Redneck Riviera

After reading and reviewing Fire Fell From Heaven by E. Don Harpe, I went back and re-read this great story. Redneck Riviera is absolutely as good, or maybe even a bit better, than any of the redneck humor you will find on the market today.

None of the famous comedians have anything in their acts any better than this story, and I'm surprised that at least a few of them haven't read this and commented on it.

Redneck Riviera is a very funny, very well written story, and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.

The idea of a redneck from Tennessee meeting an alien that may be even more of a redneck is something that is new and refreshing, and the twist at the end will have you nodding in agreement, while laughing at how ironic it truly is.

REDNECK RIVIERA shot out of the literary sky with an easy, entertainingly simple style, capturing the reader through JorG's disgust with himself for taking a short-cut home, disgust with his spaceship for being a used rattletrap on its last jig.

After chuckling through the read of REDNECK RIVIERA, I would speculate that this series of 4 Amazon Shorts has earned the gorgeous graphics on the square gem covers, each owning its unique squiggly road/path heading up the right side of the design.

The humor popped percolation with:

>> JorG didn't really like the music, but he'd learned to live with it, especially after he had a few glasses of DromBo. To be honest, the naked part wasn't so bad either. That is, after one had grown accustomed to seeing the NayesBul's rather ugly blimp shaped bodies hopping wildly about in all their eight-legged splendor. <<

JorG's unique perspective of Earth caught my interest:

>> JorG had heard that the people of Gurm 12, or Earth, were an ugly and violent race of huge beings, with hairy skin of a great many colors and great white fangs in their mouths. He might overlook those things, he thought, but he'd also heard that the inhabitants had the irrational idea that they were the only intelligent life in the universe. <<

More low-key, dry humor which I lapped up (Burp!):

>> It was anybody's guess as to whether she was talking (on her cell phone) to her insurance company, her attorney, or just someone she had met on line. Trouble was, she was still sitting in her car, apparently not hurt, but unaware that the car was on fire. <<

A little longer than the other 4 Amazon Shorts (by other authors, see my Listmania) I've reviewed so far, this one began to settle in at the point above, magnetizing my interest with the feel of a real story with a solid plot, a "tall tale" setting out beyond a crisp situational quip in a bare story snip.

(Please do not take the above comment as an implication of lack in Shorts of other styles. As I've attempted to describe in my reviews, each Short has a unique, "clear-and-present" appeal. Be sure to take note of the variety of styles in The Amazon Shorts Collection, which include fiction, nonfiction, serials in sequence of longer works, and more.)

More sudden guffaws continued... These weren't just cucumber laughs; they were cut-up-chuckles and go-along-giggles:

>> At that moment Billy Joe's hand slipped off the wire and he went flying through the air, landing some ten feet away from the ship. He slammed into a tree and his Braves' ball cap turned half way round on his head. <<

More crisp colloquialism fun:

>> "...BillyJoeWhitecomeoverhereandtellmewhatthe...isgoinon." Cindy was very close to being hysterical, and the words came out loud, fast, and angry, like bullets from a machine gun on an old late night gangster movie. <<

Enough samples. Click on REDNECK RIVIERA, # 1 in this series. Get a run of 25 pages of the above type of fun.

Me?

I'm headed to click the 49 cent button on TALLADEGA TWOSTEP, # 2 in the series. Gotta see where these guys go (and do) next!

The flashes of sunshine reflecting from JorG's "tin can" space ship are welcome on my face,

Linda G. Shelnutt

A sidesplitting Amazon Short well worth every read twice or thrice. Already a fan of E. Don Harpe's Stubian green and in love with the Southern drawl, I read Redneck Riviera after Talladega Twostep. What a laugh. JorG's experiences in NayesBul and subsequent DromBo episodes were enough to get me going. When lil' green fella crashes into Gurm12, commonly known as Earth, he surprises Billy Joe, who thinks the concussed alien bears ugliness close enough to brother-in-law Jack's. A story unfolds and, with it, an unlikely alliance. Characters are fleshed rather well here and I am tempted to re-read Talladega Twostep just for the heck of it.
Eugen M. Bacon
Author: The Hybrid/ The Firemaker: A Hybrid Story

Hilarious and well-written is this clever short story by E. Don Harpe. What an incredible imagination and ingenious play on words that keeps readers looking for more and laughing along the way. I thoroughly enjoyed Redneck Riviera and can't wait to see what other adventures JorG and Billy Joe may go on in the future.

5/17/06

I grew up reading Stephen King and have quite an appetite for well written, keep you coming back to the book, fiction.

This is one of those reads that will not only interest you but keeps your interest.

Mr. Harpe's work on the Harpe Brothers is also amazing and a great true story of two of the most infamous brothers in our nation's history but a story not told.......................and there is a reason why it is still whispered.

Both pieces are deservedly worth the read.

Angela T. Taylor
Charlotte, NC