*received for free from netgalley for honest review* This was an interesting book, the audiobook definitely added to it. would recommend to certain people lol

As the author of this book, I'm biased, but I obviously liked it. Mostly downloaded it ensure everything would work on NetGalley's end.

This was an interesting story on the life of a boy during world war times. This is my first read by Lancelot Schaubert, so I was not sure what I was in for. it was really entertaining.
Thanks NetGalley.

Bell Hammers is a book about a man from a family living in Little Egypt, Illinois.

The story is documented by a bemused grandson who does a great job of capturing the local speech, logic and philosophies of the large family which surrounds his grandfather, Remmy. Family traditions include pranking – this got my attention because the men in one side of my family were pranksters and teasers, and it all went south as they married, so it was a family battle I was willing to compare as I opened the first pages of this book. Conflict between big industry and the little guy conjured in my head the spirit of Erin Brockovich, to no avail. But don't worry. They get theirs.

What I loved best were the moments that made me laugh out loud, and there were many! Most have to do with the thought process (as perceived by grandson narrator) of Remmy or the many other friends and family characters. My favorite, though? The dialogue between Remmy and the Good Lord. That’s what rang the truest of all to me – because I have that same dialogue every day, too. It kept me reading, right through to the very end. And I mean the very end. . . discussing all the tenses of the English tongue as spoken in Little Egypt.

This is a long and rambling tale. Many side stops to get you set up for future action. So many times that I was tempted to take notes, but am morally and ethically opposed to that (if you have to take notes, this is work or school and my reading habit is firmly parked in my leisure hobby column). I must admit to confusion, and occasionally having lost grasp on the coattails of the narrative from time to time and a need to slide back in order to catch up. And once, didn’t even sync up with it, and just moved on . . .still made it through with reader integrity intact (I believe). There are a few dark moments, but what family doesn’t have a few of those?

At the end of the book there are whys and wherefores as it relates to choices made in the writing that were helpful to me in understanding the tale’s telling.

A sincere thank you to Lancelot Schaubert, IBPA, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review.

I think since I received this ARC, there have been updates and changes to the way the book was written. I thoroughly enjoyed this humorous book. It literally had the feeling like you had walked up onto a group of live people who were telling stories with witty banter. So many topics brought up in this book -- corruption, friendship, when a prank becomes too much. The language is simple and therefore keeps the story moving at a good clip.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy.

Multi generational tale. Richly developed characters, and great writing. I felt the chapters were too long and there were some parts that dragged on. I do understand the author did some rewrites and and edited the book down. Would recommend/gift newer edition.

I have put off reading this book for a long time. I am glad I finally decided it was time after wanting to read something different than my usual. The story of Remmy is very poignant and humorous and is just what I needed. I enjoyed the stories of Remmy as a child all the way through adulthood and death.

Thank you Net Galley for allowing me to read this unusual and delightful book for my honest opinion.

In my defence, the good lord told me to do it. Before you go find a shirt where the sleeves do up at the back closely followed by the men in white coats.

I've had this book for quite a while now, and it would appear that I have done both it, and the author some injustice in having not read it thus far.

It follows the life of one family, residents of Little Egypt. Their fight against the Oil companies, both locally and nationally on the environment. I mean no harm, but it could easily have veered off on the environmental track, as they had a copy of a report by EXXON which denied global warming as a fallacy. So as to melt the Alaskan ice flows to make it easier to drill for oil.

But that is just a small part of the story.

Overall, it is a story about friendship, love, family, oh yes and the good lord himself (who got most of the best lines).


Status: Completed

Rating:4.2/5.0

Seeing the reactions of other reviewers, I'm clearly in the minority of Bell Hammers' readers. Net Galley sent me an advance readers copy some time ago, and I picked it up every few weeks to read a chapter or two. I could never engage.

Partly it was the use and misuse of the southern Illinois dialect. Although the author, Lancelot Schaubert, discusses its use at some length (and in quite academic terms) in an afterword, it seemed folksy and contrived and affected, perhaps because it was used too broadly.

By the time I finally reached the end of the book, where Schaubert devotes quite a few pages to a defense of his methods and to a recap between Remmy and God, I was done in more ways than one.

I think the book was meant to be playful. Maybe my failure to join the mood was colored by the fact that the author kept e-mailing me! He had obtained my email address from NetGalley, and repeatedly cajoled me (and I'm sure other recipients of ARCs) with reminders and solicitations to READ HIS BOOK. Bad form!

I found this it be quite refreshing as it's not the typical story I find myself reading, and the characters were deep and rounded. Bringing to life Little Egypt, a real place I'd never heard of until picking up this novel, the author does a great job of telling a tale of people who feel so real.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

3.5-4 stars

This was an interesting story, but it took me a little while to get into it.

In the beginning, when Remmy is a child, the story seems to jump around a lot and not really flow well. To me it came across as just a bunch of random events from his childhood, though I’m sure they were meant to give some background and insight into Remmy’s character and his prankster ways.

Once Remmy got engaged, the story really began to flow, and I couldn’t put the book down. I loved his witty sense of humor and his relationships with his wife and friends. I’m not religious, but I thoroughly enjoyed his conversations with God. Some of them had me cracking up. But as an adult, his pranks got more and more out of hand, and he ended up on the wrong side of the law.

Toward the end of the book, when Remmy got out of jail, my interest started to waver again. The timeline started to skip around more, and a lot of the focus shifted to Remmy’s kids and grandkids. Had the story continued to flow as well as it had in the middle of the book, I think I would have enjoyed it more as a whole.

Overall, I do think it was a good story, it just didn’t grab my attention consistently throughout.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3469440927

I gave this book three stars because I personally did not enjoy the writing style at all. However, that's super subjective so other people may very well enjoy the narration.

The coming of age theme was interesting but the book was so slow that by the time things started happening, I wasn't too interested.

The book was humorous and the content of the story was interesting but the pacing and actual writing made Bell Hammers a 3 star book.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in return for my honest review. Lovely story. I've read a lot of thrillers lately so this was a refreshing change. Really enjoyed it, clever and well written filled with likeable characters.

This is a very different style of novel than I have found myself reading in some time. Written as a collective story that follows the life of one Remmy Brogenar. Born in recession era Illinois, Remmy was born and raised in the shadow of big oil and coal. Defying the corrupting effects of having a town full of big oil money, Remmy finds a way to make a life in Southern Illinois. Often humorous, there is a folkloric undercurrent to the story, as Remmy’s outlook is so often painted in the shadow of his favorite fairytale, Robin Hood. Remmy marries and goes on to have children, who have children of their own, and Remmy tries to be honest through it all. He does have a wicked streak, and is known for pranks that often lead him toward trouble. Full of both humor and tragedy, I can both laugh and cry at the crazy life of Remmy Brogenar. There is a palpable anxiety in the novel surrounding the polluting nature of big oil and coal, and the willingness of these executives to destroy and pollute for profit. This fight still goes on to this day. This is a fun story to read in spite of the injustices and the tragedies that seem to run in the family. Review posted to Facebook, Litsy, Goodreads,and LibraryThing.

Bell Hammers is told through the voice of Remmy, using a series of stories which may have been passed down through generations. Remmy lives in Little Egypt, southern Illinois, his enemy is Texarco, the oil company. He has learned from his grandfather how to play jokes and pranks on others, as life can be a bit tedious.
The book is based on the actual experiences of some of the authors' own relatives, so this makes the events more meaningful to the reader and you could say it was a story waiting to be told.

I received this book from a Netgalley request for an honest review.

Bell Hammers: The True Folk Tale of Little Egypt, Illinois by Lancelot Schaubert is a story about Wilson Remus who lived his whole life in Little Egypt, Illinois. It is a very simple story about a man who aims to build his own paradise for the people he loves. I liked this book because of its plot, its themes, and the point of view. One aspect which I did not like about this book was the development of the plot that dragged the story.

The story involves a boy and how he grows up in a place owned and exploited by the oil corporate. First, I loved Wilson a.k.a Remmy's relationship with God and how that was developed in the story. Remmy strongly holds onto his faith on God and this faith helps him understand and cope with the struggles of his life. Second, I liked the simplicity of the action in the plot; Remmy's story did have a good amount of pranks which heated things up, but overall the action involved realistic and mundane scenarios such as Remmy's work as a carpenter. I liked the simple and funny bits of the story such as the scene of Remmy's marriage proposal and how he let Jim Johnston's kid to play in dung. These small funny things really brightened up the mundane action in the plot. As a reader, I really appreciated the realism and mundanity of the action in the plot because it was very simple and provided a different perspective on everyday life.

The themes that I liked in the story are coming of age and corporate exploitation. The story begins from Remmy's childhood and continues into Remmy's old age. This aspect of the plot provides an insight into the maturation of Remmy's understanding of the world around him. Additionally, the exploration of corporate exploitation highlights how Remmy struggled to understand and stand against exploitation of oil companies such as Texarco. His pranks on people like Jim Johnston help him vent his frustration from being mistreated by Texarco, but in the end the consequences of his pranks cost him a lot. This theme is important to the plot because it helps the reader understand how the economic and social landscape of Little Egypt transformed because of oil companies. The theme particularly highlights the disadvantages that oil companies brought to the people of Little Egypt, Illinois therefore, it accentuates the negatives of working under corporates. Overall, the combination of these themes gives the reader an insight into the lives of people who are exploited because of corporates.

Other than these themes, the story also has a very realistic narration. The narration is a third person limited narration, which focuses on Remmy's side of the story for most of the book. The narrator is very personal in his narration, which emphasizes his close relationship with Remmy and an intimate understanding of his life. This personal aspect of the narration helps the reader empathise with Remmy' story and understand his perspective better. Another aspect of this point of view is informal narration and dialogues, which are slightly difficult to understand nonetheless, this informality makes the story relatable to the reader. Therefore, the informal and personal narration makes the story simple, which enhances the realistic aspect of it.

The only problem with this story is its development. The story coveres a long time period so the narration drags a lot. The story focuses on a lot of uneventful scenarios in Remmy's life and these could have been introduced in a small number. This aspect of the book made it difficult to read, therefore I could not finish it in a few sittings. Other than this problem, Bell Hammers: The True Folk Tale of Little Egypt, Illinois is actually a good story. Its plot is very distinctive, its themes allude to significant issues, and its narration is simple and heart warming. This book is something completely different from the stories that I usually read, so I am grateful that I picked it up.

A really interesting read, a lot of fun to go through and I didn't want it to end.


Thank you Netgalley for providing an arc of this book for an honest review.

Cleverly written and very readable. The characters jump off the page and into your life. This story will stay with me for a good long time.

This was a joy to read, thank you so much for the copy.
Remmy was such a funny character, I cried laughing so many times throughout this book. I absolutely loved the high school prank! This made me laugh so hard, thank you Lancelot for that.

This was such a fun book and the writing was brilliant. I loved the characters as they were so realistic. This book was a great escape from Covid 19.
Many thanks to Independent Book Publishers and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.