The Bayou Trilogy - Daniel Woodrell

The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do by Daniel Woodrell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book as a trilogy far exceeded the books inside the binding.

The Rene Shade story was great during the first two chapters prior to The Ones You Do chapter. The third series of the book stole my attention for two weeks. Entirely too long for the story itself to hold my interest. It came down to the fact that the first two stories, regardless of their shortcomings, were intimately readable. The third book in the story was a fabrication of what Woodrell thought made the first two books good.

We are finally introduced to Rene, Tip, and Francois Shade's father only he is much less interesting than the three brothers and their mother. He is actually not interesting at all and the only salvageable character in the novel is Rene, Tip, and Francois's new half sister Etta.

The book is a less interesting version of the first two thirds of the book which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Here is to Daniel Woodrell who is able to tell a story through character alone when everything else is screaming THIS IS UNREADABLE.

Good dialogue and good characterization can escape the rest.



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