Dime-novel spirit just keeps going
Dime novels began appearing during the Civil War. They were popular, inexpensive entertainment. During the 1920s they faded out, supplanted by motion pictures. The first ones were usually set along the frontier. They tended to glamorize and exaggerate the exploits of cowboys, prospectors, outlaws and the other colorful denizens of the Old West.
Joe R. Lansdale’s latest novel, “Paradise Sky,” pays tribute to the dime novel. In the spirit of that fictional form, his main character, Deadwood Dick, really existed, and this story is based on events that Lansdale has embroidered upon and embellished until we have one massive whopper of a tall tale.
That dime novel spirit translated into movies and TV shows that fostered images of the frontier that were not necessarily true. One typical distortion was the way that native cultures, the tribes that formerly resided in this vast area, were often portrayed. In an interview, Lansdale pointed out another inaccuracy. He told me that a large percentage, about onethird, of those early cowboys were black.
The man who became known as Deadwood Dick was a black man. As “Paradise Sky” opens he is a youth named Willie living in east Texas. Willie makes an innocent mistake: He observes a woman in her yard. She’s a white woman, and Willie just happens to glance over in her direction as she is bending over. Her husband notices and becomes enraged.
Willie becomes a fugitive, his faux pas a twisted justification for the husband’s homicidal, psychopathic frenzy, which ultimately spans decades and stretches over thousands of miles. Willie’s dogged pursuer becomes a legendary villain.
Willie is on the run. He needs to get out of the area.
So he tries to steal a horse from a ranch.
The rancher catches him doing it, and — surprise — he takes Willie in, shelters him, hides him, mentors him and teaches him the survival skills that will stand him in good stead for the rest of his life.
Willie becomes a superb horseman and an excellent marksman.
Eventually Willie heads west. He’s older, wiser and has a new name. He names himself after the rancher. One distinctive characteristic remains: His ears are enormous. Willie now calls himself Nat Love, and his next adventure is military. He becomes a Buffalo Soldier.
“Paradise Sky” is nonstop action and, believe it or not, humor. Willie’s narrative voice is spectacular. Even when things are not going his way there’s no trace of self-pity, no whining and much to admire about him.
Joe Lansdale is a wickedly clever writer and one of our leading literary stylists. “Paradise Sky” is a page-turner written in the true spirit of the dime novel.