Mister Weed-Eater

Mister [...]-Eater is the work of Joe R. Lansdale, author of outlandish short stories and novels in varied genres including suspense, horror, and mystery. First heralded in Mr. Lansdale’s 1993 Electric Gumbo and repeated in his 1994 compilation Writer of the Purple Rage, Mister [...]-Eater was republished 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 [...]-Eater were optioned by writer/director Brian James Fitzpatrick and actor Damian Maffei. The project, scheduled for production in 2010 (see Mister [...]-Eater, The Movie), has enlisted the author as co-producer.

Plot summary

Mister [...]-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 [...]-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 [...]-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.