Today, the Sabine River runs as before, yet the bottoms have been drained. Long gone are the alligators, and the few birds that take to the air cast tiny shadows over concrete surfaces. But way back then, during the thick of the Great Depression, a boy could hear the crickets and the frogs in the star-studded southern night. And in this primordial time a killer stalked the land.When young Harry Crane discovers the black woman's body, mutilated and bound to a tree with barbed wire, he unwittingly unleashes a storm of ...
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Today, the Sabine River runs as before, yet the bottoms have been drained. Long gone are the alligators, and the few birds that take to the air cast tiny shadows over concrete surfaces. But way back then, during the thick of the Great Depression, a boy could hear the crickets and the frogs in the star-studded southern night. And in this primordial time a killer stalked the land.When young Harry Crane discovers the black woman's body, mutilated and bound to a tree with barbed wire, he unwittingly unleashes a storm of uncontrolled fear, thinly buried racial animosities, and fearsomely escalating violence. Jacob Crane, Harry's father and the town constable, struggles valiantly to see that proper justice gets done.Then Harry fixes his own growing suspicions on the legendary native horror called the Goat Man who, the locals say, lurks beneath the swinging bridge that crosses the Sabine. More real than he ever could have imagined, the creature holds the key to a string of brutal and confounding murders.
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Add this copy of The Bottoms to cart. $47.18, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hialeah, FL, UNITED STATES, published 1987 by Wheeler Pub Inc.
Add this copy of The Bottoms to cart. $107.13, new condition, Sold by GridFreed rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from North Las Vegas, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Wheeler Pub Inc.
This is classic American storytelling told in rich, evocative prose about what is, in some ways, a simpler time.
Two things that are never simple however: murder and racial tension.
1933 - Marvel Creek, East Texas:
Eleven-year-old Harry Collins and his younger sister, Thomasina, come across the mutilated corpse of a black woman in the Sabine River Bottoms.
Harry rushes home to tell his father, Jacob.
Jacob Collins is the constable for the area as well as a farmer and part-time barber.
Jacob is a good man, husband and father.
He will soon become overwhelmed by the directions this case will take.
The body is eventually identified as a local prostitute. She will be the first of several similarly disfigured bodies.
It seems there's a serial killer on the loose.
Harry thinks it's a local legend - the Goat Man, a monster said to lurk in the bottoms.
Harry and his sister have seen him.
People in the area suspect that it has to be a black man committing these atrocities and the racial tension reaches its boiling point. In horrible ways.
This goes deeper than skin color.
Harry sets out to discover who the real killer is, and to do so they will search for a truth that resides far deeper than any river or skin color.
Lansdale uses the backdrop of the murder investigation to paint a gritty, realisic portrait of Depression-era Texas. The language and detail are vibrant opening up a window on an insular, poverty-stricken, racially divided community.
This is one fine novel.
SJWillie
Aug 12, 2010
Literary Grade Mystery
Wow! This novel goes beyond a mere horror/mystery genre novel ... and provides a more substantial and haunting literary experience.
tktowne
Feb 5, 2009
master storyteller
I don't know when I've enjoyed a book more. You are sitting at the feet of a master storyteller. It's not a "pretty" book as it deals with racisim, murder, and poverty but you love the young narrator and are compelled to keep turning pages.
Sleuth
Apr 3, 2007
An Intimate Trip...Get Onboard
I have been struggling with this review. I think that is because "The Bottoms" was such a personal experience that trying to find the words to share my thoughts with others is a bit difficult. However, I believe this deserves telling because "The Bottoms" is a very special book and I wish to share the experience with others.
This is the tale of Harry, a boy grappling with bridging that difficult gap between childhood and manhood. Along the way he confronts the search for a serial killer, race relations and his love for his parents with all their faults that we are loathe to accept in our parents.
The story takes place in Eastern Texas during the Depression. Although this is not a time and place I am familiar with, I found myself meandering through the woods, creeks and rural roads without feeling like a stranger to this part of the country. Mr. Lansdale made it so real to me that I could feel the heat, smell the air and want to swat at flies or scratch imaginary mosquito bites. It was as if I were hiding in the woods, in the barn or behind a chair in the farmhouse watching the story enfold before my eyes. Mr Lansdale has a wonderful talent for bringing you into the pictures he creates. His ability to do this reminds me of Stephen Booth's writing in "The Black Dog."
Although I figured out who the murderer was early in the book, that didn't detract one iota from my pleasure in reading this book. I was so caught up in lives of a family that I had come to love that catching a serial killer became superfluous to their story.
Of all the characters in the book, I was most drawn to Jacob, Harry's father. Aside from the fact that I wished I had grown up with a father like Harry, I suffered with him during his crisis of faith in his core moral beliefs and the very purpose for his existence.
This book will hold you in its grip until the very last page. The last chapter lulled me into a sense of complacency only to find myself in tears when reading the last few paragraphs.
I would urge you to read "The Bottoms" and experience your own personal trip.
