Categories
Recent Posts
Archives
- February 2011 (6)
- January 2011 (34)
- December 2010 (23)
Visit Book Blogs
“Joe Bugle” by Ward Jones #52
Posted by on February 1, 2011
Joe Bugle isn’t the ideal family man, he is a professional killer. Not the kind who kills insects in your home, but the real thing. Like anyone else though, he’s got a family. A few kids, a wife from Kansas City, and her two deadbeat brothers that waste time in a band, among others. So how can a guy like this sleep at night? Well, he’s got mouths to feed and in-laws that need to be cared for. At least the wife’s parents aren’t suckin’ him dry with medical bills. He just has to make a livin’.
From the first sentence, I knew I was in for a different sort of read for me. I don’t watch crime dramas, and rarely read crime stories, but diversity is important, so I wanted to make sure to review this piece. Despite the subject matter, this story really only discusses Joe’s criminal activity for half of the story. Much of his time is spend discussing his family situation, and complaining about one thing or another. It is pretty much a short rant by a killer trying to make a buck. Though I don’t relate to the character, I appreciate the strong narrative voice and its fast pace. Those are the things I liked most about this story. You can read it in Audience Literary Journal Volume 2 Issue 3.
Content Advisory: Drunkenness, Foul Language, Sexual Situations, Violence
Links of Interest:
FTC Disclosure: This magazine was provided in exchange for an honest review.
The cover image above has been used with the permission of the copyright owner.
“Thanks James for the review of Joe Bugle. He was someone I never expected to know, much less write about. But once I got started he just seemed to be who he was, tell his own story, one of those moments where you just kind of stand back and let him do his thing. Not so with Norm Arnstein, the fifty-seven-year-old lawyer I got to know over the three years of writing About Isaactown, though by the last year he seemed to be part of me. At the risk of oversimplifying, short stories are fun, novels are work. Still both, if the characters are real enough, can be, for me at least, as rewarding for the writer as the reader.
Ward Jones”