GIVE US A KISS: A COUNTRY NOIR

N.Y.: Henry Holt & Co, 1996. First edition, so stated. Fine in fine dust jacket, not price clipped, in protective mylar cover. Remainder mark at top of page edges. "The lure of marijuana as a cash crop provides the premise for the author's fifth novel, a lighthearted tale about a pair of literary brothers who wind up settling an old family score when a drug deal goes awry. As the story opens, narrator Doyle Redmond, a crime novelist, is returning to the Ozarks from California in a Volvo he stole from his wife after she slept with a prominent poet. Back home, Doyle hunkers down with his brother, Smoke, a fellow author whose attention has turned to cultivating a large marijuana crop for a big profit. While helping Smoke harvest the illegal bounty, Doyle engages in an impromptu romance with the daughter of Smoke's girlfriend, a teenage beauty named Niagra Mattux, who has a yen for the silver screen. This brief idyll gives way to violent reality when the dope deal finally goes down and the Redmond brothers are ambushed by a family of local degenerates called the Dollys. Woodrell's extraordinarily deft prose makes for a luscious read, and his unique combination of existential redneck humor and sharp literary barbs proves entertaining..." -- Publishers Weekly. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. Remainder.