Francisco, hello.

Well I am delighted to have this opportunity to talk about this.

But I’m going to talk to you from up here on this fence.

On the one hand I want to say that I can’t recommend the best Daniel Woodrell book to start with because they all have such different flavours in terms of where they are set and I personally need to feel ‘in the mood’ for something, where and when it is set, before I read it.

For example, one is set in the civil war times (Woe To Live On), another is set in more recent times in Frogtown (The Bayou Trilogy, a set of three excellent shorter stories set around one guy, a detective called Rene Shade, who I instantly loved), another is set in the Ozarks (where Daniell Woodrell lives) and they made a movie from it (Winter’s Bone).

What I did was I read a bunch of reviews (I have set some of these out below for your ease of reference) and they sort of contradict each other (not review-on-review, but review-on-comments attached thereto).

So I bought the whole fucking lot and made my way through. They are all excellent.

But since that isn’t helpful to you, maybe go at it how I did – for a short taste of the stunning beauty of his writing, go The Bayou Trilogy, but know that the others he has written are set in other places so there is a lot to look forward to.

Daniell Woodrell is a stunning writer. He makes it look easy and the reader can be forgiven for thinking it was a meander through the park until they see that the book stays with them for some time later and the bruises from the fucking king hit the writer gave them, when they weren’t watching, start to surface.

That is the power of a good writer, I believe. The undertones are striking. The things you don’t see are always the things. They are the things. As in life. Ha.

Francisco, happy reading my friend.

Feel free to tell me how you get on.

Watching Anthony Bourdain’s episode with Daniell Woodrell is worth the time also ok?