Rating: 
Summary: everything you could want and more
Review: Set in depression-era southeast Texas, this sort-of-mystery, sort-of-maybe-supernatural story reads like a near-gothic frappe of Harper Lee and early M. Night Shyamalan ... with a Texan accent. It's a richly-drawn, finely-told murder mystery related from the primary POV of 2 kids whose father is struggling with the investigation.
Technically, I guess, the tale is told by the older sibling, who is now elderly (in a nursing home?); and to tell the truth, I wish Lansdale had left the frame story out of it. There's only so much denoument a novel needs, and I got more wind-down than I really wanted. But even so, it's a damn fine story and Lansdale's writing style is enough to keep you flying from paragraph to paragraph, even during those brief periods when you're less than thrilled with the content.
[side note: For those of you who may not be aware, Joe Lansdale is the spectacular fellow who wrote the short story upon which the movie Bubba Ho-Tep was based. If you are blessed enough to own (or rent) a copy of the DVD, be sure to check some of the extras for an interview or two with Lansdale. He seems like quite a character, all lower-bodily fixations aside.]
Rating:
Summary: A Superb Coming-Of-Age Story And A Chilling Murder Mystery!
Review: Set in East Texas during the Great Depression, Joe Lansdale's "The Bottoms" is a wonderful coming-of-age tale about life in a simpler time. "The Bottoms" also tells the story of the heinous serial killer who stalked the bottoms, the low lying lands around the Sabine River, and how the mystery of the killer's identity was solved.Twelve year-old Harry Collins narrates and recalls, very visually, a time when concrete had not taken over most of the land he so loved. He and his nine year-old sister Tom, (for Thomasina), knew the woods and the river where they fished, hunted and roamed, as their second home. The two of them, out late one evening hunting squirrels, came across the naked, mutilated body of a black woman. They believed the killer was the dreaded Goat Man, of local legend, who supposedly lived and lurked beneath the old swinging bridge that crossed the Sabine River. The discovery of the body brought racial prejudice and hatred to the fore, and violence threatened to overtake the civilized veneer of the town's white population. Jacob Crane, town constable, was the childrens' father and the only white man concerned with the killing. Popular opinion had it that if a black woman was murdered then a black man must have killed her, and that was not the business of white folk, not even the constable. Harry again witnessed the appearence of the horned Goat Man. The number of murder victims slowly rose, each corpse more gruesome than the last. And the town's racial tensions increased along with the number of murder victims. The hysteria grew when it was discovered that the latest woman to die was part white. Secrets long kept silent were revealed. And Harry began to learn things a twelve year-old should never have to know. Jacob Crane still could not find the killer. The creature, known as the Goat Man continued to walk the river landscape while an unknown killer menaced the town's residents. Joe Landsale has written a riveting mystery and a wonderful novel of southwestern rural life in the early 1930s. His prose is lyrical and the voice and character of young Harry is amazingly vivid and realistic. Harry is wonderful, likable young man. His interactions with his Dad and subsequent personal growth are alone worth the read. All Landsale's characters are compelling, the two children, their parents and grandmother - who is an absolute 'original,' Maggie, an ancient black woman and family friend, Mose, all the townspeople, the family dog - even the killer. Descriptions of the landscape, mouthwatering food, people, feelings, the weather, are all written with great mastery and an eye for detail. I really couldn't put the book down. This Edgar Award winning novel is one of the best mysteries I have read in a long time...
Rating:
Summary: A Story Well Worth Reading, Again and Again
Review: Set in the thirties, during the depression, young Harry Crane discovers the mutilated body of a black woman bound to a tree with barbed wire in the maze-like scrub of the river bottoms. His father, the local constable and part time barber, sets out to solve the murder and he doesn't get much cooperation because whites fear a renegade Negro and blacks fear a vengeful reprisal. Harry's imagination runs wild. He can't think of anything but the murder and he too wants to find the killer. His prime suspect is the Goat Man, the myth-monster who lives like a troll under the rotting swinging bridge that crosses the Sabine River. After a white woman is killed, the local Klansmen lynch an elderly black man, but of course he wasn't the killer. Maybe it was the Goat Man after all, maybe not. Maybe it was a "travelin' man,' a term that would later be changed to "serial killer." And maybe the killer is a lot closer than anybody thinks. The story combines twisted family histories, gossip, myth, urban legend, a child's imagination, considerable gore, a generous number of decaying corpses, some raw sexuality and characters that you'll never forget. It's a story about a lot of things, good and evil, death, justice and the law, to name a few. It's a story well worth reading, again and again. Sophie Cacique Gaul
Rating:
Summary: Joe Lansdale's Best
Review: The Bottoms is simply one of the best books I have ever read. Granted, Lansdale's other novles about monsters and boogie men are fantastically entertaining, but The Bottoms puts him up there with literature's greatest writers. It's beautifully written and the characters are well drawn and complex like none I've seen in a long time. The mystery is easy to solve, and I blame part of that on the time we live in and the fact the news isn't afraid to report what a decade ago was somehwat unmentionable. But aside from the mystery, it's the coming of age story that blew me away. When i read the part about young Harry listening to his father cry because he couldn't protect his black friend against an angry Klan mob, and realizing that his father was not a protector and provider but a simple man with feelings, I knew this book was one I'd recomment to all my friends. Well deserving of it's Edgar winning prize of Best Novel of the Year, The Bottoms deserves to go down inthe annals of literrary history. Though i recommend his other stories for their sheer enterataining value, everybody should read The Bottoms for its piognant theme...you never really know who a person is until you see them at their finest and their worst.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Much Like "To Kill a Mockingbird"
Review: This is a well written, coming of age, murder mystery. No doubts about that. But it seems as if Mr. Lansdale stole many of the primary elements from Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird". As a result, I was greatly disappointed at the end, after the story had taken off on such a new and fascinating tack. If you've never read "...Mockingbird", then "The Bottoms" is a great read!
Rating:
Summary: Powerfully endearing
Review: This was the first book I've read by Lansdale and I look forward to reading another. It was an "easy" read - but I loved the simplicity of it - just because it was so down-to-earth and heartwarmingly real. I've heard it compared to To Kill a Mockingbird - and it deserves the comparison. I didn't want it to end - wanting to stay in the towns of Marvel Creek and Pearl Creek - stay in the lives of the engrossing and colorful characters - keep fear at bay with the 1930's residents of these towns dealing with small town murder and a legendary horror figure called the Goat Man. Who cares if certain readers may find the book to be too predictable!!?? The story is a GREAT one - to get lost in and read late into the night (not too late...the Goat Man is out there!!!) You'll love it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: When I finished reading this book, it was like losing an old friend. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and was reluctant to lay it down. I highly recommend this book.
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