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Original Title:	The Bottoms
ISBN:	0446677922 (ISBN13: 9780446677929)
Edition Language:	English
Characters:	Harry Collins, Harry Crane, Thomasina Crane
Literary Awards:	Macavity Award Nominee for Best Mystery Novel (2001), Anthony Award Nominee for Best Novel (2001), Hammett Prize Nominee (2000), Edgar Award for Best Novel (2001)

The Bottoms Paperback | Pages: 328 pages

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Title	:	The Bottoms
Author	:	Joe R. Lansdale
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 328 pages
Published	:	September 1st 2001 by Mysterious Press (first published 2000)
Categories	:	Mystery. Fiction. Horror. Historical. Historical Fiction. Crime. Thriller. Mystery Thriller

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The narrator of The Bottoms is Harry Collins, an old man obsessively reflecting on certain key experiences of his childhood. In 1933, the year that forms the centerpiece of the narrative, Harry is 11 years old and living with his mother, father, and younger sister on a farm outside of Marvel Creek, Texas, near the Sabine River bottoms. Harry's world changes forever when he discovers the corpse of a young black woman tied to a tree in the forest near his home. The woman, who is eventually identified as a local prostitute, has been murdered, molested, and sexually mutilated. She is also, as Harry will soon discover, the first in a series of similar corpses, all of them the victims of a new, unprecedented sort of monster: a traveling serial killer.

From his privileged position as the son of constable (and farmer and part-time barber) Jacob Collins, Harry watches as the distinctly amateur investigation unfolds. As more bodies -- not all of them "colored" -- surface, the mood of the local residents darkens. Racial tensions -- never far from the surface, even in the best of times -- gradually kindle. When circumstantial evidence implicates an ancient, innocent black man named Mose, the Ku Klux Klan mobilizes, initiating a chilling, graphically described lynching that will occupy a permanent place in Harry Collins's memories. With Mose dead and the threat to local white women presumably put to rest, the residents of Marvel Creek resume their normal lives, only to find that the actual killer remains at large and continues to threaten the safety and stability of the town.

Lansdale uses this protracted murder investigation to open up a window on an insular, poverty-stricken, racially divided community. With humor, precision, and great narrative economy, he evokes the society of Marvel Creek in all its alternating tawdriness and nobility, offering us a varied, absolutely convincing portrait of a world that has receded into history. At the same time, he offers us a richly detailed re-creation of the vibrant, dangerous physical landscapes that were part of that world and have since been buried under the concrete and cement of the industrialized juggernaut of the late 20th century. In Lansdale's hands, the gritty realities of Depression-era Texas are as authentic -- and memorable -- as anything in recent American fiction.

Rating About Books The Bottoms

Ratings: 4.17 From 6322 Users | 765 Reviews

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Been meaning to read this one for ages but had been put off by the title due to British/US language differences - "The Bottoms" conjures up an image of toilet humour to a British reader (like the "Captain Underpants" books that my kids used to love when they were in primary school) but I soon discovered that it instead refers to the "Bottoms" of the swampy river where the story takes place.Absolutely loved this one once I got into it - great characters and really felt that you were in the time

East Texas, 1930s, Racial tensions, add in a serial killer and the legend of the "Goat Man"...Harry is just a little boy growing up in Texas where racial tensions still run thick. His daddy is the town constable and has done his best to raise his children without racial bias. Harry and his sister Thomasina "Tom" are playing around when harry discovers a dead black woman washed up on shore by the river that runs through their town. The woman has been severely beaten, raped, and decidedly

I probably need to file Joe R. Lansdale in the "Southern Authors I need to keep an eye on" file (if I may be so bold as to lump someone from East Texas into the "South"). I was consistently delighted by my first encounter with his work, the creepy cool 1930's-era Texas Gothic thriller The Bottoms. Much as I found Wiley Cash (another Southern author I've discovered recently) a straightforward, no-nonsense storyteller, Lansdale's style doesn't make room for ornate prose. It's all about



This was a good read, but I can't go higher than 3 stars with it. I knew who the killer was about halfway through, and also guessed the identity of the Goatman fairly early as well. It was well-written with realistic dialogue for the time (1933) and was a good depiction of the morals and opinions of people in the south for the time as well. But there were too many inconsistencies in the plot, and it seemed to me he was retelling "To Kill a Mockingbird" with an East Texas setting. I know Lansdale

As seen through the eyes of an eleven year old boy and his nine year old sister between the years of 1933 and 1934 in the small East Texas town of Marvel Creek. Just a boy and his sister going squirrel hunting with their dog Toby. Then they discovered the tortured body of a dead black woman. Enter "The Goat Man" stalking the kids.This is copy 309 of 400 signed and numbered.

A mix of nostalgia for the lost world of his childhood and the toxic racism that was the norm for the time and place. Nobody is going to miss the similarity with To Kill a Mockingbird, but strong enough to stand on its own.Harry and his family farmed in the Piney Woods of East Texas. The story is in 1933 and 1934. Daddy had a barbershop as well, and he ran it most days except Sunday and Monday, and was a community constable because nobody else wanted the job. For a time he had been justice of