Joe Audiobook

" In my opinion Larry Brown's best, a notch above all of his other fine work. Joe Ransom is an evil, confounding, and very human character. Brown takes Southern lit and stamps it with his own bold and honest approach. He also subtley captures some of the South's cultural changes in most of his novels, and Joe is no exception. "

" I got caught up in this story but gave it a lower rating because I wanted the story lines to get tied up more instead of having things left hanging with too many uncertainties and unknowns. "

" The drinking, hard living and cruelty of this book should have been too much, but the way the characters moved in it all and tried to get something positive out of their lives kept me reading. Joe is definitely a memorable figure though I'm not always sure I understood his motivation: why did he sic his dog on the Doberman? All his other outbursts, fights, etc sort of made sense in the context of the story, but that seemed almost too uncivilized for him. "

" Raw. Like reading about some of the folks from my town. "

" I forced myself to listen to this on tape and probably would not have finished it if it wasn't so short. It was too brutal for me, and hard for me to care about any of the characters. "

" I can't get enough of Larry Brown's books; "sad and beautiful" does not do justice to the very real, stark and poetic stories he tells. To simply call his work "Southern" or "Faulkneresque" oversimplifies the originality of his gifts as a writer. His is really a genre unto itself. If you haven't read any of Brown's work, Joe is a great place to start. Depressing as hell, sure, but, like a great sad song (Mark Lanegan, anyone?), tanscendently moving, indelibly affecting and ultimately uplifing through the sheer power of artful storytelling. The simplicity and power of his words are more important than the plot itself. His books, this one perhaps more so than any other, make me want to drop everything and write, paint, make music, get to a higher plane. "

" Loved this book! So dirty south! "

" wow. heartbreaking book. i was really drawn to the characters...especially Joe, who seemed even with his flaws like such an awesome human being. I found it very easy to visualize him. "

" Joe is an amazingly good story abotu the rough south and the characters who live there. Again Browns characters are real. You might like them. You might hate them. But you certainly have an opinion on them. "

" I am reading this book again this summer. Larry brown is an incredible writer who tells stories as sultry and sweaty as the Mississippi summer. Any man who goes home to get his pit bull dog to kill a doberman at a whorehouse so he can get laid is worth reading about! "

" Ready to read Fay now. "

" Found this gem collecting dust in the corner of a friend's house. Joe is 50 and is a force of nature to be dealt with by all he encounters. It's raw and gritty- reminded me of Harrison or Hemingway but colder. I hope my friend doesn't read this as I have no desire of giving the book back. "

" Cormac McCarthy lite. Without the impressive use of metaphor or the long speeches in Spanish. "

" Like a Welty novel, but through that hazy space between yesterday's hangover and tomorrow's drunk and seen from the back of beat-up F150 blazing down a dirt road in N. Mississippi. "

" A must read for those of us from the Deep South . "

" Contemporary southern lit at its best. And it kicks you in the gut. "

" Quite possibly one of the best books ever penned. "

" Dark, depressing, violent. But not without some hope of redemption. The ending ... justice, but not complete, not conclusive. Like life. "

" Grit lit at its finest. "

" This book was so beautifully written I didn't want it to end. A harsh, gritty tale about rough characters living on the fringe of civilization in Mississippi. I don't know how I missed Larry Brown until now, but I will read everything else he has written after this. "

" Great writer who died much too young. "

" The book was like William Faulkner and Jim Thompson getting together for a few drinks then driving over to Erskine Caldwell's place to see what kind of trouble the three of them could get into. "

" Much, much better than Fay. Reminds me of William Gay's work. I'm eager to read more Larry Brown down the track. I think I will try Dirty Work and/or Father and Son next. "

" Brown's work was dark, but "Joe" is a damned fine read! "

" Great writer who died much too young. "

" This is my favorite book I've read this year. <br/> <br/>I really went there. "

" I forced myself to listen to this on tape and probably would not have finished it if it wasn't so short. It was too brutal for me, and hard for me to care about any of the characters. "

" This novel is written with a fine economy of line. I loved it and recommend it to those looking for a good novel. I'll be reading more by Larry Brown. "

" Like a Welty novel, but through that hazy space between yesterday's hangover and tomorrow's drunk and seen from the back of beat-up F150 blazing down a dirt road in N. Mississippi. "

" Joe is an amazingly good story abotu the rough south and the characters who live there. Again Browns characters are real. You might like them. You might hate them. But you certainly have an opinion on them. "

" This was the first of Larry's books that I read. When I was a student at Ole Miss my Sociology teacher assigned this and had him come in and give a talk. It was love at first sight. "

" Found this gem collecting dust in the corner of a friend's house. Joe is 50 and is a force of nature to be dealt with by all he encounters. It's raw and gritty- reminded me of Harrison or Hemingway but colder. I hope my friend doesn't read this as I have no desire of giving the book back. "