The Bottoms

Imagine Paul Edgecomb (from The Green Mile) retelling 'To Kill A Mockingbird' from his nursing home room, add some painfully obnoxious characters, and you've pretty much got this one.
A friend recommended this book and really sold it well, so I bought it (refund, please?) and dove right in.
Ugggg. The first couple of chapters were promising, and I got into it. Kinda like a horror novel from a child's view. I can get into that.
Then, the whole thing turned into a preachy, drawn-out lecture on Southern racism.
Toss in a couple of incredibly unbelievable characters (when the grandmother enters the novel at the half-way point, I had to roll my eyes every time she opened her mouth, and that was a lot) and you've got a crap novel.
I disliked this novel so much that it made me angry. I would like an apology from every person that left a positive review!
I finished it just so I could give an honest review.

This book won the 2001 Edgar for Best Mystery Novel, was a finalist for three other mystery awards, and was written by an accomplished author. A friend who has turned me on to many good authors passed it onto me, so I wanted to like it, wanted to get caught up in the story. But 20 pages in, it’s not happening. Nor in 40 pages. At 45 pages, I threw in the towel.

Don’t get me wrong. Lansdale is an excellent writer, his descriptions of the world of early 30s Texas on the mark. And the story reads the way 11 (or 13, depending on who you believe) year old Harry Collins would tell it. But I could not get interested in Harry’s story. Partly because it moves too slow, seems to be moseying nowhere in particular instead of moving toward a specific goal.

When I’d rather play Solitaire on my computer than read a book, it’s time to move on from that book. And that’s what I’m going to do now. Maybe somewhere down the road, I may give 'The Bottoms' another go, but for now it’s consigned to my ‘Tried to Read’ list.

Giving it 2 stars is being kind. In truth 1½ stars (Disappointing) would be more accurate.

I've used Lansdale's "The Bottoms" in conjunction with Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" in my Crime Fiction course for the past 6 years. "The Bottoms" is a wonderful "coming-of-age" novel and the style, tone, and subject matter are reminiscent of Lee. However, Lansdale's work is far more accurate; it doesn't paint a warm, soft picture of some resolved racial injustice. Instead, "The Bottoms" fiercely indicts the legal and social systems of the United States, the south, and Texas during the Great Depression.

Students consistently tell me that they have read the book in one sitting (Actually, they say, "Dammit. I didn't get anything else done! I had to find out what happened next!" They also go on to recommend the book to others.

I re-read "The Bottoms" often--not only because I teach it, but because it is wonderful. It is perfect.

The Bottoms has earned a lot of comparisons to To Kill a Mockingbird, and on a superficial level, I understand those comparisons. Both are coming of age tales told in the Depression; both essentially orbit around a central crime; both deal heavily with racism; and both are set in the South (although there's a world of difference between Alabama and Texas). But the devil is in the details, so they say, and it's the details of The Bottoms that make it feel wholly like its own book and allow it to live and breathe on its own terms without ever feeling like a "rip off," as some less than charitable critics have called it. The Bottoms is not about a rape that wasn't, for example; it's about a series of brutal and horrific murders, the work of what may be a serial killer who's preying on local prostitutes. And while that seems like just a small change, it's that element of grim darkness that permeates The Bottoms. The racism on display here is ugly and pulls no punches; there are scenes here that are genuinely traumatic and horrifying, and you get the impression they've left scars on our narrator, who sees them all unfold as he accompanies his father (a local constable) on the investigation of the crime. Indeed, racism and the relationship between blacks and whites permeates every aspect of life in The Bottoms, and that choice allows Lansdale to truly understand why these events unfold in the way they do. Of course, what makes The Bottoms such an outstanding read isn't the plot, gripping though it is; it's Lansdale's writing and ability to weave a tale. Lansdale is an accomplished writer by any standards, but his ability to create the point of view of a young boy is outstanding here, and in doing so, he tells a story on multiple levels - that which our narrator understood at the time, and that which he (and we) understands now. It's a tough act to pull off, but Lansdale does it beautifully, infusing his portrait of the past with a mixture of nostalgia and naivete that makes it all come together perfectly as the memories of someone who both loved his childhood and also understood the deep problems that lived there. The Bottoms is an outstanding read from an outstanding author, and while it may lack some of the genre-bending that marks my favorite Lansdale book, it shows that the man isn't just a good horror writer or a good genre man; he's a great writer, plain and simple. The Bottoms is a genuinely great book, and it says something that if the book is heavily influenced by To Kill a Mockingbird, it holds up well and ultimately feels not like a knockoff, but like its own solid book.

The memories we have of our younger days are prescious and as we go on with our lives those recollections become cherished.

This story is told as a man is nearing the end of his life, reminiscing about the most momentous event of his childhood.

In East Texas, during the hard days of the depression, twelve-year-old Harry Crews and his nine-year-old sister, Tom, find the body of a black woman, deep in the woods by their farm.

Their father, Jacob, is the town constable. He brings the body to the next town because he is afraid that if he goes to the young doctor in his town, that doctor would suffer a loss of patients because he worked on a negro. The woman is identified as Jelda May Sykes, a harlot who did some conjuring. He's not surprised that there hadn't been much publicity due to their color.

As he is gathering information, he's informed by Red Woodrow, the constable in that town, to stay out of Red's jurisdiction and that he, Red, would conduct the investigation.

Meanwhile, Harry and Tom are convinced that a legendary killer is about, the killer, known as Goat Man, follows them home from deep in the woods.

After a period of quiet, another body of a black woman is found. This time the body is in Jacob's jurisdiction so he conducts an official investigation.

The story is told in a warm, visual style, as if the reader was sitting in the living room and listening to the events unfold whle having a cool drink with the story teller.

Harry and Tom are excellently portrayed and could have been the children of Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird." In fact, Scout Finch and tomboy, Tom Craine could have been twins, they are so much alike. Both stories have negro characters who are wrongly accused and both stories have heroic characters and are masterpieces of literature.

This is an exceptionally good novel, the type of novel that transcends genre fiction. This isn't just a great crime fiction novel - this is a great novel - period.

Comparisons to Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird are inevitable. (Some reviewers may even complain The Bottoms is a `rip off' of the classic novel). Both novels are set in the South during the dirty thirties and involve crimes committed in an environment of racial bigotry. There are considerable parallels between the two novels, not the least of which is the role of Boo Bradley in Mockingbird and `The Goat Man' in The Bottoms.

Despite what some might think, this novel is not a `rip off' of To Kill a Mockingbird. I actually think this is a much better; and certainly, far more harrowing novel. To Kill a Mockingbird addresses racial issues, but not in the same uncompromising light of The Bottoms. Of course, To Kill a Mockingbird was written in 1960, a different time, just as the civil rights movement was gaining momentum. A novel as honest, brutal and violent as The Bottoms simply wouldn't have been published in that era.

What really sets this novel apart from other crime fiction novels is the writing. The writing in this novel is stellar. Lansdale inhabits his tale with vivid, fully realized characters. I especially appreciated that the characters in this novel are flawed human beings who stumble a little from time to time (Atticus Finch from Mockingbird, while a beloved figure in modern literature, could have used `a few chinks in the amour' if you know what I mean) Lansdale's dialogue sounds authentic and his prose evokes a remarkable sense of time and place. The serial killer story-line is good but not especially remarkable (I had no trouble determining who the killer was) but everything else about this novel is.

As a note of caution: readers should be aware that this can be a dark and violent novel at times, and that the cruellest and ugliest aspects of racial bigotry are uncompromisingly shown. These parts of the novel may disturb some readers (actually, they should disturb all readers - but some may choose to read something lighter instead).

I'm pretty stingy with the five star ratings, so The Bottoms is clearly a novel that I highly recommend. It's one of the best novels I've read in a while.

The best way to conceptualize this book is to imagine a mixture of Robert McCammon's BOY'S LIFE with Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, at least in terms of themes (though in purely literary terms, I wouldn't QUITE rank this book as highly as the former two.) Like BOY'S LIFE, THE BOTTOMS deals with the theme of a preteen boy in a small Southern town whose community is disrupted by a killer; like TO KILL..., BOTTOMS also addresses the theme of racism in the Jim Crow South (which BOY's LIFE also treated, but not as centrally.) Both of these themes have been done to death to be brutally honest, but, then again, most great themes have been done over and over (Joseph Campbell, anyone?)

Here's the setup: THE BOTTOMS' protagonist is an adolescent named Harry, and the story is told from the first person as Harry, now an old man, thinks back on his childhood. The setting is Depression-era East Texas. Harry's father is a local constable trying his best with virtually no formal training or resources to deal with what appears to be a serial killer on the one hand, and with the threat of vigilante justice from the local Klan on the other. Also in the mix is the Goat Man, a freakish creature that seems to stalk Harry and his little sister Thomasina when they venture into the woods.

The plot of this book (like its themes) is not super-original, and I had the 'mystery' pretty much figured out within the first few chapters, so from that standpoint the book was ho-hum. However, the voice (as Lansdale writes Harry's narration) was so intriguing, and the characters were so well-drawn, that Lansdale was able to take a fairly generic plot-theme framework and, through sheer writing and characterization chops, turn it into a genuinely distinctive and compulsively readable story. Also, kudos to Lansdale for keeping it succinct -- it's refreshing these days to read a novel that's only about 300 pages. I'm definitely interested in checking out more by this author.

Plot summaries of The Bottoms talk about how a serial killer is tracked by a lawman, but the book is really about much more than that. It's picture of rural life in East Texas in the '30s, with a lot of little details that give it an authentic feel. It's a study of race relations in the South in the first half of the 20th Century told from one family's perspective. But most of all, it's a "boy's adventure" story, a tale of one young man's thrilling, even terrifying experiences, but also just what things were like for him growing up in the time and place where the story is set. It was a very exciting and fast read -- one of those books where I really wanted to know "what comes next," where I had to force myself to slow down and not skip anything.

Here are several other specific things I liked about the novel. I thought the narrator's "voice," the dialect and idioms with which he spoke, really helped to make his character, Harry, come alive for me. He felt very real. I appreciated the way many of the secondary characters were presented as flawed but good, especially the dad, Jacob, an unconventional hero. And finally, the setting, the swampy Bottoms itself, was described so well by Mr. Landsdale that I really felt like I was there as I read the book.

If forced to identify any minor negative aspects, they would include how the author conveniently arranged for Harry to be in "the right place at the right time" to observe nearly all of the key events in the plot. Explanations were given of how he came to be in each place, but it felt a little forced at times. I also thought it was pretty obvious who the "Goat Man" really was from early on in the story, so maybe Landsdale gave a few too many clues. (But then again, from Harry's 12 year-old's eyes, maybe things would not seem so obvious...) I also had the killer narrowed down to one of two possibilities pretty early as well, and my main suspect did end up being the murderer. But those are all insignificant quibbles over what was a fine novel that I was glad to read. We read this book in our book club. (Thanks Dixie!)

The Bottoms is a terrifying tale told by Harry as he withers away in a nursing home about a time when he was just a boy living in East Texas with his Dad and Mama, his sister Tom, Granma, and his dog, Toby. Set in the period after the Great Depression when folks didn't have much, Harry cherishes those moments and recalls when the town was plagued with a series of murders. Harry's father is the constable and attempts to solve the mystery and catch the killer. The story is rich with great dialogue and believable characters during a time when there was an extreme color barrier and the region was filled with prejudice. There were a few times my heart sunk as tragedy strikes. This is a classic and deserves to be up there with Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Robert R. McCammon's Boy's Life. A great suspense novel.

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.

Remembering back to the days of the Great Depression in East Texas, Harry Crane recalls his father Jacob was always working. To eke out a living, Jacob toiled on the family farm, at the barbershop, or as the local constable. In 1933, thirteen-year-old Harry accompanied by his younger sister Thomasina finds the mutilated body of a black woman. The victim, a prostitute, was tied to a tree with barbed wire.

Jacob begins making inquiries and quickly learns form the black doctor performing a quick and dirty autopsy that this is third black whore viciously killed in eighteen months. No one but Jacob seems to care until a white hooker is murdered. In spite of Jacob's efforts to stop the hostility, a mob lynches an elderly black man, but that fails to stop a fifth death.

No one does rural noirs quite like Joe R. Lansdale. His latest tale, THE BOTTOMS, initially sounds like a historical mystery, a period piece, or even a coming of age story. None of the above is fully accurate and yet all three describe the plot. That is the charm of the unpredictable Mr. Lansdale, who fits no filing cabinet yet consistently provides a fabulously feral novel. The story line is taut, as readers can taste the racial hatred and the impact of the Depression on the charcaters. The cast is fully developed, especially the siblings passing time by wandering the nearby woods, THE BOTTOMS. Fans who don't mind a FREEZER BURN by visiting Texas heritage of BAD CHILI need to tumble into the dark rumbling world of Mr. Lansdale.

Harriet Klausner

It is sometimes something of a chore to find something worthwhile to read, especially after you have just read an exceptionally good book and don't want anything less worthy in your next one. I just finished World War Z a few days ago, which was as fun and entertaining a book as I have read all year, and I wanted another truly good horror book, or at least something that could make me stop thinking about my last book. I decided I wanted an award-winning book so googled "stoker awards" and "edgar awards" and saw that this book won best novel in 2001. A-ha! This should be good I thought, let's get this and get those zombies out of my head. So I did. And it was good. It wasn't anything like I thought though.

I started reading this after dinner and just kept reading until I finished around midnight. I thought this was a horror novel and that Lansdale was a horror writer. I am pretty sure he has written horror novels, but this isn't really one of them. Nevertheless the book did break the spell of World War Z and I was transported to East Texas in the heart of the depression in the 1930's where I meet Harry, an eleven year old boy growing up in the poverty of the time. This is very much his coming-of-age story, highly reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird, that follows Harry as he finds the corspe of a black woman who has been tortured and molested. Harry reports the crime to his father, the local constable and town barber. The crime happens again, and then yet again, and we begin to realize a serial killer is stalking women in the area. As the killer begins to stalk white women, racial violence, always simmering beneath the surface of the area, explodes to the grief of all. Harry, his family, and their lives are caught up and inextricably woven into this tale of sadness, discrimination, love, loyalty and learning one's space for oneself within the world.

The mystery is really never that mysterious to us that are reading the novel. After all we are such much experienced with serial killers today. The characters in the novel though cannot discern the clues around them and that is part of what makes this such an effective novel. We watch as the protagonists struggle against ignorance, fear, prejudice, discrimination and pure lack of experience as their small world is shattered one woman at a time. The denouement is also very satisfying as Harry confronts the serial killer and as he explains his own perception of himself to Harry. This is a very tender book, very well-written, and very moving and effective. I can see why it won a best book award and I think most people would enjoy this novel very much.

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.

If there were any justice in American Letters, Joe R. Lansdale would be racking up some seriously high sales across the country. But true justice, as in his most mainstream novel yet, poves to be hard to come by.
The Bottoms tells the tale of one boy's harsh coming of age in Depression era East Texas. A serial killer is at work on colored prostitutes and the boy's struggling father is the constable in charge of the case. Since the victims are colored, no one but the constable really cares who is doing the killing. But when it's discovered that one victim wasn't colored, then the temperment changes and fast.
The tone of the novel is more melancholic than the gonzo black humor laced tales which made Lansdale famous, but it fits the novel's sad events perfectly. Valuable things are lost as the nastier side of life is slowly revealed to the narrator.
Another thing I would like to point out is the beautiful and understated writing. Lansdale has become of master of less is more description. He paints a gritty, yet beautiful picture of the region and the people. As a twenty plus year Lansdale fan, I give The Bottoms a high recommendation.

Joe R. Lansdale calls himself a Mojo storyteller, has lived almost all his life in Texas and has more than 60 books to his credit. He has written westerns, horror, mystery. He has written novels, short stories and comics. Impressive? You bet.

The Bottoms is a mystery set in the Texas of nineteen thirty three and thirty four. It starts in the present, with an old man named Harry in his eighties reminiscing about the time when he was ten years old. The whole story is told in flashback, in first person.

The setting is a small town in Texas. Racism is rampant. Ku Klux Klan runs strong. Harry's father is a farmer, barber and community constable. Harry and his friend Toby discover the mutilated body of a young woman. This turns out to be part of a serial killing. Other women are found murdered similarly. The town is in an uproar. Harry's father, as the community constable, has the duty of finding the killer, but Harry's father has other problems like drinks.

The prime suspect is Mose, an eccentric black. He is lynched by a mob led by Mr. Nation, a fire-spouting racist. And then there is another murder. Harry's father beats his alcohol problem. He then beats Mr. Nation black and blue. But the killer is still free.

Then the killer kidnaps Harry's sister, Tom (Thomasina, really). Harry's father is not home. Only Harry can save his sister and perhaps bring the killer to justice.

My one problem with the book is that the voice that the author has used in the story is of a ten year old boy and not of an eighty year old man reminiscing about his childhood. The atmosphere is great. The characters are well realized. The pacing is good. All in all a good read.

[...]

Well I managed to obtain an Advanced Readering Copy of this novel and I just plain shut myself away from everything for a couple days and absorbed this story. I had read some press releases about this being his breakthrough book and well anyone out there that loves mystery stories dealing with the south and during the depression, told through the eyes of a young boy coming of age in a time when life was a struggle but each day brought excitement and adventure as well as constant changes and sadness. I don't need to tell much about this great story except I couldn't put it down and it has touches of many great classic stories about the south and the hatered and prejudices which were a way of live and the struggles of comman families trying to make ends meet. I just loved the boy Harry and his kid sister "Tom" but the cast of characters in this book were especially well thought out. The "Goat Man", Grandma, Harry's Mom and Dad "the barber shop" the river bottoms, the shacks, dead bodies, squirrels, and Toby to mention a few, all add up to one of the most interesting and classic books I've read in many a year. My other personal favorite of Joe's "Mucho Mojo" from his excellent mystery series surrounding Hap and Leonard and their wacky friendship and the troubles they find themselves getting into in East Texas. Still my very favorite author, thanks Joe for this new story and the life you've created in the young boy, Harry and giving us back a time in our countries earlier days that many younger people just never knew about and for your awsome way of telling your stories!

Joe Lansdale is one of my top ten favorite authors. His short stories are creative, startling, frightening, gruesome etc. (read High Cotton or Electric Gumbo). However, I have always felt that Lansdale's novels fell short of the mark. He has a tremendous imagination and is able to come up with the most macabre of settings and events which work to his advantage in stories and novellas, but haven't worked so well in the novels. It is hard to create a totally outlandish world and keep the reader's interest through the length of a novel.
In The Bottoms Lansdale scales back his fondness for the bizarre--and it works. This is a beautifully crafted story of Depression era East Texas. And this is a story that the reader feels actually could have happened. Lansdale belnds in some supernatural aspects along the way, but these add to the suspense rather than distract from the realism.
Another aspect that works is the method for telling the story. The protagonist is an 11 year old boy (Harry)--just the right age for this type of story. Harry is at the cusp of young adulthood. He struggles with looking for answers through his waning belief in the supernatural (Goat Man) and searching for the truth through a common sense approach like his daddy (the small town constable). But what really works is the fact that Harry tells his story some 60 or 70 years later from a rest home. I believe that it is extremely difficult for an author to tell the story of a child through the eyes of that child. Eleven year olds talk and think differently than adults and most times we get stories where the child telling the story sounds very much like a 40 year old--to me that detracts from the tone of the book. In this case, Harry can sound like an adult, because he is an adult retelling a tale of his childhood. It is very effective.
Otherwise, Lansdale takes on the themes of poverty, racism and evil and sheds some light on each. Hands down this is Lansdale's best effort at a novel...so far.

Mr. Lansdale managed to weave many different topics into one great suspenseful and colorful story, that had me awake a couple of nights because I just could not wait to find out about the identity of the murderer. This story is about childhood, about segregation and hate, about a relationship between a father and his son, about country folk and the mysterious woods and the river, where it all happens. Last but not least about a serial killer, although the concept of serial killers was unknown at that time. This book was not only full of suspense and therefore immensely entertaining, but it also gave me a lot to think about, especially about what terrifying things white people did to black people just a few decades ago.

Update September 2011: unfortunately white haters still do bad things to black people. Like the rednecks who chained a man to a truck and dragged him to death, a few years ago somewhere in Texas. Or just recently the teenagers who beat up a black man and then ran him over with their truck, killing him. This last one was caught on surveillance camera and it is one of the most chilling and horrible things I've ever seen. Will we ever learn?

In The Bottoms, author Joe Lansdale has superimposed a murder mystery over a coming of age story. To this he adds the setting of the rural south during the Great Depression which he couples with the racial tensions of that place and time. The result of this eccletic mixture is an engaging page-turner with wide appeal. Landsdale tells his story from the perspective of 11-year Harry, although it is an elderly Harry looking back on his childhood who narrates the tale. A chance discovery of Harry and his younger sister, Tom, launches a search for a serial killer by their father, Jacob, the town's constable. Memorable characters along the way include Harry's eccentric grandmother, a black doctor ahead of his time, a bigoted old man and his hateful sons, a neighboring constable with connections to both of Harry's parents, a reclusive elderly black man, and finally, a mysterious figure known only as the "Goat Man." Although the plot does have parallels to To Kill a Mockingbird, its blend of elements makes it uniquely worthwhile. And even if you solve the mystery ahead of time like I did, this book is sure to captivate you to the very last page.

THE BOTTOMS is my first novel by Joe Lansdale, and it won't be my last. This is an excellent book, one of the best crime novels I've read in a while. It won the Edgar award for Best Crime Novel of 2001, and fully deserved that honor.

The plot of THE BOTTOMS is a pretty standard story about a serial killer in East Texas during the depression era. But what sets this book apart is the quality of the writing. Simply put, Lansdale does a great job re-creating what daily life was like in the rural US during the 1930s. Great novels are able to transport the reader to a completely different world, and that is exactly what happens with this story.

While the plot of THE BOTTOMS is nothing new (this novel is a bit like an R-rated version of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD), the characterization and dialogue are simply terrific. I really identified with all the major characters in this book, and felt bad about leaving them once the story was over. The dialogue, in particular, is first-rate. Lansdale is one of those rare writers with a good ear for local dialects, and all the characters sound authentic for the time period.

This novel is so good I'm surprised more people haven't heard of it. For those of you who haven't tried Lansdale, I recommend giving THE BOTTOMS a try. I really enjoyed this one a great deal.

When I read that Joe Lansdale was an excellent writer that few knew about, I wanted to see for myself. Every positive comment about his writing is true. He has the ability to transport you to a different time and place and gives you a vivid picture of what living there is like.
In THE BOTTOMS, he takes you to East Texas in the 1930's amidst the racism, ignorance, poverty and violence as well as the friendships and family ties during a less complex and simpler time. In essence, THE BOTTOMS is the nostalgic, forlorn memoirs of a fictional Southerner on his deathbed. Harry Crane narrates the story of finding the mutilated, ravaged body of a Black woman and the subsequent community reaction and search for the killer by the part-time constable Jacob Crane, Harry's father.
The power of the novel is found in the characterizations and dialogue. It is so well written it feels like you're right there with Harry as he eavesdrops on secret conversations. You can feel the tension and the anger and disgust developing within you toward some of the characters as they reveal their racial prejudice and hatred. Race relations are written as they really happenned and it helps you realize what it must have been like to live then. It illustrates a shameful past and adds depth and realism to the history lessons we all learned in school. It feels like you are there and makes you want to crawl into the pages and confront the evil first hand. Any writer that has that ability should be read. Joe R. Lansdale has that ability. THE BOTTOMS is highly recommended.

THE BOTTOMS takes place in East Texas during the Great Depression. Harry Crane, while stumbling through the Bottoms, comes across a woman wrapped in razor wire, dead. She is not the first. Harry's dad and the town constable, Jacob must find out who is doing the killings. Trouble is the women is black...at first. Then the first white woman is found murdered that sets off a racially sensitive murder case.
The power of this novel is in Lansdale's storytelling about the realistic views of the times dealing with race, class and goodness. Harry and Jacob make a good detective team. And it's fascinating watching how the black town responds and helps the whites in solving this case. Also of note is the advancement of pathology and forensic science in the black town, as opposed to the slow movement of the white doctors.
The ending will shock you, the narrative will remain with you and Joe R. Lansdale's world will make you a better person. What more could you want from a book?

Mr. Lansdale proves what a versatile writer he in in "The Borders," the book for which he won the Edgar Award for Best Novel. Although the book has the elements of a mystery. Lansdale takes his reader more into the territory of "A Boys Life," "Stand by Me" and even "To Kill a Mockingbird." Without rehashing the plot again, Lansadle gives us a wonderfully written narrator's voice (the 80 and 11 year old Harry Collins) who tells his tale with both sadness and whimsical fondness. The relationships with his father, Jacob; his mother May; his sister Tom; his grandmother; the elderly Miss Maggie, and all interweave into a complex plot. There is a point in the novel where the identity of the murderer becomes obvious, but it's so deftly interwoven, you forget until it is identified. The book shows the sad side of segregation in the thirties where being "colored" was being "nothing." Lansdale gives a very good inclination of that life, and includes some remarkably likeable "coloreds."
A very well written book.

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.

I love characters that have a full human spirit rather than the formulaic stereotypes. I love a plot so intense I can't quit reading. I love simple and direct writing. And in this book, I totally loved how the main characters metaphors about the weather were descriptions of food. It was so believable. Harry was so real for me. The setting, I could see it. I loved the grandmother.

Joe R. Lansdale is a writer of unique qualities. His stories are set in Texas, his native home, and his style evokes a wonderful sense of place flavoring each of his short stories and novels. The people and events he writes about are always singular, standing out in one's imagination long after the pages are closed and the story over.
With "The Bottoms," Lansdale has written a haunting story, a complex mystery clothed in Lansdale's Depression-era Texas, a beautiful coming-of-age story. It is a book of lasting importance, the best so far for Joe R. Lansdale.
So as not to give away the plot, I will just say if you enjoyed "To Kill a Mockingbird," "Huckleberry Finn," or "Stand By Me," you will enjoy "The Bottoms."
It's a worth addition to anyone's library.

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.

This is a well written mystery, thriller, coming-of-age story, that is a seemingly accurate, disturbing vision of bigotry in East Texas in 1930. An old man, Harry Cane, who tells this story as he remembers it from his room in a nursing home, narrates the story. The narrative starts when the twelve-year-old Harry and his younger sister find the body of a murdered black woman. Harry's father who is the constable of this small East Texas town starts an investigation that is indicative of the law and non-existent forensic science of the times.

I found parts of this story extremely bothersome; however, by revealing what was so troubling, I would also have to give too much away. Instead, I'll just say that it was well worth reading, and I'd suggest it to anybody willing to read about some of the ugliest human behaviors.

The end was tied up tight enough to finish up with a satisfying conclusion, but not exactly happily ever after either. Instead of a pretty satin bow, the author simply used a good strong twine knot.

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.]

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!

Joe R. Lansdale is the down-home verison of Stephen King (no affront to either author): with his own distinct regional dialect, he lures you into his web like a seasoned spider and doesn't let up until you're completely entangled. The characters are well-written, the story all-too-real and the climax was unbelievable. Mr. Lansdale's gift is that he tells a compelling tale without being sensationalist: his thoughtful, reflective tone is what keeps you hooked. It is dark and brooding, but excellent. I recommend this for those who enjoy compelling literature and anyone who fancies themselves fans of his work. Mr. Lansdale has earned yet another follower in me.

Horrible. The characters all lack depth. The vernacular (accurate or not) comes across as a caricature of a bygone era in East Texas. There are so many missed opportunities for the portrayal of true human connection. Portions of the novel are needlessly grotesque. Cliché after cliché after cliché. I considered giving it two stars before I read the indulgent bummer of an epilogue which was clearly an effort to wrap up the loose ends of a hastily finished story.

I am absolutely shocked by all the positive reviews. The only good thing I can say about this novel is that I finished it quickly.

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.)

A friend recommended this book to me. I knew Lansdale was a fellow Texan, and that he was also a favorite of Andrew Vachss (I never miss one of Vachss's books), so I picked it up. Lansdale is one of the best storytellers I've read lately. I could almost hear the book in my head as I read. "The Bottoms" is somewhat like "To Kill a Mockingbird", but it's definitely its own story. It combines an analysis of the evils of racism with a young boy's coming-of-age story. There are elements of mystery and horror in the book as well. Give it a chance. I think you'll enjoy it.

This was a taught mystery, with well drawn characters that made you care for them. Every bit as compelling as the help or since a young man was involved, I thought of the comparison with "to kill a mockingbird". This gives you the flavor of the klu klux clan, the realization that if a black was killed, no investigation took place, and if it did you were considered tainted. I thought this was probably pretty representative of life for blacks in the south, even 70 years after emancipation.