I never did this in my whole life. Ever. This is the first time in a quarter of a century that I stopped reading a book in the middle of it.

Why?

Because “That old ace in the hole” is nothing short of “That old shit in the paperback edition”.

Allow me to elaborate.

The book trails a guy who is sent on a mission by a hog farm company. He is to infiltrate the panhandle and try to convince the owners of the land to sell it to the hog company. So far so good. And here it stops being interesting. The characters comes into town then talks to literally everybody. And every person has its own story, full of bullshit and boring facts that do not add anything to the story. Literally. I stopped reading when our main hero meets a character who just came out of jail and made money selling CDs with farting noises. I kid you not. Farting noises. Thank you Annie Prolux, that`s original! Whoo-hooo!

There`s no interesting passages, there are no memorable sentences, there is no humor (unless you`re into farting noises type of humor) and there is absolutely no plot. The guy just walks around, talking to people. Jesus. At one point the author herself saw that she wandered off a little too deep and just stops developing one side of the “story” and moves on. Almost in mid-sentence!

I am through with this book. I think I`ll donate it to the library. And write my own review on the cover. People magazine calls it immensely entertaining. The L files call it a bucket of crap.

Moving on…