The Bottom Rail

by Susan Lindsley

Seeking a future, the Carter families move from their bootlegging home in the mountains to middle Georgia. By 1946,they expand their enterprises to include murder, bootlegging, cattle rustling, election fraud, and interracial affairs. Revenge for attempted rape is best served up by two "-they'll git in his hay. Atter they git paid, you and me, we'll git him back. We'll light a Lucifer to his hay barn. That'll learn him." Filled with loneliness and hunger for love, Penny, at fourteen, uses her sexuality to satiate the hungers and generates problems for herself and her family. The men reach for the top rail, unmindful of what or whom they step on-neighbors, benefactors or strangers. THE BOTTOM RAIL's characters are as decadent as Faulkner's Snopes family and as driven as Flannery O'Connor's.

282 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2013

Reviews

[David Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Carter's are not your typical family you might think as the story tells of a southern family that moves from little to no opportunity for veterans returning from WWII to cattle rustling, to stuffing the ballot box, to shotgun killings, lynchings, and moonshining. A 14 year old beauty gets lonely and bored, a formula for disaster; however, the women of the late 1940's are as vengeful as their men-folk when one of them is raped.
At the start I was slightly put off by the period language and intense racism; however, I quickly got into the swing and sway of 1940's southern life and language and found myself looking for period phrases like 'back-sassed', that phrase never did appear. Never the less, it remains a period favorite of mine that prevailed in the 1940's in the south and continues. One of the characters is a teenager named BJ who reminds the reader of "Cool Hand Luke" who was the prince of back-sass in a 1960's movie starring Paul Newman.

[Martharg · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE BOTTOM RAIL by Susan Lindsley is a gritty novel portraying life in the South through the Carter family who have moved to Georgia in an effort to survive in a time when life was hard. They bring with them their talent for running a liquor business out of their still skirting the law with the assistance of local officials. Lindsley has a strong talent for description making her novel so realistic the reader feels as if they are right there witnessing every move of the characters. This novel puts me in mind of THE GRAPES OF WRATH and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real page-turner and an authentic glimpse into class and race conflicts on the post-WWII south.

[Andrew Herren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was much better than I expected! I knew I would enjoy it since it is set in my hometown, but it had a great plot and turned out to be a page turner. Lindsley is a very good writer.