The Premise
Bill Roberts is poor, and more than a little lost since his mother died in her bed. While living, Bill's mom would pass down the leftovers from her Social Security checks. Now her body decomposes in the bedroom, while Bill watches check pile upon check, and eats through the pantry. Something has to be done - something quick and easy and lucrative. So Bill comes up with a plan that seems to fit that description, and grabs a few buddies to make it happen. It doesn't. Bill's life goes up a creek, and then gets weird when he falls in with a traveling freak show.
In Review
It's clear from the first page of Freezer Burn that Bill Roberts is not hero material. His treatment of his mother's corpse is so irresponsible as to dumb-found a sensible person. Who in their right mind leaves a body to rot in a bedroom? For weeks and days no less? It's outrageous acts like these that Lansdale writes about freely – and well too. A lesser writer would go into gory details about the corpse, the stench, the handling of the body, etc. Lansdale strips it all down, and writes it like it's in front of you and you can't look away.
Only thing was, now the electricity bill had come twice, then a notice, and then it had been cut off, and with no juice Mama began to stink something furious. He put a big black trash bag over her feet, up to her waist, and pulled one over her head, tied them together where they met at the waist with one of her robe belts. But that didn't hold the stink in worth a damn. He poured a whole bottle of Brut cologne over her, and that helped some. She smelled like a sixteen-year old boy on his way to his first date.
Note how Lansdale writes in the vernacular. Phrases like “stink something furious” and “that helped some” are vague, and borderline cliche, but they fit the tone of the passage, which reads with a cadence that suggests an oral delivery. Try reading it aloud and see. You may even catch yourself affecting a southern drawl. That's ok – Lansdale writes the way some people talk, and it's tempting to breathe a voice inside the words and listen to its twang.
So where does this voice take you? Places you probably haven't been before. Mind you, a lot of fiction may claim to do this with superfluous language like “thrilling”, “compelling”, “brilliant”, etc – but Lansdale is the real deal. Freezer Burn is a weird book, populated by characters that want what everybody else wants: love, sex, a living, some laughs, friends, respect. It's an intersection of everyday human desires with the kind of people that aren't seen everyday on the streets and in the tall buildings of civilized society.
This isn't to say that the characters are not civilized; far from it. The people who make up the freak show have to make a living like anyone else, and they do it by getting along as well as they can. Their presence in the story isn't a gimmick or a cheap thrill, nor is their profession romanticized or pitied. Lansdale describes their lives in a straight-forward fashion, the same way Kenzaburo Oe writes about people who live on the fringes of Japanese society (in fact, anyone who enjoys Lansdale should immediately seek out Oe's work).
The stove was fired up by a fellow that looked to be made of coat hangers and a thin coating of flesh. When Skinny got the grease in the frying pan going, eggs were cracked by the meat heads and dumped in the pan and the pancake batter was whipped by the pointy heads and poured onto butter griddles. The fat lady with the beard began to flip and cook the pancakes and took over the egg chores from the meat heads. Conrad made an appearance, rearing up on his hind legs to stand at the stove and talk to the fat lady.
Bill enters this off-beat society as a cynical, selfish person. He accepts the kindness he receives with skepticism, and fully expects to sucker anyone he can. Lansdale describes this attitude through inner narrative, and it is often despicable. But then Bill starts to fit in with his new surroundings, and discovers what it is to be accepted, and more importantly, respected. For the first time in his life, Bill experiences a chance – not for redemption, but change for the better. That Lansdale is able to make this transition believable for a character that starts out so repulsive is an example of his craft.
Unfortunately for Bill, Lansdale has something other than reform in mind. After a period of quiet, storm clouds threaten the horizon – both literally, and figuratively – and Bill's life takes another turn towards a deep ravine; a woman tempts him, and his appetites get the better of him. A direct comparison is made to the Adam and Eve myth, and in the woman who fills latter role, Lansdale creates a female character with an astounding lack of mercy. A palpable shift takes place, and the story is no longer so much Bill's, as it is hers – along with the fates of the men who would have her.
One could take this theme further, and discuss the gender roles at work here, but I suspect such an examination is more self-gratifying than insightful. Lansdale is channeling the human capacity for tragedy in Freezer Burn, and the biblical overtones demonstrate that these kinds of stories are as old as story itself. The characters connect to history because everyone came from a Mom and Dad, who also came from another pair of human beings, all of whom took part in life, and experienced their share of happiness and drama.
Still, the worse things get for Bill, the harder it is to witness. His desires pull him towards an act that threatens to tear apart the one chance of happiness that suggested itself. Forget about cotton candy and sunny days and star-crossed lovers; Freezer Burn sinks into sadness, then ends with a part that is so unjust, it feels unnecessary. Had Lansdale ended the book on a more final note, it might have made for easier digestion. Then again, considering that the book opens with the introduction of a rotting family member, such graces should probably be forgotten.
So, all the good guys lose, and the bad guys ride of into the sunset. Joy. Why read such a downer? The main reason is to enjoy Lansdale's writing. His prose is easy to read, but the amazing thing is, this kind of writing is anything but easy. If it was, there'd be so many great books out there as to drive a person crazy. Jobs would be abandoned. Public utilities would fail. And across town, you'd see the wavering lights of candles on the other side of windows, surrounded by people bent over books like they were treasure maps.
Another reason to read Lansdale is his integrity. Whether he's describing kindness or nastiness, he does not judge. Everything that happens in the story can be traced back to a character's appetites. What they do may not be logical, but it is understandable. Lansdale ties these acts together the same way people mix themselves up and get into each other's business and want things they can't have but go for anyway, given half a chance. Nothing is forced or twisted or packaged up into a neat little tale of This and That with Roses. You may not like what some of these characters do, but when has that stopped people?
Let us be thankful that it doesn't stop Lansdale from telling his stories. I wonder if anything could. He knows what he's doing, and he does it well. I recommend Freezer Burn to anyone who can stomach the darker side of people, and appreciates good storytelling.
5/07/06
