The Big Blow Audiobook By Joe R. Lansdale cover art

The Big Blow

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The Big Blow

By: Joe R. Lansdale
Narrated by: Brad Sanders
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Peculiar weather settles over a bustling Texas sea port, a city made prosperous off the cotton trade and thick with racial inequality. The sky above Galveston, Texas, darkens to the sickly green of a healing bruise, the sea turns black, and the inhabitants of the city have no idea the force of the hammer about to drop on them.

The wild wind blows boxer John McBride into town, a white prize fighter with seemingly superhuman fury and skill. As black boxer Jack L'il Arthur Johnson prepares to fight this fierce opponent, the storm closes in. If he can survive the ring and the vicious undercurrents of the Jim Crow south, L'il Arthur will still have to fight his way through the storm winds, the rising flood waters, and the violent night.

On September 8, 1900, a hurricane ripped apart Galveston, Texas, killing nearly 8,000 people and nearly obliterating the town. Lansdale's story brings dimension to many who lost their lives that day, and a few who survived.

Contains mature themes.

©2000 Joe R. Lansdale (P)2023 Tantor Biographical Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction Small Town & Rural Biography Natural Disaster
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This is a fictional story about the legendary fighter Jack Johnson. If you don't know his story, this fictional account might prompt you to read up on perhaps the greatest prizefighter of all time.

Joe R. Lansdale delivers again with the backdrop of an actual hurricane that hit Galveston in the early 1900's. Leave it to Lansdale to focus on a prizefight between Johnson and a hired killer. It's a tense narrative alternating between the growing storm, the harrowing escape across an access bridge for the island population and a young family who must make sure their baby survives at any cost.

Brad Sanders did an excellent job giving a raw edge to Jack Johnson's upbringing as a black man in a racist society. This is an excellent piece of historical fiction and told by someone who cares about everyman's story. This is Lansdale and you should listen to all the Hap and Leonard stories you can. You won't be sorry.

Historical Fiction at It's Finest

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Lansdale creates unforgettable characters and writes them from a place of deep authenticity — outrageous as they are. I look forward to Jack’s further tussels.

Another Winner from Joe R

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No substance, just vulgar clichés. Could not finish it, gave up about a half hour in.

Garbage

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