The Bizarro Western, Fistful of Feet by Jordan Krall has been reviewed on two different blogs this week.
One review is by an avid fan of the Western genre, Matthew Revert over at “Clockwork Father“:
“I went into Jordan Krall’s latest novel, Fistful of Feet, with a certain bias. I am an avid fan of the Western, be it the traditional Hollywood kind or the Spaghetti kind. This same bias could have ultimately worked against it however, if it wasn’t pulled off very well. It might have fallen into a Western pastiche, stealing the associated aesthetics and bastardising them superficially. Fistful of Feet doesn’t do this. It is a triumph and clearly written by someone with a deep respect for everything a Western stands for. The characters one would expect to populate a Western abound; the mysterious stranger, the busty brothel owner, the town crazies, a corrupt sheriff, hardened cowboys, gamblers, whores and storeowners. They’re all touched upon, and touched upon beautifully. Wrap this up in a gooey, Bizarro shell and it makes for a wild, touching and unforgettable ride through the dusty landscapes of a surrealist hell.”
And one by Michael Allen Rose who isn’t typically a fan of the Western:
“The story follows the archetypal lone wanderer, Calamaro, a rough and tumble stranger with many mysteries following behind him (my favorite mystery by far is the wooden donkey he drags along, which holds many secrets of its own). Calamaro drags himself to the local brothel in the small town of Screwhorse to set himself up with a room, but of course, as the genre demands, nobody’s comfortable with the new stranger in town (save a madam with a heart of gold and a few others). From there, things get perverse and hilariously wild, and that’s good: Krall is at his best when he taps into the reader’s prurient interests. This book is delightfully filled with sexual depravity and otherworldly references to unspeakable acts. The descriptions of the various delights at the town’s whorehouse are alternately stimulating and grimace-inducing, and that’s exactly how Krall holds the reader’s attention. A careful balancing act of alien starfish and four-footed prostitutes on one side with all the classic tropes of the old Clint Eastwood films on the other.”
