Mister Weed-Eater

Mister Weed-Eater is a short story by American writer Joe R. Lansdale.

Editions

First published in Lansdale’s 1993 Electric Gumbo, subsequently republished in his 1994 compilation Writer of the Purple Rage, "Mister Weed-Eater" was republished again in the 2001 anthology High Cotton. A favorite of the author, the story reappeared eight years later in his work entitled Sanctified and Chicken-Fried. Also in 2009 the movie rights for Mister Weed-Eater were optioned by writer/director Brian James Fitzpatrick and actor Damian Maffei. The project, scheduled for production in 2010 (see Mister Weed-Eater, The Movie), has enlisted the author as co-producer.

Plot summary

Mister Weed-Eater recounts the story of Mr. Job Harold, who befriends a blind man hired by the church across the street to cut the church’s lawn. The newly-hired landscaper, utilizing a brand new weed-eater with which to trim the yard, is, of course, unable to evaluate the fruits of his labor. Taking a break from the Texas heat, he turns to Mr. Harold for what appears to be an innocent critique of his work. In actuality, it is a brazen attempt by the groundskeeper to maneuver himself into the man’s house and his life.

At first hesitant even to involve himself in the blind man’s business, Mr. Harold, nonetheless, ends up taking the sightless man by the elbow and tries to convey the slip-shoddiness of his weed-eating, yard-whacking efforts. Mr. Harold quickly becomes irritated with the blind man. From that moment on, the macabre and dark-humored tale evolves into a bizarre journey of chaos and bedlam, with the once-routine life of Job Harold becoming a topsy-turvy disarray of self-survival.

This short story may be read as an ironic retelling of Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral".

External links

• Mister Weed-Eater's page at IMDB