In Mystic Georgia there is nothing but poor white trash and
stereotypical blacks who still call the poor white trash Masser. This
is the home of Joe Lon Mackey, one of the most terrifying protagonists
since Patrick Bateman in American Psycho.
Joe Lon spends his free days running the beer, bonded whiskey, and
moonshine business that he inherited from his father, a championship
pitbull breeder whose cruelty to animals is revered by locals, along
with two Negro servants. His sister is a mental case who rubs fecal
matter in her hair and watches television all day. His best friend is
the town sheriff who lost his leg in Vietnam and who locks up and rapes
young, black girls who reject his advances. Most of the time Joe Lon
Mackey beats up on himself for abusing his wife who takes care of his
two youngest children and wallows in a mixture of past glory and
present regrets knowing that his football injuries during high school
cost him his future. Once a year Mystic has a rattlesnake roundup that
brings alcohol crazed lunatics from all over the Bible Belt to this
small town to hunt, kill, and eat snakes of all kinds. There is also a
bikini beauty contest and a pep rally the night before the hunt.
All of this makes for an interesting backdrop to a complete emotional
and spiritual breakdown of the human soul. By the end of the novel Joe
Lon can only find comfort in murder, an activity so devoid of context
for him that it makes him giggle. Some have argued that Joe Lon’s is a
tale of redemption, but I disagree. At no point is there any redemption
for Joe Lon, but instead his sister Beeder, and the servant’s Negro
daughter, Lottie Mae, are the ones who gain some sort of redemption and
freedom through the destruction of the oppressive male characters in
the story, as does his wife who is freed from his hidden physical
abuse. FEAST OF SNAKES is a novel filled with violence, ignorant
behavior, rape, castration, arson, sex, creepy Christians, animal
cruelty, murder, and fecalphelia.
I was intending on reading more Crews novels but couldn’t after this one. I had already read The Knock Out Artist, which was superb and thought FEAST would be a great progression. After Feast of Snakes
I literally had nightmares for the next two nights. I have tried to
avoid it since. This novel is creepier than anything Steven King ever
wrote, hands down.
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