Andrew Fox (1) (1964–)

I enjoyed the non-traditional take on the vampire protagonist: Jules is obese, a slacker who works as a taxi driver to barely survive, a loner with delusions regarding his own street smarts. I found the story to be more engaging and have more depth than I'd assumed from reading back cover.
I'm vacillating between finding the depictions of black characters racist, tongue-in-cheek, or authentic for that part of the US. Every black character speaks with non-traditional English grammar - whether that's authentic for the area, or whether that's a racist take, I don't know. It did bother me.
Overall, I enjoyed Jules and his inability to get anything right, despite being convinced of himself. I'll read the sequel.… (mere)

Writing a vampire novel is something of an iffy prospect in today’s book market. On the one hand, vampire novels are perennially popular, never seeming to go out of style. But on the other hand, vampire novels have been done to death (no pun intended), and, quite frankly, if you can’t bring something new to the party, then you shouldn’t bother showing up. So I look upon the publication of a new vampire book with a mixture of hope and trepidation—I want to like it, but I’m wary; I’ve been burned before. Well, worry not, vampire fans, Fat White Vampire Blues passes the “Something New” test with flying colors.

Andrew Fox has done the seemingly impossible: paying homage to New Orleans and to John Kennedy Toole’s near-legendary A Confederacy of Dunces while simultaneously giving us a gentle satire of Anne Rice and Laurel K. Hamilton. Amazingly, the book doesn’t collapse under all that weight. It’s funny, it’s touching, and the characters, even the eccentric ones, ring true.

Jules Duchon is the fat white vampire of the title. Jules is a native son of New Orleans, a mama’s boy with a taste for rich soul food (or rather, those who have just eaten it) and all of the ambition of your average garden slug. Jules is shaken out of his complacency by a visit from new vampire Malice X, who declares that things will have to change, starting with Jules’ menu choices. Jules is appalled by Malice X’s pronouncements, and vows to defy them. There’s just one problem: Jules thinks he’s James Bond, but he’s closer to Inspector Clouseau.

Jules is a fabulous character. He has tremendous faith in his own intellect and skill level, and he’s gloriously, grossly mistaken. Fox manages to make Jules both pathetic and sympathetic, and that’s no easy feat. As a reader, you laugh at some of the situations Jules finds himself in, but at the same time you’re both worried that he’s really going to mess up this time and convinced that he deserves every bad thing that happens to him due to his stubborn insistence that he’s always right. Jules plots and schemes, but he always screws it all up. Malice X really is smarter, faster, and, quite frankly, a better vampire than Jules. The only thing Jules has going for him is two old friends: Maureen, the gargantuan stripper who made him a vampire, and Doodlebug, the one vampire that he sired himself and whom he hasn’t spoken to in years. These two try to force Jules to grow up enough to keep something terrible from happening.

Fat White Vampire Blues is a gem of a book. Fox’s love for New Orleans is as obvious as his gentle tweaking of some of its more famous residents. This is a strong debut novel, and I look forward to seeing what Andrew Fox has in store for me next.
… (mere)