"Mojo and the Pickle Jar"
Jun. 20th, 2004 07:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowA couple of weeks ago, I mentioned an SF review on the subject of the midlist. One of the books recommended in that review was Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well on Ganymede, which I've already discussed; another was Mojo and the Pickle Jar, by Douglas Bell.
Like Buddy Holly, Mojo is a quest story, though the heroes do not realize it until well into the book. Joseph "Mojo" Birdsong, a young punk from West Texas, falls in with a young woman named Juanita Vasquez, who is being pursued by drugrunners. Juanita carries a treasure, in the form of a pickle jar containing, she says, a demon. (She's wrong about that.) The two of them flee halfway across New Mexico, with the drugrunners and their (perhaps surprising) allies right behind. They gather allies of their own including (but not restricted to) a Texas Ranger, an aged bruja, a gang of low-riders, and a few aging hippies as they race to resolve a centuries-old struggle.
The story is infused with a distinctly heterodox brand of Catholicism. The heroes are far from saintly, to be sure; Mojo is a punk at the beginning and remains a punk at the end (albeit a punk with slightly elevated prospects). But the forces at war are supernatural in origin; numerous avatars of the Virgin and Child put in appearances, and other supernatural forces swirl about Mojo and Juanita en route to their destination. There are rather bizarre nods to Dante and to modern physics as well.
Comparing Mojo to Buddy Holly, I would rate the latter as the better novel. The characters in the latter are more colorful, and the ride is wilder, and Buddy Holly has a bit of social commentary lacking in Mojo. Nonetheless, there's enough going on in Mojo and the Pickle Jar to make it a fun read.
Like Buddy Holly, Mojo is a quest story, though the heroes do not realize it until well into the book. Joseph "Mojo" Birdsong, a young punk from West Texas, falls in with a young woman named Juanita Vasquez, who is being pursued by drugrunners. Juanita carries a treasure, in the form of a pickle jar containing, she says, a demon. (She's wrong about that.) The two of them flee halfway across New Mexico, with the drugrunners and their (perhaps surprising) allies right behind. They gather allies of their own including (but not restricted to) a Texas Ranger, an aged bruja, a gang of low-riders, and a few aging hippies as they race to resolve a centuries-old struggle.
The story is infused with a distinctly heterodox brand of Catholicism. The heroes are far from saintly, to be sure; Mojo is a punk at the beginning and remains a punk at the end (albeit a punk with slightly elevated prospects). But the forces at war are supernatural in origin; numerous avatars of the Virgin and Child put in appearances, and other supernatural forces swirl about Mojo and Juanita en route to their destination. There are rather bizarre nods to Dante and to modern physics as well.
Comparing Mojo to Buddy Holly, I would rate the latter as the better novel. The characters in the latter are more colorful, and the ride is wilder, and Buddy Holly has a bit of social commentary lacking in Mojo. Nonetheless, there's enough going on in Mojo and the Pickle Jar to make it a fun read.
