South of the Pumphouse
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4.5 • 6 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A brothers’ fishing trip goes disturbingly off course in this drug-fueled backwater noir—the debut novel by the art-rock pioneer and frontman for Primus.
In the rural town of El Sobrante, California, two estranged brothers are reunited. While Earl Paxton never left, Ed moved on to a new life in Berkley. When the death of their father brings Ed back home, a fishing trip seems like the perfect way to reconnect. But Ed didn’t count on Donny Vowdy joining the party. As frustrations, alcohol, and hallucinogens start dredging up old grudges and long-held rivalries, the trip soon takes an unsettling turn.
A dark, clever tale of brotherhood, misconceptions, drugs and murder, South of the Pumphouse combines classic motifs of epic struggle, evocative imagery, and the raw, tweaked perspective of a Hunter S. Thompson novel.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Brothers Ed and Earl Paxton are different mid-1990s products of the redneck California town El Sobrante: Earl, 36, is a meth-smoking greaser who stayed in town. Ed has tried to distance himself from his roots by going to state college, moving to Berkeley and marrying a black woman. His trip back to "ol' El Sob," prompted by nostalgic stirrings after his father dies, catapults him back to his past. The brothers leave on a fishing trip, and Ed is dismayed to discover that Earl's obnoxious friend, Donny Vowdy, a loquacious and flatulent man overflowing with stories of his sexual exploits, is along for the ride. While on the water, Earl is forced into the role of referee between Ed and Donny as the men, plied with beer, pot and psychedelic mushrooms, dredge up ancient arguments, but it is Earl's drug-fueled rampage that lands the brothers in trouble. Though Claypool, mostly known as the bass player in the band Primus, substitutes childhood flashbacks for character development and constructs a thin plot, his characters' escalating savagery culminates in a satisfyingly unsettling conclusion.
