Bell Hammers by Lance Schaubert (57)

 

• ASIN: B081LN9SXX
• Publisher: Lance Schaubert; 1st edition (October 12, 2020)
• Kindle: 1256 KB
• Print length: 336 pages

AMAZON

Remmy grows up with Beth in Bellhammer, Illinois as oil and coal companies rob the land of everything that made it paradise. Under his Grandad, he learns how to properly prank his neighbors, friends, and foes. Beth tries to fix Remmy by taking him to church. Under his Daddy, Remmy starts the Bell Hammer Construction Company, which depends on contracts from Texarco Oil. And Beth argues with him about how to build a better business. Together, Remmy and Beth start to build a great neighborhood of "merry men" carpenters: a paradise of s’mores, porch furniture, newborn babies, and summer trips to Branson where their boys pop the tops of off the neighborhood’s two hundred soda bottles. Their witty banter builds a kind of castle among a growing nostalgia.

Then one of Jim Johnstone’s faulty Texarco oil derricks falls down on their house and poisons their neighborhood's well.

Poisoned wells escalate to torched dog houses. Torched dog houses escalate to stolen carpentry tools and cancelled contracts. Cancelled contracts escalate to eminent domain. Sick of the attacks from Texaco Oil on his neighborhood, Remmy assembles his merry men:

"We need the world's greatest prank. One grand glorious jest that'll bloody the nose of that tyrant. Besides, pranks and jokes don't got no consequences, right?"

Lancelot Schaubert has sold his written work to markets like Tor, The New Haven Review (Yale's Institute Library), McSweeney’s, The Poet’s Market, Writer’s Digest (magazine and books), Poker Pro, Encounter, The Misty Review, Carnival, Brink, and many other similar markets. He reinvented the photonovel through Cold Brewed and was commissioned by the Missouri Tourism Board to create a second photonovel — The Joplin Undercurrent — that both fictionalizes and enchants the history and culture of Joplin, Missouri. His debut album, ALL WHO WANDER, features characters from his fictional universe.

REVIEW:

This book made me laugh at times.

I wasn't expecting that at all. To be honest, I don't know what I was expecting.

I felt like I just witnessed someone's entire life in the span of a few days. Remmy was not like any other guy though. He was a prankster, but in the end, was he something else?! You have to read it to get that answer.

I really enjoyed it more than I thought I would when I read the synopsis. I only entered the giveaway for this book because a couple of  bloggers I follow praised it. Man, I am so thankful for bloggers and their great opinions. A book I would have otherwise passed on became a book I am happy I read.

If you like slightly comical literary stories, read it.

3.5/5

**Compensation may be earned from the link within. This copy was won. Opinions are owned by Freda's Voice.