PRANKS. OIL. PROTEST. JOKES BETWEEN NEWLYWEDS.AND ONE HILARIOUS SIEGE OF A MAJOR CORPORATION.Remmy grows up with Beth in Bellhammer, Illinois as oil and coal companies rob the land of everything that made it paradise. Under his Grandad, he learns how to properly prank his neighbors, friends, and foes. Beth tries to fix Remmy by taking him to church. Under his Daddy, Remmy starts the Bell Hammer … Daddy, Remmy starts the Bell Hammer Construction Company, which depends on contracts from Texarco Oil. And Beth argues with him about how to build a better business. Together, Remmy and Beth start to build a great neighborhood of “merry men” carpenters: a paradise of s’mores, porch furniture, newborn babies, and summer trips to Branson where their boys pop the tops of off the neighborhood’s two hundred soda bottles. Their witty banter builds a kind of castle among a growing nostalgia.
Then one of Jim Johnstone’s faulty Texarco oil derricks falls down on their house and poisons their neighborhood’s well.
Poisoned wells escalate to torched dog houses. Torched dog houses escalate to stolen carpentry tools and cancelled contracts. Cancelled contracts escalate to eminent domain. Sick of the attacks from Texaco Oil on his neighborhood, Remmy assembles his merry men:
“We need the world’s greatest prank. One grand glorious jest that’ll bloody the nose of that tyrant. Besides, pranks and jokes don’t got no consequences, right?”
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Bellhammers by Lancelot Schaubert is a series of folktales, about a man named Wilson Remus Broganer, who lived in Little Egypt, Illinois, for most of his life. He was Irish…his father didn’t like the name Remus, said it sounded like a black man, but his mama insisted. So there he was: Remmy. The story is told by his grandson, year by year. It should maybe have been told by a storyteller rather than in prose. There were a lot of colloquialisms and figures of speech from the area of the country and from times past. There were five generations of story, all about Remmy and his grandad, his parents, his wife, their children and their grandchildren. It was about a man who always had and idea and wanted to make money and wanted to make a life.
I found Bellhammers difficult to read. It wan’t the story…it was the style. The style didn’t suit me. The descriptions of living dirt poor were beyond accurate as were the descriptions of people doing their best, and people who loved to laugh and to play jokes and to live hard. I read reviews of the story telling talent of the author and I can’t dispute that. It was a good story. Just not sure if it was told the right way. It was different and creative and interesting, though, I can’t dispute that. Just hard to read. I recommend it with reservations.
I was invited to read a free ARC of Bellhammers by the Cozy Mystery Review Crew. All opinions and interpretations contained herein are solely my own.
I love this book. Remmy is one of a kind! It reads like a combination of Forrest Gump and Secondhand Lions. The lilting quality of the story just moves you along at a lazy pace. It is perfect for that day that you just want to sit by with some good tea and a book.
I received a free copy from himself and am volunteering an honest review for the benefit of others.
Bell Hammers tells the story of the life of Remmy Broganer from the 1940s through the 2010s. I particularly enjoyed the extended timeframe, both to read more of Remmy’s adventures and to see him change through the time periods. The book was really good on two main fronts, and I appreciated the way these two merged together into one seamless story. The first was all of Remmy’s various pranks and antics. He is a creative, unique character, and it was fun to read about everything he got up to throughout his life. The second was in the author’s treatment of class struggles in the working class vs. big business arena. I liked how this serious topic never got heavy-handed, but was deftly interwoven throughout Remmy’s story.
I recommend this to all fans of humor and historical fiction.
I won a copy from Goodreads and sad to say but it just wasn’t for me. Parts were funny but I skimmed through most of it just so I would finish.
Oh what a life!
I was drawn to this book because I was born in Illinois and lived my first six years in the country between Louisville & Clay City. Still have lots of family there. The stories and language are all relatable. It is wonderfully written and entertaining. I laughed often.
I was blessed to win my kindle copy in a giveaway on Goodreads. #giveaways
This book made me laugh at times.
I wasn’t expecting that at all. To be honest, I don’t know what I was expecting.
I felt like I just witnessed someone’s entire life in the span of a few days. Remmy was not like any other guy though. He was a prankster, but in the end, was he something else?! You have to read it to get that answer.
I really enjoyed it more than I thought I would when I read the synopsis. I only entered the giveaway for this book because a couple of bloggers I follow praised it. Man, I am so thankful for bloggers and their great opinions. A book I would have otherwise passed on became a book I am happy I read.
If you like slightly comical literary stories, read it.
3.5/5