The Bottoms

Every time I finish a Joe R. Lansdale book I swear that I need to read more of his books. Often life gets in the way, though, and a good deal of time goes by before I pick up another. Having just finished The Bottoms, I am really, really, really determined to make Joe Lansdale one of my best friends. This standalone novel, written in the guise of an old man’s reminiscence, is an exceptional combination of murder mystery and coming-of-age tale set in East Texas during the Great Depression.
Harry Collins, 14, lives with his family along the banks of the Sabine River. His father, Jacob, has donned many hats (farmer, barber, town constable) in his struggle to stay afloat during the lean years of the Depression. One day while hunting with show more his sister, Tom (okay, Thomasina) they find the mutilated body of a black woman tied to a tree near the river. Soon more bodies turn up and the hunt is on for a killer. While Jacob is searching for a human killer, Harry and Tom are convinced that they have already seen the killer, the legendary Goat Man, rumored to stalk the river bottoms in search of prey. Things get complicated quickly when one of the victims turns out to be white and the local Klan gets involved.

Although this is an original tale in its own right it also has many undeniable similarities to To Kill a Mockingbird which I found inexplicably entertaining. Ordinarily I would find copycatting Harper Lee presumptuous in the extreme and earn the author a good horsewhipping. Lansdale, however, gets a pass from me because his remarkable character building skills and storytelling ability kept me fully engaged all the way through to its bittersweet ending.

On the downside, the whodunit aspects of the story aren’t as challenging as they could be so readers who consider the author’s skill at concealing the killer’s identity important, you may not be too impressed. If you are like me, however, and are just along for the ride, you will likely find it enjoyable.

4.5 stars (rounded up because, well damn it, because I can and I want to!)

FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
*5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
*4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
*3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.
*2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
*1 Star - The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire. show less

The Bottoms may very well be the best book of Joe R. Lansdale’s career. It typifies what is best about his work with fascinating characters in unique situations in a story that is wonderfully Texas. Not chock full of the humor or "colorful" language of his previous works, Lansdale shows a maturity and skill that comes with writing 16 previous novels. Not to say that the language and humor aren't there but they are used sparingly and intelligently.

Set in 1930's Texas, The Bottoms tells the moving story of a boy who discovers a mutilated body of a black woman and the racial intolerance that his constable father encounters. Full of superstition, terror, and tenderness, this book should at long last catapult Lansdale to the forefront of show more Texas authors. He is truly the king of the Texas Gothic.

The Bottoms is an amazing depression era coming of age novel, not only of a boy but of a town. show less

The Bottoms by Joe Lansdale takes place in 1930s East Texas. Narrated by the elderly Harry Collins, The Bottoms blends mystery, thriller, horror, and the best of literary fiction into a compelling story of racial relations in 1930s Texas.

Harry Collins, elderly and infirm and living in a nursing home, recalls the story of when he was a preteen. While out in the woods one day with his sister, Harry stumbles upon an African-American woman who has been gruesomely murdered and tortured by a serial killer. His father, a town constable, begins to investigate, meeting opposition from the local townspeople, who insist that a black woman being killed is none of their concern. As more bodies turn up, however, tensions rise in the small town, and show more the Collins family finds themselves at odds with the local townspeople and the local Klan members. Harry is convinced a supernatural force named "The Goatman" has committed the atrocities, and begins an investigation of his own.

Lansdale has been hailed as a master storyteller, and I would have to agree. The Bottoms is a wonderful example of how a setting can be a character of its own; as a native of East Texas, the dialogue, scenery, and country similes are on point. The small town is so convincingly portrayed that there were scenes I could almost feel the heat baking down, even in the middle of February.

As a mystery, I can't say the book will be quite as compelling; there were a few tells that gave away the game early on. Lansdale's forte is clearly in the suspense and horror aspect. One scene, while Harry and his grandma take shelter in a shack during a hailstorm, made me catch my breath while reading. Fair warning to readers who are faint of heart: the book is graphic, disturbingly so. While I felt Lansdale deftly included the graphic without ever edging into obscene, it may be a bit much for some.

What is truly impressive with The Bottoms, however, is that rarely do horror and literary fiction meet. Horror is generally a genre disdained upon, but Lansdale has blended the two so seamlessly that even the most pretentious of literary snobs would be forced to acquiesce. The book has definite elements of To Kill a Mockingbird (albeit much darker) - the father who stands up and shames the local KKK, the curious and innocent narrator who watches the story unfold, racial tensions rising centering around a horrific crime... The back summary of my copy says, "Powerfully evoking William Faulkner and Harper Lee..." and that's probably the most accurate cover summary I have ever seen. Take the dark, Southern Gothic tones of "A Rose for Emily" with the thoughtful and insightful To Kill a Mockingbird, and you have The Bottoms.

Popsugar 2016: A book set in your home state show less

I'm glad I didn't read the comparisons to To Kill A Mockingbird before I read this. In retrospect it gives the story structure away. However there's not that much in common; this is a swampy thriller about some gruesome murders back in the great depression days. At times it felt a bit like Blackwater: The Complete Saga with an eerie supernatural angle hanging over things. The reveals toward the end pops the mystery bubble for an ending you can probably predict, but it's well written enough that it's earned and doesn't feel lazy.

Really liked this book. Felt it owed a lot to "To KIll A Mockingbird"
with the innocent children narrating and a boo radley type character. If you are going to steal, steal from the best. He has also made it his own. An enjoyable read

THE BOTTOMS, an Edgar-winning mystery, was originally written by Joe R. Lansdale in 2000. I was interested in reading it the n, but never quite got around to it. The book stayed on my 'to-read' list, and on my shelf, year after year. Now I've finally read it and I ask myself, "What took me so long??"
This is quite simply one of the best suspense stories I have ever read. The suspense was real, the characters compelling, and the story moved right along so that before I knew it, the pages had flown by.
The story is told as the reminiscence of an old man who as a boy lived in the deep woods of east Texas in the 1930s. The low-lying woods, with its river full of water moccasins and moss-laced trees, are known as 'the Bottoms'. It's a show more perfectly eerie place to set a murder mystery.
The boy, Harry, and his little sister, Tom, find the mutilated body of a woman tied with barbed wire to a tree next to the river. Their father is the local constable, so Harry tries to taga long as his father looks for clues to the murderer's identity. The murdered woman was black, but her body was found in the predominantly white area. Racism is rampant in these parts, so there is a lot of racial tension. More grisly murders occur and the story gets more complicated.
Who is committing the murders? The Goat Man, a devil creature believed to live in the woods? Mose, the black man who lives in a shack by the river? Red, the prejudiced white constable of the next town, a man who also has ties to Harry's father and mother? Or one of the Nation boys, known to torture small creatures? The suspects are many and the clues are few.
I was really impressed with Lansdale's portrayal of his characters, especially Harry's father. Not being able to clear up the murders really takes its toll on him. Other characters show real emotion and empathy. This isn't a cozy story, and bad things do happen to good people.
The suspense in this book is great. If anyone had tapped me on the shoulder while I was reading this I would have jumped out of my skin! From crossing the rickety 'swinging bridge' over the river, to running through brambles at night with an unknown person or creature following, the outcomes were filled with trepidation.
Lansdale has written many other books, although this is the first I've read. Now I want to read more! Does anyone have recommendations on which one I should read next? show less

This story breaks your heart. Though it's fiction, it's based on all-too-real historical events in this country's past. It's written by a white author, and how he can bring himself to write a story with the characters using the "N" word throughout, is more than I can imagine.

It takes place in the early 1930s, in East Texas, in and around a small town on the Sabine River. Whites and Blacks are segregated, and when any crime is done to a Black, it's considered not worthy of investigation. But let a crime happen to a White, and the least suspicion that it's been perpetrated by a Black, and the Klan break out their bathrobes and cone-shaped hats.

Despite having the unhealthy atmosphere of racism in their community, Marvel Creek has a few show more good-hearted souls, doing their part for the young folk of their town.
P.128:
"there wasn't an official library in Marvel Creek until some years later. Mrs. Conerton was just a nice widow lady that kept a lot of books in London out and kept records on them to make sure you gave them back. She would even let you come to her house and sit and read. She nearly always had cookies or lemonade on hand, and she wasn't adverse to listening to our stories or problems."

East Texas is tornado country, and during the telling of this tale, Marvel Creek suffers the disorder and disaster of a twister.
P.136:
"a twister is a horrible, fascinating thing. One moment there's a huge Dark cloud, then the cloud grows a tail. The tail stretches toward the ground, and when it touches it it begins to cry and howl and tear up the Earth.
it's winds can carry men and cars and buildings away as easily as a woman might tote a handkerchief. It can rip huge trees out by the roots and toss them about, knock a train off its tracks and tear it up like so much cardboard. It can pull worms from the ground, toss pine straw through tree trunks, spraying gravel like bullets.
this twister I'm telling you about tore through the bottoms and laid trees flat all along the riverbank for about 2 miles, ripped a swath through the woods that killed wildlife, demolished shacks, sucked ponds dry, toted off the fish and frogs and rained them on housees 3 miles away."

Harry's grandma, his mother's mother, comes to Live with Harry's family. She's a hearty woman, a lover of life, and she comes to them with her old car. She uses its horn enthusiastically. As the protagonist lays sleeping in his room in the Rest home, at the end of his life, from which perspective he is telling this tale, he wakes to the sound of a horn. The sound recalls his mind to the memory of his grandma.
P.207-8:
"I awoke thinking of her, and tears rolled down my cheeks. Not only because of her memory, but because I was even more reminded of then, and suddenly all pulled into now, and I do not like now, for I am old. So very old. Older than she got to be. And I'm not sure a person ought to live to be too old. For when you can't live life, you're just burning life, sucking air and making turds. Perhaps it's not age, but health that matters. Live long and healthy, it doesn't matter. But live long and unhealthy, it's a living hell. And here I lie. Not doing well at all."

This is the story of Cruelty done to innocent victims, and karma doing it's best to bring justice. show less