Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

Hap and Leonard

(2016)

Joe R. Lansdale is an East Texas boy, like myself, though he comes from quite a bit north of me, in Nacogdoches (pronounced Nack-a-DOCH-is). He writes what he calls Mojo fiction, which often means down and dirty. In a series of books he has created the unlikeliest buddy team I’ve ever come across. Hap is a white redneck, has never amounted to much. Leonard is a gay black man, former soldier, takes no shit from anybody. They think of themselves as brothers. They are constantly getting into trouble, and the books can get quite violent. So is this six-part series on the Sundance Channel, and they got it all right. They didn’t glamorize anything, nor downplay Leonard’s sexual orientation. I enjoyed this series immensely.