The Wettest County in the World: A Novel Based on a True Story by Matt Bondurant

Dec 02, 2012 Lou rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, adapted-to-screen, historical-fiction

The Bondurant were not gangsters like that of the suburbs of New York during the prohibition. If anything they were hard workers and if they knew there was a profit the people could make they tried to survive from it.
Considering the unrelenting and unforgiving harsh climate and landscape they lived amongst and around 1918 the people died and lived through some very brutal times, epidemics, they had to be tuff and survive financially with what came their way. There was some very nasty official pe...more
The Bondurant were not gangsters like that of the suburbs of New York during the prohibition. If anything they were hard workers and if they knew there was a profit the people could make they tried to survive from it.
Considering the unrelenting and unforgiving harsh climate and landscape they lived amongst and around 1918 the people died and lived through some very brutal times, epidemics, they had to be tuff and survive financially with what came their way. There was some very nasty official people who wanted to capitalise on the last days of the prohibition and the Bondurant clan was not having it, they would not bent and fold. I think the word gangster is not a fitting description, they were a generation of family who would not lay down, some had a hell of a fight in them, they did go against the law yes, but who wasn't in those days trying to profit from Moonshine and tobacco.
The grandfather of this story set in stone mentality and by example ways of a Bondurant man, of a hard working man, they grafted, toiled and sweated like many people of their time.
A memorable family that worked well in this story.

This was an engaging and enjoyable read, a look at a true family from history.
The author done well in describing the landscape, the people and the world of those days. It was enjoyable to read of the protagonist writers friendship with Hemingway and his meeting with Faulkner in the story.

"That next summer (1918) the Spanish Lady Flu epidemic swept through the southeastern states, finding its way into the deepest hollows and mountain ridges of Franklin County. The county went into self imposed quarantine. Generations of families had known the ancient periodical ravages of sweeping illness like diphtheria, influenza, smallpox, and the certain knowledge of deaths deliberate visitation ground all activity to a standstill as families huddled together in their homes. Jack's father, Granville Bondurant, closed up his vacant general store, itinerant mendicants and blasted road-men his only occasional customers. Families relied on the saved stores of food stockpiled in root cellars, cool spring houses. The Brodies who loved across the broad hill stopped coming down the dirt road by the house, as did the Deshazos, a black family that lived a half a mail off. The pews of Snow Creek Baptist Church stood cockeyed empty and hooded crows roosted in the crude lectern."

"As a teenager Forrest would rise before dawn and top tobacco and pull suckers till dinner, then walk four miles through Snow Creek Hollow to a lumber camp and work a crosscut saw until supper. The next day he would get up and do it again, seven days a week, substituting cattle work, apples, chestnuts, hog butchering, haying, busting clods, harrowing, plowing, carpentry, depending on the season, need, and paying customers. With Howard he took loads of walnuts and apples to Roanoke in oxcarts, and tobacco to Harrisonburg, Martinsville, and Richmond, where he slept on pallets stacked high with pressed tobacco hands in the darkness of the warehouse. He began to drink occasionally, accepting the grimy jar as it was passed hand over hand, though Forrest never took any pleasure in it other than that it helped him put his head down and get his eyes screwed tight long after everyone else had gone to sleep. People moved around him as if he were a wild dog in the street."

"(1934) What everyone in the county did talk about was tobacco. It hung on the lips of men like salvation, it was as if they believed if they repeated the word enough,'bacca, the chanting, the incarnation, the sound of it would bring a strong crop and suddenly Franklin County would flower in prosperity. That summer Anderson watched as men, young boys and girls walked the rows of tobacco for hours in the devastating heat, seemingly endless rows that stretched over the hills, stooping to pull tobacco worms off the stalks and leaves, fat white grubs several inches long that writhed in your palm when plucked, their tiny black heads waving, beak-like mouths seeking purchase."

"(1930) The last of the rain, in early April, gave way to the long waste of drought, blazing blue skies, cloudless, sparkling with dust. The early shoots withered in a matter of weeks, the bony cattle following the thin licks up the creek beds, planting their muzzles deep in any soft patch of mud. Fish crowded in the deep eddies and boys waded in to grab mud cats and carp with their hands. Headlights sweeping over a field at night found them alive with glowing eyes as packs of deer came down from the mountains desperate for water, parched and defiant. The old superstitions raised their hoary heads and traveling through stands of woods in Franklin County that summer you would occasionally find a snake hanging from a tree, nailed by the head, an ancient appeal to the wood gods to bring the rain back. Fields of yellow, stunted tobacco with untapped blooms covered the county. Red clay surged to the surface through scattered weeds, the powder rising into the air on no wind at all, like transpiration, the dry sucking up the dry, and so a fine slit of clay was worn in every crease, in the eyes of dogs, in the skillets of fatback and pintos. A matter of minutes after you swept the floor clean you could draw in it with your finger. Men stood with their hands in their pockets, heads low, scuffing their boots, dreaming of sudden, angry cloudbursts. They knew when the tobacco died the shooting would begin. By August even the children grew quiet, beyond listless, and wandered down to the dry creeks in small groups, daydreaming of ice. In the summer of 1930 women all over the southern part of the state of Virginia stood in their dusky kitchens and wept."

review also @ http://more2read.com/review/lawless-by-matt-bondurant/(less)

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Dec 01, 2008 Bill rated it 3 of 5 stars

I liked the main story of this book. The main story follows three brothers who are bootleggers and general shady characters in the early 1900s. They grew up as poor farmers in a region that became known for moonshine production during prohibition, and soon became involved themselves. Some of the more interesting pars of the book came from seeing how the three brothers were each differently suited (or unsuited in some cases,) to such a life.

However, the book really fell apart where it tried to sk...more

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Oct 19, 2012 Bridget rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

First of all, I watched this movie and couldn't get it out of my head, so I completely went out of my genre of reading and bought the book! At first I thought this might be a little mature for me ha ha but once I got used to the writing I was glued. It's like a school book you have to dissect. The who, what, where, whys of what they were thinking? There's so little said about each character or about a scene that you find your self more touched or more fascinated, it's weird, less is more! I felt...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Liz Clark rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Bondurant brothers, prohibition, and bootlegging. This story written by the grandson of one of these brothers was great. Each one of the brothers are so very different yet alike in so many ways. Personally, I was so drawn to Forrest. He was a man of very few words yet the words that he did speak were so profound. Howard always seemed like the brother that was on the verge of something whether it be greatness or madness. Then there was Jack. Just trying to make a name for himself while being...more

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Aug 22, 2012 W.H. Johnson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Some people have all the luck: they have fathers, grandfathers, uncles, all of whom have a back-story, something to talk about down the years, something out of which a writer can make a really good story.

Not me. I seem to have come from an endless line of people who didn’t raise the dust, didn’t make a headline. Except once, when I was about eight, and I heard my mother and father talking. My father was in trouble with the police. It was in the papers. He had been fined 5 shillings for a parking...more Some people have all the luck: they have fathers, grandfathers, uncles, all of whom have a back-story, something to talk about down the years, something out of which a writer can make a really good story.

Not me. I seem to have come from an endless line of people who didn’t raise the dust, didn’t make a headline. Except once, when I was about eight, and I heard my mother and father talking. My father was in trouble with the police. It was in the papers. He had been fined 5 shillings for a parking offence. That and my three speeding offences – and oh yes, a careless driving – is all we seem to have amassed as a family. Not much story in any of that.

Yet Matt Bondurant got a hint when he was into middle age that there was a story, something about his family. And though, save for newspapers, the documentary evidence was thin and the majority of those alive in the 1920s and 1930s had either passed on or forgotten the events of the time, he has managed to squeeze out a narrative from what he can find. And where there’s nothing, he’s added his own interpretation, and has made a novel out of the rags and tatters of his own family’s history. His grandfather and his two great uncles are the major figures in this violent tale.

‘Lawless’ is a story about Prohibition and its companion the Great Depression. We know all about Prohibition from all the gangster stories that have been written or filmed: we know about Capone and the Mob in all the great cities.

But at this time, over in Virginia, in a poverty stricken rural landscape where perhaps for all time past there had been a Great Depression, up in the mountain valleys with their cold running springs, the illicit manufacture of ‘moonshine’ – whisky from the grain, brandy from the fruit - which had gone on for perhaps a hundred years, perhaps even longer, now blossomed into a major industry though it continued to be manufactured in quite simple fashion.

And like many other farming folk, the Bondurant boys, Forrest the eldest, Howard, returned from the war, and young Jack, have stills running and they’re producing White Lightning or White Mule Moon or Stump Whisky or Mountain Dew or Squirrel Whisky – or maybe all of them at one time.

But there is great money involved in all of this - there is a suggestion that ninety per cent of families in Franklin County were in some way involved in the trade – so that now senior officers in the local county administration – the County Attorney and the Sheriff - decide to have their share of it, imposing a tax on the stills, demanding a tax for the shipment of the liquor, destroying the stills of non-payers and relentlessly pursuing those shipping their wares. Ruthless? Men are shot, beaten, emasculated, their testicles placed in a jar. Decidedly ruthless.

Some have objected that the story line is obscure at times when the author hops from one year to another. True. You have to concentrate. And some are unhappy about the intrusion of the writer Sherwood Anderson into the story’s flow. He came down to Franklin County in 1934 to find out about what was then known as The Great Franklin County Moonshine Conspiracy. I’m sympathetic to a degree with these critics.

Yet I cannot deny that this may some day come to be regarded as a great novel. The reader has a lot of work to do. He cannot easily skim Mr Bondurant’s narrative. He needs to take time, to ponder it and enjoy its lyrical qualities which so uplift this book. Descriptions of newly distilled liquor; of the workings of a rural sawmill; of a frost-wrinkled land; of whole tobacco drills wilting in a savage summer heat; of lean men and women, poor but stoical – all of these elegantly expressed images, make for a book to return to.

I greatly admire ’Lawless.’

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Dec 09, 2008 Benjamin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: recentreads

This is a wonderfully gritty tale about the home-spun moonshining business during the prohibition years in Franklin County, Virginia. The book tells the story of the Bondurant brothers, three men who lust for money, pine for love, or just yearn to get by. The writing was so lush that I felt as if I were in Franklin County as the events were happening.

Unfortunately, the book was divided (unevenly in my opinion) between past and further past, and it was difficult to determine what was happening w...more

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Jan 12, 2013 Mike Addington rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: family-drama

I learned of Matt Bondurant's book "The Wettest County in the World" through a friend and I then watched the movie "Lawless" based on the book. I'm not easily stunned but when I watched Forrest Bondurant, one of the lead characters, I was struck by the similarity between him and my grandfather, who is a character in my own Roman a Clef story "The Home Place." Both were harsh, taciturn men who treated the world on their own terms. (seems rather lonely to me.) The book is quite different from the...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Carrie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical, fiction, non-fiction

This was a very interesting book. First, I loved it and I think it has mostly to do with the family dynamic.

I wish the movie gave Howard the depth that the book does, although I understand the decision to simplify him. I thought Tom Hardy got Forrest right; I read that he tried to act him "like an old lesbian" and that comes across soundly in the book. The book s very well written -- interesting, visual, understated -- and the characters do come across, as the author says he intended, not roman...more

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Nov 27, 2012 Jacob rated it 4 of 5 stars

A few months back I saw the film Lawless in the theaters and found it to be a pretty good bit of cinema. Director John Hillcoat adapted that film from a novel entitled The Wettest County in the World, and while I had wanted to read the book prior to seeing the film, I was unable to obtain a copy in an orderly fashion and so I went into the theater with nothing to stack the film up against. A few months later I found a copy of the book in a clearance section of the bookstore and I picked it up wi...more A few months back I saw the film Lawless in the theaters and found it to be a pretty good bit of cinema. Director John Hillcoat adapted that film from a novel entitled The Wettest County in the World, and while I had wanted to read the book prior to seeing the film, I was unable to obtain a copy in an orderly fashion and so I went into the theater with nothing to stack the film up against. A few months later I found a copy of the book in a clearance section of the bookstore and I picked it up with eager arms. I had heard the book would appeal to my sensibilities rather well, with the prose style being similar to the lyrical writings of Cormac McCarthy. My favorite novel, if pressed, would probably be Blood Meridian so this was a welcome revelation.

The style is indeed similar, with a lack of quotation to denote the speaking of characters and a muted description of whirlwind violence that treats the flowing of blood and the loss of life with such triviality that it can oftentimes leave the bones of the reader chilled. Stylistically speaking it helps to reaffirm the time period of the novel. It feels folksy. It feels as if you are hearing a story told from the mouths of disenfranchised southern folk living in depression era Virginia. The book itself is very well written. The narrative is framed around writer Sherwood Anderson’s visit to Franklin county to find the story of the bootlegging blockaders called the Bondurant Brothers, ancestors of the writer himself. What is fact and what is fiction here is explained by the author in the afterword, but the legitimacy of the tale isn’t really an issue. Truth or fabrication, the story is a compelling tale. The dialog is minimal and instead we get flighty lyrical descriptions of a bygone time swathed in the red hues of blood violence. While the framing device may lead some readers down a path of confusion, the story moves forward in a carefully constructed pattern that builds up steam to a thrilling conclusion bookended by a somber and melancholy connection to the portions framing the story being told.

I feel like I have to compare it to the filmed version and for those wondering there are considerable differences. Characters in the film are given a little more to work with, extrapolated from the guarded and mysterious depiction that they have in the novel. Some parts are amalgamated or twisted for the sake of drama but I will say that the understated simplicity of the novel feels more genuine while the film played with that tone while miring itself in the melodramatic theatricality of some of the actors present. In the film, only Tom Hardy and perhaps Gary Oldman felt like they belonged. Everyone else was adapting something else entirely.

Put simply, this is an amazing novel that tests people’s expectations and rewards them with something exceptional. I’m sure I will give it another read sometime down the line.(less)

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Nov 26, 2012 Nadine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The reader is pulled through the prohibition in a small town of Virginia, where the law is corrupt and the authorities are even more so. The reader is introduced to the Bondurants; the main characters: Jack, Forrest, and Howard.

You find yourself on dangerous and risky adventure with this infamous band of brothers. Forrest known for surviving a fight that ended up having his neck sliced and hobbling to the hospital. Jack, the youngest of the brothers, - also the weakest of the three- enjoys the...more The reader is pulled through the prohibition in a small town of Virginia, where the law is corrupt and the authorities are even more so. The reader is introduced to the Bondurants; the main characters: Jack, Forrest, and Howard.

You find yourself on dangerous and risky adventure with this infamous band of brothers. Forrest known for surviving a fight that ended up having his neck sliced and hobbling to the hospital. Jack, the youngest of the brothers, - also the weakest of the three- enjoys the high life and follows the footsteps of his two older brothers. Last, the middle brother, Howard, bombarded of he had witnessed in the Great War and only bootlegs to help his family. They witness their family- mother and sisters- die due to an illness, their father's business fail, and the Depression and drought surrounding them as they try to stay afloat. Bootlegging was the only solution, the money was flowing and they were the Bondurants.

And finally there was Charles Rakes, driven to destroy everything that the Bondurants stood for. He was eager, bold, and cunning. He wanted them in jail. He wanted them dead.

"I can promise you, Forrest said, if anyone tries to stop us, somebody will be hurt."

This quote within itself sums up the protectiveness of Forrest, it makes you respect, yet run away from him. It draws you into his story alone. The constant question that constantly popped in my mind while I read Lawless was: how are you even alive?

"When he was a boy there were no autos, planes, radios, chain stores, or great bloating thrust pushing their interests around the world. Men lived free lives then."

This quote pushes you into perspective; it wasn't the Hollywood version either. It makes you realized how technologically advanced we are but not only that. The blunt fact that everyone of today relies on a plane flight to chase their interests. When back then the curiosity of traveling lived in few people. The idea of escaping was only in the context of a police chase- for the most part. It makes you realize how the world has changed from the late 1920s.

Overall, the book kept the readers interests and emotions. The interesting part about all of this is the simple fact that it is based on true events. The truth was unveiled until the very end--I will not reveal any spoilers.

I absolutely adore this book. The story has its ups and downs, from the dangerous encounters with Charles Rakes to the sweetest moments between Jack and Bertha. I found myself cheering for the Bondurants -even though there were the one's going against the law- it was hard not to. The most interesting thing- and probably the most obvious- was the time switches between each chapter. They would switch between different years, late 1920s and early 1930s. They were placed together seamlessly. The perspectives also changed which gave the story depth and a three dimensional view but at times was hard to understand.
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Aug 20, 2012 Jonathan Briggs rated it 4 of 5 stars

A JON AND HIS MA BOOK CLUB SELECTION

All right, NEW RULE: Cormac McCarthy and Irishmen are exempt; everyone else must use quotation marks.

Some writers think incorporating fantastic levels of violence and jettisoning dialog punctuation will win them favorable comparisons to America's greatest living author. They are correct, in fact, but all that proves is that a lot of critics are knuckleheads. Knocking off Dan Brown probably wasn't much of a challenge for Matt Bondurant (or anyone else with a wo...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Anthony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

An extremely entertaining book about moonshiners in depression era Southwestern Virginia. A page turner that I blew threw in one weekend. I am certainly biased as I grew and up and currently live in this area of the world and strangely take pride in our bootlegging history (and continued practice). The "Boundurant Boys" are great characters and you realize you are rooting for this violent group of men and admire their fight against corrupt officials as they try to make ends meet plying their tra...more

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Feb 25, 2011 Paul Pessolano rated it 2 of 5 stars

No, this is not about Hurricane Ike going through Texas. This is a story, based on fact, of a family growing up in Franklin County, Virginia. This county was the seat for White Mule, Firewater, Wild Cat, Stump Whiskey, Rotgut, White Lightning, Moonshine, or whatever you wanted to call it. It is claimed that 99 of 100 people in Franklin County were making, or had some connection with illegal liquor.

The Bondurant family played a major role in not only making moonshine, but also were key players in...more

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Nov 09, 2009 Bridget rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009-reads

I had an Advance Readers' Edition of this title, and I was looking forward to reading it. The story is that of the Bondurant brothers, who were involved in moonshine making and distribution during the Prohibition in Franklin County. I find this time in American history to be quite interesting, both from the temperance viewpoint and the viewpoint of those making/selling/smuggling liquor.

Maybe this is a good book, but if it is, I didn't read far enough into it to find out. The Prologue was a bit m...more

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Dec 26, 2012 J.E. Glaze rated it 3 of 5 stars

Matt Bondurant does a fitting job in this historical novel about his own family two generations back, in the Prohibition Days and after, in Richardson County, Virginia.

I want to give this a higher rating, because he kept me engaged and interested, always having to change with the changing time-frames, which is one of his tricks in this book. Yet, there are some reasons why this is a three and not a four.

The first 1/3 - 1/2 of the book reads like a regular human interest story, well-written, but...more Matt Bondurant does a fitting job in this historical novel about his own family two generations back, in the Prohibition Days and after, in Richardson County, Virginia.

I want to give this a higher rating, because he kept me engaged and interested, always having to change with the changing time-frames, which is one of his tricks in this book. Yet, there are some reasons why this is a three and not a four.

The first 1/3 - 1/2 of the book reads like a regular human interest story, well-written, but generally easy to digest. Then almost halfway-in the author begins including some very interesting psychological/spiritual (?) experiences with the main character, Jack, as well as more internal dialogue of his brother, Howard. It gets rather dark, but the darkness and the bizarre experiences don't work well enough for me to figure out exactly what the experiences are, or what their purpose is in the novel. I'm pretty good with this kind of writing, and enjoy Faulkner and McCarthy, however bizarre or hard-to-follow they are. I kept looking for a resolution to this aspect of the book and didn't get one.

I think Bondurant is on his way, here. He has written a very good book, and some of his vocabulary, descriptions, and images are out-of-sight! Really. I just think it didn't quite all jell-together the way perhaps he intended.

That being said, I may be wrong. Perhaps on a second read I would grab-on easier and see it all the way he means it to be seen. Usually, though, a second read means I got it all or know that will when I read again. I'm not sure I would on this one. Still, there are some images I do want to go find and envision again as I re-read them.

It bothers me that I'm critical of this book, because I like it so much. In addition to the aforementioned good points, it also includes much history I didn't know about, and involves Sherwood Anderson as a major character on his travels through the area, trying to find a story. The revelations about the three brothers, their relationships with one another, their personal struggles and secrets, all work well here.

One thing Bondurant does amazingly well is his deft manipulation of time. There is one scene where he shifts back-and-forth between three characters and two or three different time frames, all in one paragraph - and it works seamlessly. I had to reread it a couple of times to see how he did it. In my opinion, that is a sign of an excellent writer.

Very good book, great read, worth 3 1/2 stars, but that is not available in the rating system, here. Maybe worth more. Scratching my head on that one.

j.

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Oct 08, 2012 Susanhayeshotmail.com rated it 2 of 5 stars

Two point five stars? The the first few chapters felt like a gut punch, an astonishing reminder of how brutal the time and place were and despite the sadness and violence I was actually looking forward to reading about the Bondurants but then the tale began to go back and forth between 1929/30 and 1935 and narrators somehow it just lost me. I can do flash backs and different points of view but somehow these were just confusing and sucked so much of the suspense out of the story, which is not lin...more

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May 01, 2010 LeeAnn Heringer rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2010, 21st-century

I picked this novel up in an airport bookshop where it was being heavily promoted and it was alright. It got me through a 4 hour flight. But it wasn't anything great.

The novel tells two stories in parallel, the story of the 3 brothers told from the point of view of the youngest brother (and sometimes the oldest, particularly when he's drunk), and the story of a writer named Sherwood Anderson who came to cover a trial that involved the brothers. But it points to the weakness of the story line th...more

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Oct 15, 2012 Wynne Kontos rated it 4 of 5 stars

There have been many reviews claiming that Matt Bondurants writing style in "the Wettest County in the World" is aiming to emulate Cormac McCarthy, or even Hemingway. I can see where those are coming from, since the novel uses no quotation marks, and often interrupts sentences (EX: I was just saying to you that Forrest says, pig there oughta be brought out to pasture.) Neither mentioned bring much of anything to the story.
But it isn't enough to take away from what this book really is: a blood s...more There have been many reviews claiming that Matt Bondurants writing style in "the Wettest County in the World" is aiming to emulate Cormac McCarthy, or even Hemingway. I can see where those are coming from, since the novel uses no quotation marks, and often interrupts sentences (EX: I was just saying to you that Forrest says, pig there oughta be brought out to pasture.) Neither mentioned bring much of anything to the story.
But it isn't enough to take away from what this book really is: a blood soaked, whirl wind ride that I enjoyed every moment of. Bondurant's tireless research shows through, the story is chock full of historical details which makes every moment completely real. The brother's each suffer from their own demons. Howard is constantly trying not to relieve the horrors he witnessed in WWI, Forrest's silence he uses to a menacing advantage, struggling to get close to others, and Jack, the youngest, who wants so deeply to be respected and whose weakness is in the material. Despite the level of violence (which translated to gut wrenching scenes on screen), the novel was enjoyable. Contrary to other reviews, I enjoyed the flashbacks with Sherwood Anderson. His experience, that of an outsider, was necessary to gain the full picture of Franklin County's code of silence around their shiners. I will agree that the flipping around in time didn't always match up (mostly because you couldn't tell if something was in the past or the future, so only after the fact you'd realize a scene was supposed to have taken place years later.) But Anderson's role in the novel didn't slow it down or bore me at all. Anderson is, as Bondurant alludes to, a classic literary figure who is often overshadowed by his more famous peers. If I had to guess, I'd bet that Bondurant aimed to emulate HIS writing style over that of McCarthy or Hemingway.

Regardless, I enjoyed this novel. Renamed movie cover, quotation mark missing version and all. (After you're done reading, see the film "Lawless," based off of it. Both are great fun!)(less)

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Jan 09, 2012 Hunter S rated it 4 of 5 stars

This historical fiction explores the exciting and violent world of moonshine in southwest Virginia during Prohibition and the short period afterward. Specifically, the author writes about his grandfather and great uncles and their dominant moonshine empire in Franklin County, a county that author Sherwood Anderson labels "the wettest county in the world."

The author paints an extremely dark and earthy picture and uses extremely vivid imagery in his fiction. Bondurant weaves his words wonderfully...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Melinda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Movie version now at a multiplex near you. If you're interested in a story about hillbillies making and running illegal liquor in the Viriginia mountains in the 1920s and 30s, save your hard earned cash and read the book instead. While not a great novel, this is an absorbing story, and the relationship between the brothers is both horrifying and compelling. Stomach-churning violence and plain rawboned meanness are part of the ride. The reward is you get women who live with these men and say thin...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Shannon B rated it 3 of 5 stars

Overall, an interesting and gritty read. Reading about the moonshine business and the rough life in Franklin Co. In the 1930s was great.

However, I felt frustrated with many aspects of the book. Many characters are introduced but never fully developed. The book jumps back and forth over a span of about 7 years, and I had a really hard time keeping up with the timeline. Many of the pages were redundant.....mash, corn, car chase, fight, still disassembled...repeat.

Sherwood Anderson's seemingly ra...more

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Jan 26, 2013 Ann Grant rated it 4 of 5 stars

I actually listened to an audio recording of this book after seeing the movie Lawless, about a bootlegging and moonshining family in Virginia in the 30's which is based on it. The writing at times is almost poetic, and as I had just watched the movie, I could easily conjure images of the Appalachian backwoods scenes. It is not always a good thing to be led by the director's vision, but in this case it worked for me. A subplot which didn't appear in the movie involved the writer and journalist Sh...more

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Oct 03, 2012 Ina rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: school-year-2012

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. No no, don't think dirty guys. It's not even about romance (*gasp* There are books that aren't about romance? Wow! I learn something new every day!) I've been asked about the title of this book quite a lot. Come on. Be mature.

This book is about the Bondurant Brothers, a family of moonshiners who also caused trouble.

I saw the movie Lawless, and enjoyed it a lot, and so I got the book. The movie is based off the book, and the book based off a true story.

The boys are pretty badass. Just saying....more No no, don't think dirty guys. It's not even about romance (*gasp* There are books that aren't about romance? Wow! I learn something new every day!) I've been asked about the title of this book quite a lot. Come on. Be mature.

This book is about the Bondurant Brothers, a family of moonshiners who also caused trouble.

I saw the movie Lawless, and enjoyed it a lot, and so I got the book. The movie is based off the book, and the book based off a true story.

The boys are pretty badass. Just saying.

The movie sticks pretty close to the book, so I'm going to copy and paste something I wrote about them on my blog when I was talking about the movie, editing some bits to accommodate the changes in the book and movie.

The brothers aren't messed with. They rule with fear and respect. They're a "if you don't make trouble with us, we won't make trouble with you" kinda people. Actually, they are kind of awed of by the people.

The oldest brother, Howard Bondurant, survived crazy stuff in the war and he's an alcoholic BIG TIME, but very awesome in strength, and cool because he just walks into a shootout, fights, then just walks out. He uses the stuff he learned in the war, and he can follow people then just disappear into the woods. He is very harsh and seems to wish to die, but he actually has a really soft heart. He often wishes for a better life for his wife and sickly daughter, and when his brothers have been shot, he hugs his wife close and tells her that he almost lost them, and wonders what he would do if he had.

Jack Bondurant is the main character, and as the youngest brother, he is kinda looked down on by his brothers. He is protected by his brothers, because he is against violence. I mean, he is not a violent person. He knows that he is being protected. But he is an idiot. He is smart in the ways of business, but not in the way of violence. He knows how to make money, and but he isn't smart about it. He dresses sharp, as he should, but this is just making the cops more on their case. His brother Forrest dresses very badly and has a beat up car and stuff. But more on him later. We're talking about Jack. He tells Forrest that he will kill the people that slit Forrest's throat, but then at the end he chickens out. I mean, I understand, but I was just a bit disappointed. He is shot under the arm, and he blacks out a bit later. Now, I'm not sure exactly where, but if it was where I think it was, that's kinda pathetic. But the main thing that irritated me was that he decides to take his girlfriend to his still, and is "blazing a trail for the cops" according to Howard. Then he goes back to help Howard, and takes two shots out of a double barreled shotgun, then tries to take more shots without reloading. Which lets the "bad guy" get away. Lets do some math now. 2-2=? I can tell you, it's not 1, and it's certainly not 2.

Forrest Bondurant is by far my favorite character. People kinda think he's immortal, and damn, they're right. He survives the fever that killed most of his family and town, gets his throat brutally cut, and he gets to the hospital, and a little bit later, goes home. People think that he walked to the hospital, but his wife took him in the car, he walked from the car. That's pretty dang impressive one way or another. Then he gets shot, gets up, and keeps shooting. He is shot quite a few times after that. He gets out of the hospital a few weeks later. A bunch of log fall on him (intentional or accident, not sure) and he survives. When he was shot, they didn't sew him up correctly and he has a hole in his stomach that food comes out of. (Much amusement to his grandnephew, or was it his nephew?) and he just grins, even though it pains him. Then he falls through some ice and freezes to death that night. He's really cool. He is smart, he doesn't draw too much attention with the law. Well, he does, but he doesn't look like he's making moonshine. He wears ugly, tattered, cheap clothes and a bad car, and doesn't make trouble unless it comes his way. For example, in his bar-place, there was some people asking for their money, because they didn't get what they wanted. They did, but Forrest put the money in their pocket, and told them to get out. They didn't, and his co-worker whispered to him that they pulled a gun on the girl who helps them. He just looked at the guy and asked- "Did you pull a gun on this woman?" They wen't to hit him, he hit them right in the head with brass knuckles, killing them. He does much worst to the people who cut his throat. Ooooh. He's cool.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. Maybe you could tell because I read it nonstop for 3 days. It's good.(less)

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Jan 01, 2011 Teresa rated it 3 of 5 stars

This novel about three brothers who made and sold moonshine during the Prohibition era, may be set in the hills of southwestern Virginia, but it is very much a gangster story. It has as much in common with the great mobster tales as it does with any typical Southern literature. There are the family connections. The code of silence. The shady law enforcement officials. The strong, stoic women.

Early in the book, the youngest brother, Jack, is taken with the excitement of the moonshining life, but...more This novel about three brothers who made and sold moonshine during the Prohibition era, may be set in the hills of southwestern Virginia, but it is very much a gangster story. It has as much in common with the great mobster tales as it does with any typical Southern literature. There are the family connections. The code of silence. The shady law enforcement officials. The strong, stoic women.

Early in the book, the youngest brother, Jack, is taken with the excitement of the moonshining life, but as he gets drawn in, he starts to see the dark side of running liquor. His brothers are the more jaded old hands, each with his own demons. The sections focusing on the emotional journeys of the brothers are the most compelling parts of the book. The trouble is that it took too long to get into their respective stories.

Instead of telling the story straightforwardly, the author’s frames the story with incidents from Sherwood Anderson’s trip to Franklin County. This seems like a brilliant stroke that shows that this industry was a big deal in its day and also demonstrates just how closed the community is to outsiders. But as it turns out, Anderson’s story is just one story too many. Whenever the book returns to Anderson, the core of the story, the three brothers, disappears from view. If Bondurant had dropped some of Anderson's literary musings and confined Anderson’s investigations to the start of each of the novel’s three sections, he might have gotten the benefits of using Anderson as an outside witness without making him a drag on the story.

As a Franklin County native, I took a particular pleasure in seeing many places I know mentioned and in recognizing many of the family names. There are a couple of geographic gaffes that probably only locals would notice or care about. I thought Bondurant did an excellent job overall with the diction, every now and then bringing in a phonetic spelling that isn’t exactly common but that gets the accent of the region just right. He also doesn’t overwhelm the reader with regional dialect.

I wish I could say I loved the book and could recommend it without reservations, but I can’t quite do that. The Anderson subplot is a serious problem, and the book only hits it stride when Anderson disappears for long stretches. I do love what Bondurant was trying to do, and I loved the parts where he succeeded. If rural Southern gangsters have any sort of appeal to you, this may just be worth checking out.

See my complete review at Shelf Love.(less)

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Sep 22, 2012 Amy Sue rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

I saw the movie Lawless first, so that may have helped me follow this book better than if I hadn't. I really like that is a novel based on true events because they only have so many records from back in the 20's and 30's. I liked all the characters from the movie, and to read this and get to know them a little better was a good experience for me.

The only thing that threw me off a little from this book is that there was no standard dialogue. They treated the spoken words as if in past tense and...more

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Jun 16, 2011 Kevin Farrell rated it 5 of 5 stars

Well, it looks like I am in disagreement with others who have rated this book. The reason is two-fold. I am a fan of bourbon and whiskey; both historically and practically. I am also a fan of historical fiction that takes place in the southern US states - particularly Kentucky. How I got there is not important but this book speaks to me as though it was written for me.

It is a well written story about brothers who made moonshine whiskey in Kentucky and were feared by both their competition and th...more

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Nov 20, 2012 Bryan rated it 4 of 5 stars

The story's main plot is moonshine during and initially after prohibition. It is also a nod to organized crime. There are plenty of stories like that throughout the library. What I loved about this book was the subtle change that has occurred across rural America.
To me the constant thread, the reason Sherwood Anderson was brought in, was summed up along the way in a letter to his wife. In it he says "The old love of craft has been strangled by the hands of industry". I remember traveling to my...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Alan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: American crime history fans

You would think that a prohibition era tale of bootleggers vs. corrupt law officers with a cover photo that will remind you of the classic Bonnie & Clyde poses in front of period automobiles would make for a compelling read, but I didn't find that to be the case with this book. I found this to be a very slow-going read due to a lack of momentum caused by the jumps in the time-line structure. This also resulted in a lack of suspense as a lot of the plot resolutions were also known ahead of ti...more You would think that a prohibition era tale of bootleggers vs. corrupt law officers with a cover photo that will remind you of the classic Bonnie & Clyde poses in front of period automobiles would make for a compelling read, but I didn't find that to be the case with this book. I found this to be a very slow-going read due to a lack of momentum caused by the jumps in the time-line structure. This also resulted in a lack of suspense as a lot of the plot resolutions were also known ahead of time.
Matt Bondurant's "The Wettest County in the World" (aka "Lawless" in the July 2012 movie tie-in reprint edition) is a history-based fictional novel about the lives of the author's own grandfather Jack and his great-uncles Howard and Forrest Bondurant. It relates how the Bondurant brothers ran a bootleg liquor operation (which is called 'blockading' in the local vernacular of the book) in Jackson County, Virginia in the late 1920's/early 1930's. The book's title is based on a quote from writer Sherwood Anderson which is one of the novel's epigraphs: "... the wettest section in the U.S.A. …the spot that fairly dripped illicit liquor, and kept right on dripping it after prohibition ended…is Franklin County, Virginia."
This huge amount of illegal liquor production required a network of corrupt law officials and officers to keep it protected and some of that came to light in an eventual trial which was documented by T. Keister Greer in "The Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial of 1935". Greer's book became a major source for author Bondurant's fictional tale along with his family's personal stories. Bondurant's book in turn became the source for Nick Cave's screenplay for the film "Lawless" directed by John Hillcoat which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2012 and is scheduled for a general theatrical release in late August 2012.
The story is told in flashbacks from the time of the 1935 trial with writer Sherwood Anderson reporting on the scene on behalf of his own newspapers and also doing research for his later novel "Kit Brandon" which was built around the local myths of female blockader Willie Carter Sharpe (who was also perhaps the inventor of the American muscle car, due to her souped-up Fords used to outrun law officers). Anderson's history is portrayed reasonably accurately except for an error in his publisher's name (Liverright used instead Boni & Liveright) and Ernest Hemingway's 1926 "The Torrents of Spring" parody of Anderson's 1925 "Dark Laughter" mis-dated as if it was from 1934. The constant jumps back and forth between 1929-30 and 1935 took a lot of suspense and momentum out of the book though and made for difficult reading although each of the chapters by themselves were quite evocative in portraying the atmosphere of the Virginia Appalachian settings. (less)

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Aug 27, 2012 Will rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is awesome. Violent without savagery, you fall in love with the goddamn Bondurant Boys and you love them 'til the last page is over AND if you're brilliant you can read this or have read this before the movie "Lawless" comes out this Wednesday (two days after the penning of this review) and you can love the Bondurant Boys as they would look as fleshed out by the Shia LeBouefs and Guy Pearces of the world. Which is awesome. Because this book is awesome. I didn't even realize the movie w...more

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Jan 23, 2013 El_kiablo rated it 3 of 5 stars

The movie Lawless was pretty good, but at the end of it I was left a little underwhelmed because there seemed to be a lot of stuff that was glossed over or half-sketched. When I found out it was based on this book, I became curious. Unfortunately, this book doesn't really answer most of the questions I was curious about. The eldest brother Howard's backstory is explained in more detail, but the female characters are as underdeveloped here as in the movie.

Some of the passages are well written and...more

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