South of the Pumphouse
Encyclopedia
South Of The Pumphouse is a 2006 novella
by rock musician Les Claypool
. The book can be described as a tragic tale containing themes of family, racism, drugs, and misconceptions. The book describes the San Francisco
and San Pablo Bay
s, and the fishing the areas have to offer.
(the actual town where Claypool grew up) to go live in the town of Berkeley, California
, the other, Earl, has stayed in the town and has become a regular meth addict. When Earl invites his best friend, Donny, along on a fishing trip things get heated between the left wing Ed and right wing racist Donny. When Earl mistakenly concludes that Donny has slept with his wife, he beats him to death with a boat pole. The rest of the novel is concerned with the brothers' efforts to dispose of Donny's body, a twist in the tale which explains Earl's mistake and a brief epilogue concerning the sturgeon which the three men were trying to catch during their day's fishing.
Claypool fleetingly addresses the themes of racism and urban decay in his novel.
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
by rock musician Les Claypool
Les Claypool
Leslie Edward "Les" Claypool is an American musician and writer, best known as the lead vocalist and bassist in the band Primus. Claypool's playing style on the electric bass mixes tapping, flamenco-like strumming, whammy bar bends and slapping.Claypool has also self produced and engineered his...
. The book can be described as a tragic tale containing themes of family, racism, drugs, and misconceptions. The book describes the San Francisco
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
and San Pablo Bay
San Pablo Bay
San Pablo Bay is a tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of San Francisco Bay in northern California in the United States. Most of the Bay is shallow; however, there is a deep water channel approximately in mid bay, which allows access to Sacramento, Stockton, Benicia, Martinez, and...
s, and the fishing the areas have to offer.
Plot summary
The basic novel plot line is when two brothers get together for a fishing trip in memory of their recently deceased father. But while one, Ed, has left the small town of El SobranteEl Sobrante, California
El Sobrante is a census-designated place in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 12,669 at the 2010 census...
(the actual town where Claypool grew up) to go live in the town of Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, the other, Earl, has stayed in the town and has become a regular meth addict. When Earl invites his best friend, Donny, along on a fishing trip things get heated between the left wing Ed and right wing racist Donny. When Earl mistakenly concludes that Donny has slept with his wife, he beats him to death with a boat pole. The rest of the novel is concerned with the brothers' efforts to dispose of Donny's body, a twist in the tale which explains Earl's mistake and a brief epilogue concerning the sturgeon which the three men were trying to catch during their day's fishing.
Claypool fleetingly addresses the themes of racism and urban decay in his novel.