The Bottoms

Rating:
Summary: THE BOTTOMS is Tops
Review: As a mystery writer with my first novel in initial release, I was thrilled when THE BOTTOMS won this year's Edgar Award for Best Novel. It deserves this honor. THE BOTTOMS will likely be Joe Lansdale's breakthrough work. It transcends the mystery genre. It marks fresh ground for Mr. Lansdale. THE BOTTOMS deals with a series of murders during the depression. It is told from the perspective of a child who observes his father attempting to solve the serial murders that begin with the murder and multilation of a black prostitute. The narrator and his brother are the ones who discover this initial victim. While the mysterious Goat Man plays a significant part in the plot of this mystery, so does the KKK. The issue of race relations and the value of human life are important themes in this work. THE BOTTOMS is a terrific novel, and it is most deserving of the honors it has received.

Rating:
Summary: wonderful
Review: I haven't read anything by Landsale before but I intend to rectify that at once. I picked up The Bottoms quite reluctantly,it had been heartily recommended to me but it didn't sound like something I'd enjoy. I'm glad I gave it a chance, this guy is an incredible story teller. He indulges in a little too much, too overt, moralizing, but that's a minor quibble. This is indeed like Harper Lee crossed with Stephen King, and the effect is quite unexpected - I found myself alternately touched and terrified. A very good novel, one I'll be thinking about for some time. Now I have to decide which book of his to read next.

Rating:
Summary: Worthy Winner
Review: Edgar first prizewinner Lansdale delivers the goods. He is a masterful storyteller nailing time, place, and people with bulls-eye accuracy. The narrative and dialogue flow, and the pace never flags. He captures the child's eye view with all the authority of Stephen King or Harper Lee.

Harry is an honorable boy caught in a dark story of racism, death, and folklore. The events gradually close in on him and his family creating an almost unbearable suspense. The characterizations are sharp and multi-layered. I particularly liked the non-message in dealing with racism. Mr. Lansdale is an unblinking recorder; all the indignities and intricacies are out there with no apology; for we are hearing a story as it was, not as we would like it to be.

"The Bottoms" transcends the mystery genre. It is a particularly fine coming-of-age story. Yet mystery-thriller fans will not be disappointed. Harry's and sister Tom's search and confrontation of the killer stretch the suspense until you feel as if you are humming like an overtaxed wire.

I would rate this book the best I have read this year, and it has a permanent place on my bookshelf. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Actually It's The Tops
Review: This is the coming of age story of Harry Crane. Harry takes us back to East Texas during The Depression when he was 11. A spate of murders have rocked Harry's small community and the bodies have been discovered down in The Bottoms.

Childhood fears are confronted, as are supposed myth and legend. Racial prejudice is also at issue. Because the first victims found are black women, the investigation, conducted by Harry's father, is hampered first by indifference and then later by intolerance, with mob violence taking over at one point.

Although times were tough, through the eyes of young Harry Crane, life was good, and simple pleasures, such as drinking a cold bottle of Coca-Cola, were relished. Throughout the book there remains an undercurrent of menace while revisiting the good old days. There's a killer on the loose and someone, or something, is living down in The Bottoms.

Rating:
Summary: Classic Lansdale...in other words, don't wait for the PB.
Review: I first read a version of this as a novella in the stellar collection edited by Al Sarrantino, "999". I didn't buy this novel at first because I figured it was basically a rehash of the novel, give or take a sentence or two. Then I compared the length of the novella with the length of 'The Bottoms', and decided to give it a shot. I'm glad I did. The fleshed out version is not only longer, but adds many new elements, a couple sub-plots that weren't there before, some back story, and a couple new characters-or at least, so fleshed out that I didn't notice them in the novella, but definitely did here.

The story is told from the point of view of Harry, an 11 year old living in East Texas in the Depression. I'm sure I'm not the first person who will compare the book to "To Kill A Mockingbird", and other reviewers have probably explained the comparison much more eloquently than me, so I'll skip that. Tom lives on a farm along with his parents, little sister Tom, and dog Toby. One day the poor dog is so badly injured that his father tells his son he will need to put it out of its misery. He and his sister venture into the woods with a shotgun, miserable because of the deed they must do. Soon, when it begins to get dark, this turns out to be the least of their problems. The area they are in is said to be the territory of the legendary 'Goat Man', a murderous monster who is half-man, but mostly beast, and may or may not be just a tall tale. They also encounter a rotten, mutilated corpse of a woman wired to a tree. The kids bring their father who is also the town sheriff (but his sheriff duties are so scant that he runs a barber shop and mainly does the police thing as a sideline) to the bloated body, which turns out to be one of the many victims of a serial killer at large. Harry and Tom are pretty sure the Goat man is responsible, but Harry's father is determined to track down the killer. Unfortunately, most of the towns residents range from mildly racist to openly racist to actual KKK members- and since the victim is black, they figure it's not worth it to try to find whoever is responsible. That is, until a white woman falls victim to the killer, and pretty soon all hell breaks loose.

Tom learns about many skeletons in the closets of the town members along the way, many of them still rattling around. He also finds out just how ugly and vicious some of the adults in the town really are. The theme of racism is very strong in this book; it was also a strong element of the novella but it really becomes prevalent in the novel. I don't especially enjoy reading the n-word repeatedly but this is, unfortunately, how most people talked in that era and location, and those extremely upset by the racist slurs may have to remind themselves that these hateful words are coming from the characters and not the author's own prejudices.

OK, that last sentence of mine may have sounded a tad preachy (sorry, I really try to avoid that), but the purpose of this novel is not to preach. This is one of the most un-pretentious novels I've read, and in fact, Lansdale (his ownself) is one of the most unpretentious authors I've had the pleasure to read. Instead of preaching, the book entertains and lets you escape into Tom's world and experiences. Instead of hitting you over the head with a message, the events are simply observed by Tom and the other characters, and through his eyes, you experience him slowly becoming aware of racism, how people are not always the way you perceive them, and that evil definitely does exist.

The Bottoms does have less of Lansdale's great sense of humor than his other works, like, say, the Hap and Leonard series or the Drive In books. This is one of his grimmer, bleaker books, but that didn't stop me from reading it in one greedy sitting. As always, I was completely engrossed by his unique writing style, incredible talent for storytelling, and unforgettable characters. This book does have less gore than some of Lansdale's other horror fiction, but it is definitely disturbing and nasty just the same (you might not want to read it while eating). Recommended, of course, for Lansdale fans-even if you've read the novella. If you especially liked the novella, you'll love this book, even though you know how its all going to play out. Those easily upset or disturbed might want to skip it-though if you enjoy a gripping, well-written crime/mystery novel, you might want to give the Bottoms a shot anyway, and discover a new author you'll want to read more of. You'll either like his style or you won't...but he's a pretty hard author not to like.

Rating:
Summary: Clear a spot in the bookshelf, this one is a KEEPER!!
Review: What a wonderful, insightful book. I usually try to read the Edgar nominees each year, and there have been only a handful that have really "WOWED" me. "The Bottoms" is definatly one of these. I grew up in Tennessee in the 1950s and, as a native southerner, I have to say that Mr. Lansdale has hit the tone and the flavor of ths region better than anyone I have read in years. There is truly not a false note in this tale. This is a story of a young boy who is thrust into an early maturity by a series of terrible crimes committed in his small community. His growth is paralleled by the "growth pains" of this community as it struggles to come to terms with it's own identity in the midst of racial tension. The writing is wonderful, the tale is so well told that you forget that you are reading a book and simply dive into this world. Since reading this book, I have picked up a couple of others by Mr. Lansdale, and while they are quite different, they are still really good reads. (Check out "Bad Chili". I was laughing so hard that it took me 15 min. to get through the first chapter.)

Rating:
Summary: Racism and murder in Depression Texas
Review: In a Hollywood pitch "The Bottoms" might be summed up as: 'To Kill A Mockingbird' with serial killer.

Narrator Harry Crane is an old man looking back on a pivotal, traumatic, boyhood summer, which begins with his discovery of a "colored" woman's mutilated body by the river near his rural Texas home in the midst of the Depression, 1933.

From the first his constable father's groping investigation is thwarted by a prevailing white apathy, even hostility, and by his own lack of expertise. More bodies are found but nothing is done until a white woman is murdered and rising hysteria leads to a cataclysm of violence, which sends Harry's father into a spiral of depression and defeat.

Fascinated by the crimes, his fears bolstered by folklore, Harry probes at the edges, eavesdropping and doing his own secret investigating, together with his younger sister Thomasina. Lansdale, author of numerous horror, suspense, and Western novels ("Blood Dance," "Rumble Tumble") heats up a cauldron of ugly racial tensions, country superstitions, casual brutality and ignorance in the bucolic Texas lowlands.

Dark and poignant, as much coming-of-age novel as mystery, the narrative explores a boy's relations with his adult family, particularly his father, and his grappling with a new understanding of the world's venality and depravity. Harry's rural voice rings true and the realistically halting pace accelerates to an explosive climax.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping and Vibrant
Review: This is the second Lansdale novel I've read, after the uproarious "Drive-In" which I highly recommend. Comparisons to Harper Lee notwithstanding, The Bottoms is a gripping, vibrant story of one child's journey from the world of innocence to experience through a gauntlet of racism and murder. By turns chilling, uplifting, horrifying and, finally, bittersweet, Mr. Lansdale has fashioned an excellent and moving novel. The language is colorful and assured; the setting evocative and rich. But best of all are the characters, especially Miss Maggie and Mose, who will stay with you long after you've closed this book for the last time.

Rating:
Summary: Just Plain Dang Incredible
Review: I bought this book because of the bookseller's description likening it to a latter-day TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, thinking in the back of my mind, "Yeah, right." But it's true! In this novel incorporating elements of mystery, adventure, and rites of passage, Harry Crane and his little sister Tom (Thomasina) come face to face with pure evil in their small East Texas town in a beautifully written tale set in the 1930's. Their terror begins as they stray too far from home one evening. Taking a shortcut home trying to beat the encroaching darkness, they encounter beneath a rickety swinging bridge crossing the Sabine River what must surely be the legendary Goat Man. Of course, the children have been told by the adults they look up to that there is no such thing. But SOMEthing chased them across the bridge and through the woods, right into the path of the body of a horribly mutilated black woman. The childrens' father, Jacob Crane, is the local constable and it falls to him to try to identify the woman and find her killer. A name has hardly been put to the woman before another body turns up similarly butchered, and then another. Most of the victims were black, but when a white woman is killed racial tensions flare, culminating in an ugly lynching. At the same time that fear pervades the community while the killer is being sought, Tom and Harry are trying to grow up and come to terms with issues of family, birth and death, race, sexuality, loyalty, and betrayal. The characters are so richly developed that the reader can almost see their faces, from trousers-wearing Grandma to demure but tough Mama to the gentle 100-year-old black lady, Miss Maggie, who meets a bad end. This hauntingly beautiful piece of fiction deserves a plethora of honors and awards, and I am recommending it to everyone I know.

Rating:
Summary: The Bottoms is A Top Story!
Review: Yes! That's right boys and girls, "The Bottoms" is really a top nitchety-notch bonfide whodunit -- hoohawww! Boy-oh-boy, guys, Joe adroitly dangles at least four strong suspects in front of you before you can even get the chance to pick and choose, and then, Wham-O! He's gotcha! Youbetcha!

This novel is a lot of fun, like all the others that Joe has consistently cranked out. It's a bit more low key on the sidesplitting one-liners, in fact it's devoid of anything remotely funny, which is why there is a fifth star missing in my review. If I miss the humor, the author gets to miss a star. Fair is friar I always say -- you shave my head and I'll shave your... Oh well, 'nuff said. Great story, Joe R.L.! And let me buy the popcorn next time 'round!