Dirty White Boys by Stephen Hunter (review)

312 WesternAmerican Literature playground, and dream of the heat and dust of their hometown ... of running off to exotic Laredo or the mysterious and cosmopolitan San Antonio. Complications are many. The children plan an elaborate con game that will net them enough money for the train fare out of town. Also, a “soldier of fortune [and] discredited colonel ofthe Mexican Revolution”arrivesin town, rides around on abicycle, attracts the attention of many (including the widow), and becomes the target of the jealousy of others. To a Widowwith Childrenis filled with love triangles, deception and betrayal, gossip, rumor, hatred, revenge, and love unrequited and star-crossed. It’sa fine, fun read. ROBERT HEADLEY Southern State Community College, Ohio Dirty White Boys. By Stephen Hunter. (New York: Random House, 1994. 433 pages, $21.00.) Dirty While Boys, a sensational crime novel set in Oklahoma, is a book that offers a steady parade of grotesque carnage, sexual abuse, psychotic and sociopathic behavior that is as stunning in its excess as it isplausible in its authenticity. In the first thirtypages, there are a prison break, three murders, and enough racial and sexual insults to give the politically correct-sensitive a bad case of the fantods. Kansas native Stephen Hunter, film critic by trade, violates almost all the rules of novel-writing in this incredibly honest picture of the modern West. His characters are two-dimensional, his plot is predictable, and his grammar is generally faulty. Essentially, he tells a good-guy, bad-guy story worthy of Zane Grey, with the brutal twists only a contemporary western setting can provide. But in spite of this, what emerges is one of the most brilliantly captivating crime novels of the past decade. Lamar Pye, murderer, rapist, robber, tough-guy, is the meanest, most testosterone­ laden white male in Oklahoma’sinfamous McAlester State Prison. He isalso sly, cunning, and viciously violent. He has but two soft spots. One is for his giant, idiot cousin, Odell, who enforces Lamar’s will and carries out his deadly wishes. The other is for a soft effeminate artist, Richard, who stimulates Lamar’s imagination with drawings of lions and teaches him “big words”such as “imagination.” As is its habit in prison, trouble rises, the three break out together, and Oklahoma and North Texas have hell for breakfast. Lamar’s unintentional adversary is Bud Pewtie, an Oklahoma State Trooper. Sharp and strong, Pewtie is a by-the-book cop who stumbles onto the trio of escapees and falls into a spiraling series of deadly coincidences that change his life forever. Hunter’sknowledge offirearms, criminal traits, medicine, literature, art, sports, and even lawenforcement isimpressive but not intrusive. His style issometimes toojournalis­ tic for literary fiction, and he too frequently allows his narrator to adopt thejargon and inflection of the characters. He also isoverlyfond oflast names beginning with the letter “P”;this causes some confusion early on. But he knows people, and he understands the agonies and triumphs associated with the complex array of emotions that inform the human condition. The message of the novel seems to be that we are all criminals, it’sjust a matter of degree. Reviews 313 In spite of its flaws, Dirty WhiteBoysis a novelist’s novel, and it quickly overcomes its shortcomings with taut suspense and adroit shifting of point of view. If only one crime novel finds itsway into readers’hands thisyear, this should be it. CLAYREYNOLDS Denton, Texas Laura Ingalls Wilder. By Fred Erisman. (Boise, Idaho: Boise State University, Western Writers Series Number 112, 1994. 55 pages, $3.95.) RexBeach. ByAbe C. Ravitz. (Boise, Idaho: Boise State University, Western Writers Series Number 113, 1994. 52 pages, $3.95.) John Wesley Powell. By James M. Aton. (Boise, Idaho: Boise State University, Western Writers Series Number 114, 1994. 55 pages, $3.95.) Harold Bell Wright. By Lawrence V. Tagg. (Boise, Idaho: Boise State University, Western Writers Series Number 115, 1994. 51 pages, $3.95.) CarolineLockhart. By Norris Yates. (Boise, Idaho: Boise State University, Western Writers Series Number 116, 1994. 48 pages, $3.95.) The Western Writers Series has added five new titles to its uniquely valuable collec­ tion. They continue to deal withwriterswhose works haveregional popularity but should...