Logan's Storm

Rating:
Summary: Logan's Storm is a Whole lot of Fun!
Review: I read Logan's Storm on a long plane ride last week and enjoyed it very much. This book continues where the other two of Ken Wells' Cajun books leave off, but it is the story of the dad this time, and his adventures.
For anyone who has never read anything by Ken Wells, I think you have a treat in store for you. My brother first discovered this writer about a year ago when he read Meely Labauve. He passed the book on to me; I loved it, gave it to my wife and she loved it too. We then bought and read the next one, Junior's Leg, a real hoot! Tons of fun, some serious laughs in Junior's Leg.
I'm a writer myself (Allergy-free Gardening, Safe Sex in the Garden, etc.) and I love to find new authors whose material is terrific. This is how I feel about Ken Wells and his writing. It is fresh, lively, different, touching, sometimes profound, never preachy, and completely colorful. I keep waiting to see his books make it to the bestseller lists....they deserve to be there, and I think it is just a matter of time. Too good to pass up. Check this book out!

Rating:
Summary: It's not Meely LaBauve, but it's good, good, good.
Review: Logan's Storm is the third and final book in the Meely LaBauve trilogy. It is set in the time immediately after the original offering ended, and it opens with his hilarious and ne'er-do-well father , Logan, on the run (duh - to readers of the original, this will require no explanation) from the law with a black teenager. Love is in the offing when Logan meets up with Annie Ancelet, who has all sorts of ideas for evading the lawmen.
Logan's storm is an affectionate and endearing character study, full of humor and adventure.

Rating:
Summary: feisty everyman serves as fitting capstone to Cajun trilogy
Review: We have long enjoyed defining the American character through our literary heroes. We prefer rough-hewn men, resolute in their own vision of the world, often at odds stuffy conformity, comfortable with their reprobate attitude. Huck Finn exemplifies this allegiance to the rebellious, misunderstood, action-based hero. It matters little if this figure has stretched or broken the law; his illegal behavior usually results from altercations with ignorant, small-minded or prejudiced authority figures. Beneath an exterior of illiteracy or deceptively simple manners reside an elemental decency, a profound dignity and an abiding optimism about the human condition.

The perceptive author Ken Wells understands our perpetual hunger for these larger-than-life heroes, and his final installment of the Catahoula Bayou trilogy, "Logan's Storm," satisfies our appetite. Logan LaBauve, already erroneously pronounced dead as a result of avenging his son's abuse at the hands of a racist cop, confronts nature, faces down bad guys and even finds room in his broken heart to open himself up to the possibilities of love. Logan, through dialogue and action, reminds us of the best aspects of our quest to become genuinely self-made. His unceasing and unflinching confrontation with life's exigencies, messes and hopes serves as a cock-eyed model for even polished urbanites. This man lives large, loves life and doesn't hesitate to squeeze living for all that it's worth.

"Logan's Storm" is actually less a novel than it is three extended vignettes. Each vignette serves as a means through which Logan's character is tested, fortified and sublimely altered. What results is a bayou character who is a loyal friend, savvy con-artist, expert storyteller and redoubtable champion of little old ladies and stricken children in distress. This swamp superman throws out Cajun metaphors with the same grace he demonstrates when he teases a meal out of bayou critters. He knows exactly how much bilge he can safely swallow from adversaries and precisely when to strike back. Though Ken Wells moves his story with breathtaking confidence, he never forgets why the reader will rapidly turn each page.

Unfortunately, the last two vignettes don't carry the power and promise of the first. We first meet Logan during his sojourn in a dangerous swamp, on the lam from prejudiced officers who'd like nothing better than to lay their hands on not only Logan, but his son's African-American friend Chilly. The author paints a lush and absorbing physical and emotional protrait of two men struggling for survival under extreme circumstances. The second vignette borrows heavily from Mark Twain, in both style and content. Here Logan outwits a professorial villain, whose flowery elocution masks a pathetically craven heart. This melodramatic chestnut of outlaws outfoxing other outlaws is saved only by Wells' love of his characters, his engaging use of Cajun patois and his keen sense of irony. The final vignette, featuring an overpowering hurricane, blows itself out from predictablility. It is as if the author himself became exhuasted from the excesses of his own writing.

"Logan's Storm" is cause, however, for rejoicing. Its author, Ken Wells relishes spinning a good tale and is a marvelous scene setter. Logan LeBauve, podnah, will happily find his own niche in our national pantheon of authentic American heroes.

Rating:
Summary: feisty everyman serves as fitting capstone to Cajun trilogy
Review: We have long enjoyed defining the American character through our literary heroes. We prefer rough-hewn men, resolute in their own vision of the world, often at odds stuffy conformity, comfortable with their reprobate attitude. Huck Finn exemplifies this allegiance to the rebellious, misunderstood, action-based hero. It matters little if this figure has stretched or broken the law; his illegal behavior usually results from altercations with ignorant, small-minded or prejudiced authority figures. Beneath an exterior of illiteracy or deceptively simple manners reside an elemental decency, a profound dignity and an abiding optimism about the human condition.

The perceptive author Ken Wells understands our perpetual hunger for these larger-than-life heroes, and his final installment of the Catahoula Bayou trilogy, "Logan's Storm," satisfies our appetite. Logan LaBauve, already erroneously pronounced dead as a result of avenging his son's abuse at the hands of a racist cop, confronts nature, faces down bad guys and even finds room in his broken heart to open himself up to the possibilities of love. Logan, through dialogue and action, reminds us of the best aspects of our quest to become genuinely self-made. His unceasing and unflinching confrontation with life's exigencies, messes and hopes serves as a cock-eyed model for even polished urbanites. This man lives large, loves life and doesn't hesitate to squeeze living for all that it's worth.

"Logan's Storm" is actually less a novel than it is three extended vignettes. Each vignette serves as a means through which Logan's character is tested, fortified and sublimely altered. What results is a bayou character who is a loyal friend, savvy con-artist, expert storyteller and redoubtable champion of little old ladies and stricken children in distress. This swamp superman throws out Cajun metaphors with the same grace he demonstrates when he teases a meal out of bayou critters. He knows exactly how much bilge he can safely swallow from adversaries and precisely when to strike back. Though Ken Wells moves his story with breathtaking confidence, he never forgets why the reader will rapidly turn each page.

Unfortunately, the last two vignettes don't carry the power and promise of the first. We first meet Logan during his sojourn in a dangerous swamp, on the lam from prejudiced officers who'd like nothing better than to lay their hands on not only Logan, but his son's African-American friend Chilly. The author paints a lush and absorbing physical and emotional protrait of two men struggling for survival under extreme circumstances. The second vignette borrows heavily from Mark Twain, in both style and content. Here Logan outwits a professorial villain, whose flowery elocution masks a pathetically craven heart. This melodramatic chestnut of outlaws outfoxing other outlaws is saved only by Wells' love of his characters, his engaging use of Cajun patois and his keen sense of irony. The final vignette, featuring an overpowering hurricane, blows itself out from predictablility. It is as if the author himself became exhuasted from the excesses of his own writing.

"Logan's Storm" is cause, however, for rejoicing. Its author, Ken Wells relishes spinning a good tale and is a marvelous scene setter. Logan LeBauve, podnah, will happily find his own niche in our national pantheon of authentic American heroes.