Joe R. Lansdale's The Bottoms is a noir crime story set in 1930s Texas that handles race with nuance and realism. The reviewer stayed up late unable to put it down, praising the twisty ending and atmospheric writing as bloody brilliant.
G'day. The Bottoms by Joe Lansdale. You know that's him because that's his name. The Bottoms. Noir Appalachian crime story. I gotta tell you straight up, bloody brilliant. On the bollocks to brilliant meter, bloody brilliant. Worth the read if you like crime mysteries, if you like the noir feel. This one is just great. Set in Texas in the '30s, Great Depression, deals with race issues at the time in— it's sort of like an underlay of the entire story, but it does it so well. It does it, it just does it so well. Does it very realistically from both points of view. Unfortunately, the way we look at race— my wife's Appalachian, and she said her grandparents grew up as poor as any other person. Out there as any other Black person out there. Her whole family did. They didn't have outside dunnies or any of that sort of stuff. They were just living, sharecropping together, doing life together. And there wasn't just these all white people were racist and all Black people were just whatever. There was none of that crap that's been perpetrated today. So I think Lansdale does a fantastic job of that. Doesn't hide away from it, doesn't run away from the culture of the times. But does talk about the humanity in the midst of it all. A twisty-turny, great ending. Without a doubt worthy of bloody brilliant and a read. It was one of those books I couldn't put down and just stayed up way too late, ruined my Oura Ring, uh, didn't get enough sleep. Absolutely worth it. Boom, there you go. Get you one.
