ozarks of Missouri.  A drifter, loser, narrator hooks up with a sister and brother from Venus Holler and the troubles begin, mostly a result of the ‘haves’ who could care less about what happens to the ‘have nots,’ specifically, Sammy, JamAlee and and her gay brother,  Jason, and their Mom, Bev, the good hearted whore.  There dreams take them into forbidden territory, thus the problems, and the novel ends, like many of Woodrell's, with the ends untied, leaving you wondering.  His depiction of the lives of these forgotten folks, especially their young, is quite realistic and makes you empathize with their fates, seemingly written for them by their circumstances.  A quick read, lovely language, sometimes even hard to follow as he mixes the high with the low, with the usual sprinklings of sex and violence.