BOOK REVIEW – Fat Man Blues by Richard Wall

Summary

“Hobo John” is an English blues enthusiast on a pilgrimage to present-day Mississippi. One night in Clarksdale he meets the mysterious Fat Man, who offers him the chance to see the real blues of the 1930s. Unable to refuse, Hobo John embarks on a journey through the afterlife in the company of Travellin’ Man, an old blues guitarist who shows him the sights, sounds and everyday life in the Mississippi Delta. Along the way, the Englishman discovers the harsh realities behind his romantic notion of the music he loves and the true price of the deal that he has made.” Amazon description

A bizzare pact

I write review of books that have impacted me in various ways.

Richard Wall’s Fat Man Blues is unlike any book I’ve ever read. I would tentatively categorise it under the gothic horror genre, with its abundance of body parts disintegrating. However, beneath this exterior, one discovers multiple layers that, when uncovered, reveal allegorical implications.

Our protagonist is a white man who calls himself “Hobo John” or ‘White boy’. The story begins with Hobo John simply enjoying himself listening to a Juke music playing the blues in a bar in Clarksdale when a chain smoking morbidly obese black man simply known as Fat Man Blues gives him a proposition – a journey back to the 1930s afterlife. His task is to capture the performances of legendary blues singers on video, in return for a supernatural musical experience. Hobo John did not feel he had anything to lose as he was already dying from a disease, so he agrees to the pact.

Journey to the underworld

They strike a kind of Faustian bargain, his health for an everlasting adventure with his heroes. All Hobo John needed to do to hold his side of the bargain was to record great blues singers on video and deliver them to Fat Man Blues

Only where he ended up was a kind of purgatory or alternate world where life seems to continue for those that have passed on, only that they were indeed dead. Hobo John, who revered the blues, felt he had little to lose but everything to gain by actually hearing his heroes play.

His first meeting with Fat Man should have alerted him to what he was getting himself into. Let’s put it this way: fat man’s meeting points is at midnight by the graveside of the dead famous blues singers with a skeletal church in the background. He also appears and disappears at will.

Here is Fat Man at the start of their deal –
“He grunted. “OK. We at a crossroads at midnight, do I need t’ spell out what this’ gon’ cost yo’?”

1930s America through the eyes of Hobo John

The catch of this experience, Hobo John discovers, is the exposure to the horrific realities of 1930s America. Rampant racism, lynching, exploitation that surpassed the horrors of slavery. Gradually, he sees the destruction his pact has caused.

I am not American nor an expert on deep southern accent but Richard seems to know how to depict the different dialects and accents. Fat Man Blues as a character is truly unforgettable and you can feel everything at a visceral level.

He was was full of sayings like;

“Imagination’s a powerful force. Can be what drives a man. In his mind, a man can do most anythin’; make his self richer than a king, get his self a beautiful woman, drive his self a fancy car, play the gittar in a Delta juke-joint. Make hell outta heaven an’ heaven outta hell. Yessuh, inside the mind of a man, can be a wondrous place.”

Richard Wall pays tribute to the genre by making his love for the blues clear in this book. He doesn’t shy away from the raw, brutal history of America, covering issues of racism and the klan.

Wall’s dialogues, though demanding because of the dialect usage, are worth the effort to understand. He includes interactions that reveal the harsh racial realities of the time, lending authenticity to his narrative.

Here is Travelling Man –
“Travellin’ Man winked. “Ain’ no better place to get clothes than from thems as don’ need ‘em no more.”
Or
Travellin’ Man shrugged. “Ain’ nothin’ to say. Cain’ change wha’s done. Don’ confront me no mo’. Life in th’ south, it ain’ all juke-joints an’ fish-fries an’ blues music – not if yo’ a nigga.”

An interesting thing in this story is that we never hear Hobo John’s dialogue but just his thoughts and him describing what he said.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Fat Man Blues is a raw, powerful exploration of America’s past through a harrowing, otherworldly adventure. It’s a gripping read, filled with tension, terror, and a twist of redemption towards the end. Hobo John’s quest to mitigate the chaos he’s unleashed forms a compelling narrative. The immersive blues culture experience at its core takes you back to the genre’s heyday, offering more than just another nod to the Blues Trail.

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