A Fine Dark Line

The picture Lansdale paints of the past, in the post WWII, pre-computer age, creates nostalgia via its realism. Stanley finds some love letters of a young girl with a mysterious past and a lost identity. He becomes interested in discovering more about her and is compelled to find out what happenned to her. In the process he befriends an elderly Black man and an abused boy his own age. As Stanley interacts with several adults and family members he passes from childhood into adolescence.

Lansdale writes theres a "fine dark line between black mystery and reality" and Stanley fears that his intrusion into the events of the past by openning the old letters has offended the gods, changing fate and causing evil things to happen to him. At the time it may have felt that way, but with the perspective and benefit from years of living, his reflections on the past help Stanley realize how much hes learned and how hes been molded into the man he is today.

As is characteristic of superb, meaningful writing, there is the story and the added meaning of the story the reader can "take home". Besides an intriguing mystery, Joe Lansdale has given his readers plenty to reflect upon and keep in A FINE DARK LINE.

A FINE DARK LINE is told through the eyes of Stanley Mitchell, a thirteen year-old boy standing on the summer cusp of adolescence, the younger of two children in a family that isnt poverty-stricken but not exactly next door neighbors to Scrooge McDuck, either. No, the Mitchells are the owners and proprietors of the only drive-in theater in Dewmont, Texas. Stanleys youth and innocence are consumed in a slow-burning maelstrom sparked by his discovery of a tin box containing a collection of troubled love letters that ultimately lead him to a burned out house, the mysterious deaths of two young women and secrets that the powers that be in Dewmont would prefer to stay buried. Stanleys unlikely ally is Buster Smith, the projectionist at the theater, an elderly black man whose attempts to drown his demons in alcohol are doomed to failure but who has a depth that only Stanley is aware of. In attempting to solve the mysteries of the deaths of the two women, Stanley exposes not only himself, but also his family and friends, to danger. A FINE DARK LINE, however, is more than a mystery story. It is, ultimately, the tale of a time not so long gone but vanished completely nonetheless. Lansdale uses the mystery as a vehicle to explore the cultural landscape, race relations and sexual mores of the 1950s. What is most remarkable here is that Lansdale is able to capture so perfectly the voice of a 13 year-old boy in that era. I suspect that, to at least some extent, it is his own, some 50 years removed. If so, it resonates within him pitch-perfectly and his translation is unerring.

With A FINE DARK LINE, Lansdale continues to expand the breadth and scope of his literary vision. One could easily come to the conclusion that his talent and landscape know no boundaries. He is a writer who has exceeded the promise of his earliest work and the expectations of his readers --- and will undoubtedly continue to do so.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub