Review of The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale

The winner of the Edgar Award for 2000, The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale is one of the best, if not the best, novels I've ever read. I've said it once, and I'll say it again, this book should have been nominated for a Pulizer Prize, it's that damn good. Over the last forty years, I've probably somewhere in the vicinity of 3,500 books, but few have managed to capture my heart and soul in such a way as to leave me with a profound sense of what it means to be a human being. This is a rare experience, but when it happens, I it's something that will stay with me for many years to come.
The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale is one of those miracles of writing that had such an affect.

The Bottoms is the story of eleven-year-old Harry Crane and the tragedy that transpired between the years of 1933 and 34 in the small East Texas town of Marvel Creek. It began on a normal summer day when Harry and his younger sister, Thomasina, were out hunting squirrels along the Bottoms with their dog, Toby, and accidentally discovered the tortured body of a dead black woman. On their way back home to get their father, Jacob, who's the town's constable, they are stalked through the darken woods by something, or someone, who could be the legendary Goat Man. The two kids make it back home safe and sound, but just barely.

When Jacob Crane is told about the body, he recovers it the next day and begins an investigation that few white people seem to care about. Eventually more bodies are discovered and the town realizes that it has a demented killer within its midst. It isn't, however, until a woman, who is partially black and white, is murdered that the "good" citizens of Marvel Creek decide to take matters into their own hands. Because of a careless error on Jacob's part, an innocent man is lynched, and he must come to grips with the totality of his mistake, as well as his failure to stop the hanging. It's a burden that can weigh heavily on the shoulders of a decent person.

As the killings continue and someone very special to young Harry is brutally murdered, he and his sister take it upon themselves to solve the mystery of the Goat Man and find out who the killer really is. Of course, the killer knows that the two Crane children are hunting him and has plans of his own for dealing with them in a very special way.

Joe R. Lansdale's novel is a morality tale in the grandest sense, dealing with the deep roots of racism and how people can close their eyes to prejudice and injustice. It's also a story about life itself and how human beings (both good and bad) choose to live it, probing the emotions of guilt and shame like an open wound, while at the same time depicting heart-felt acts of courage and redemption. Filled with difficult questions concerning love, friendship, what its means to be a man, and doing the right thing when the odds are clearly stacked against you, Mr. Lansdale offers no easy answers and doesn't pull his punches when delving into the dark side of human nature.

All the characters in this novel resonate with a strong life force of their own, luring the reader into their world, making you believe each and every word that's written. I was there at night, in the woods, when the Goat Man stalked Harry and Thomasina, feeling their terror in the pit of my stomach. I breathed in the close friendships that Harry had with old man Mose and Miss Maggie, not to mention the schoolboy crush he had on his beautiful teacher, Mrs. Canerton. I raged and then wept when Jacob and Harry were beaten down to the ground by the lynch mob, knowing the anguish they felt at not being able to stop what was about to happen. And, I trembled in fear at the final confrontation between a young boy and a human monster, understanding that bravery often comes with the risk of death.

The Bottoms isn't a novel that can be read and then put away, but one that readers will live and feel to the very core of their being. This book is Joe R. Lansdale's masterpiece, and I sincerely hope that those who read it and love the book as much as I do will pass on the word to others. Highly recommended!!!