Hahaha! I never associated Lee with Binghamton.

Pegleg

Thanks very much, Boysnight; I appreciate the kind words! I was only actually in that area for a short period of time (Pennelville? Utica, Rome, Binghampton, and those wonderfully dreary outskirts) so I used that imagery for The House and The Pig (originally The Pig was set, I believe, in rural Pennsylvania but I changed the reprint to accomodate The House). It was a rich atmosphere, indeed. But thanks very much! I'm glad you liked it.

Best,
Edward Lee

I just had the pleasure of finishing the book very early this morning. I bought it as a compromise because I was too cheap to lay down the cash for Sex, Drugs & Power Tools.

What the fuck Lee, when did your shit get so pricey? Haha.

Don't believe me? Just google the book, one site has it on commission for 250 bucks.

Congrats Ed, that's pretty fucking badass. That ridiculous price tag probably means that your work, dear I say it, is legendary. Heh.


ANYWAY.


I loved The Pig. It's easily one of the most gripping stories I've read. There's a certain charm to a short-story/novella, but that's probably the fallout from being part of generation Y, we have such a poor attention span after all, heh.

And no, I don't just read fucking gore books.

I enjoy good (that's open to interpretation,) literature too. I'm currently reading some of Mark Twain's short stories and a book detailing just how fucking crooked former Prime Minister Paul Mulroney was.


SO...


I like The Pig so much that I think, and I'm ashamed to admit it, it's your best story I've managed to read. Yeah sure, The Bighead might've been longer and some might think it was gorier, but The Pig just has a good vibe to it.

The story rocks. Come on, undergound movies for the mob? The idea hadn't even crossed my mind until I read the story. And Leonard's seemingly total indifference to the stuff he was filming was great.

But that's just one facet to what makes this novella so great.

I knew you were a fan of music Lee ever since I spotted that picture of you wearing the Black Flag t-shirt.

The Pig is crammed full of references to popular music from the 70's, essentially a genre and era I know NOTHING about, growing up in the late 90's means I know dick about 'good' music. Haha.

So, with all these songs I had never heard of, I felt compelled to go and track down the, quote-unquote, soundtrack, to The Pig. (And I didn't even have to leave the house, thanks to the internet, and piracy, mwuahaha-eh. )

Goon was great because of all its wrestling tidbits, but it wasn't overwhelming or anything, I'm sure anyone who read it wasn't lost. And if they were, it isn't Ed's fault, nah, it just means your vocabulary repertoire sucks.


Other then American Psycho (fucking Ellis and his obsessing with 80's pop music,) I have never been so compelled to learn what the author was fucking talking about.

And man, was it worth it. It was like another dimension was added to The Pig. I had a soundtrack to go along with the novella, which like I said before, is pretty damn rare.

I now love Domino by The Cramps. It's an awesome fucking song. And I'd like to thank you for revealing it to me. Heh.


Okay, so this is where all the ass kissing stops, heh. The House sucked. I felt so cheated with the ending. What the fuck were you building up to Lee?

The story ultimately went nowhere. It was like reading a homage to The Pig. While The Pig was an original piece of literature, and had a fresh ending, The House just kinda fell flat on its face in the epilogue.

It didn't even feel like a rehash! No demons, no cool twist. What gives?



PS: Van der Graaf Generator sucks, in grand style. LOL