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Lawless: A Novel Based on a True Story Paperback – September 11, 2012
| Matt Bondurant (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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With a Foreword by Director John Hillcoat
Based on the true story of Matt Bondurant’s grandfather and two granduncles, Lawless is a gripping tale of brotherhood, greed, and murder. The Bondurant Boys were a notorious gang of roughnecks and moonshiners who ran liquor through Franklin County, Virginia, during Prohibition and in the years after. When Sherwood Anderson, the journalist and author of Winesburg, Ohio, was covering a story there, he christened it the “wettest county in the world.” Anderson finds himself driving along dusty red roads, piecing together the clues linking the brothers to “The Great Franklin County Moonshine Conspiracy,” and breaking open the silence that shrouds Franklin County. In vivid, muscular prose, Matt Bondurant brings these men—their dark deeds, their long silences, their deep desires—to life. His understanding of the passion, violence, and desperation at the center of this world is both heartbreaking and magnificent.
- Print length336 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherScribner
- Publication dateSeptember 11, 2012
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.84 x 8.44 inches
- ISBN-10145165894X
- ISBN-13978-1451658941
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Bondurant is a nimble writer...[His] prose is lyrical when the whiskey floods in, but also when the blood flows out." -The New York Times Book Review
"You have to go back to William Faulkner's novels about the Snopes clan to find the kind of cold-blooded Southern amorality that drives Matt Bondurant's second novel...Bondurant's prose is thick with the kind of blood-soaked descriptions that would do Cormac McCarthy proud." -Washington City Paper
"[An] engrossing novel...[Bondurant is] wonderful at evoking hisotrical atmosphere--the elaborate stills camouflaged in the woods, the music, the drunken gatherings that explode into shattering violence." --Entertainment Weekly
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Product details
- Publisher : Scribner; Media Tie-In edition (September 11, 2012)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 145165894X
- ISBN-13 : 978-1451658941
- Item Weight : 10.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.84 x 8.44 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #771,229 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,847 in Biographical Historical Fiction
- #41,500 in Suspense Thrillers
- #43,896 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Matt Bondurant’s latest novel Oleander City will be in book stores nationwide June 13, 2022. His previous novels include The Night Swimmer, which was featured in the New York Times Book Review, Outside Magazine, and The Daily Beast, among others. His second novel The Wettest County in the World is an international bestseller, a New York Times Editor’s Pick, a San Francisco Chronicle Best 50 Books of the Year, and was made into a feature film (Lawless) by Director John Hillcoat, starring Shia Labeouf, Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Gary Oldman, and Guy Pearce. His first novel The Third Translation is an international bestseller, translated into 14 languages worldwide. He has published short stories in such journals as Glimmer Train, The New England Review, and Prairie Schooner, and his latest short story appears in the Dallas Noir anthology published in 2015. Matt has published poems in The Notre Dame Review and Ninth Letter, among others, and his poetry is featured in Imaginative Writing, the most widely adopted creative writing text in the world.
Matt has written feature articles, essays, and reviews for Outside Magazine, Newsweek, and the Huffington Post, among other magazines and newspapers. Specializing in adventure and endurance events, he’s recently published articles in Texas Monthly magazine about competing in the Texas Water Safari - "The World's Toughest Canoe Race” and in participating in Ned Denison’s English Channel Swim Training Camp in Ireland, the “most brutal, the most unforgiving, the most downright dastardly difficult open water swimming camp in the world” for Outside Magazine. His most recent non-fiction piece, “The Real Thing” was selected for the 2017 Best Food Writing anthology.
He has sold three original screenplays including a development deal with HBO/Cinemax to write and executive produce an original one-hour dramatic series and a dramatic series for Warner Brothers Television.
A former John Gardner Fellow in Fiction at Bread Loaf, Kingsbury Fellow at Florida State, and Walter E. Dakin Fellow at Sewanee, Matt has held residencies at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. He has appeared on various media outlets including NPR, Radio France, The Discovery Channel, and MSNBC. In the past Matt worked for the Associated Press National Broadcast Office in Washington DC, as an on-air announcer and producer at a local NPR station in Virginia, and as a Steward at the British Museum in London, England. He currently lives in Oxford, Mississippi.
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First, I could relate to the idea of three tough, stoic brothers supporting themselves the only way they knew how. It reminded me of my father and uncles [who where born between 1915-1925]. The author presented it in a way where I could relate to Jack Bondurant's fascination with his elder brother, Forrest. I was the same way with my father and uncles. I was a late birth to my parents, so they came from an entirely different generation. In fact, my father claimed to have bootlegged himself. So there were so many things in which I could relate.
Second, the book was gritty, brutally honest, and didn't necessarily seduce readers into thinking the liquor business was glamorous. It presented the exact opposite. The corruption within the ATU and other officials was galling. However, it was totally believable. Small towns still operate within a corrupt system. I know this from experience. Mr. Bondurant made this very clear. I love the truth, rawness, and the brilliant premise. I have always wanted to dig into my father's past to find out what he did. Yet, at the same time, folks who love the mule would never open their mouths, just like Mr. Bondurant suggested at the end of the book.
Third, there was some confusion. The book is written in an uneven manner. I understand that Mr. Bondurant explained how he collected information for his book. This is not necessarily the author's fault, as he was writing according to family stories and newspaper articles. Overall, the book was phenomenal. As an aside, Mr. Bondurant mentioned that the soda used to either cut the mule or chase it, Sun Drop, was only sold in Virginia. I live in Arkansas, and we have that brand of soda, so while drinking the legal mule in my fridge, I'll keep that in mind.
As a teacher, I am more than thrilled to have such a book impact a student's life. Although I've never read the book myself, I'm forever thankful that this book opened the wonderful world of literature for one of my students.
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It always amazes me when you read stories based on true events. If you have watched the film, then read the book, brilliant! The only criticism is as previously mentioned, then order of the chapters can be confusing (they jump forward and backward between the years).So I have written them out in order, which is as follows
2,3,4,5,7,8,9,10,14,16,17,18,19,20,21,23,24,25,27,28,29.1,6,11,15,30,31,32,22,26 & 33.
Hope this helps.
That's what happened with this retitling of Matt Bondurant's "The Wettest County in the World". Written in the style of Cormac McCarthy it almost has the mystical quality of a Greek tragedy. At the same time there is that gritty, almost hopeless edge to it which mimics Steinbeck. You can smell the corn as it's mashing, the shrivelled tobacco on which no hope is lavished because, at that time, it was almost guaranteed to fail, the sweat of the men eking out their existence on alcohol and adrenaline and the despair of their women who fear that nobody will survive the drought or the revenue. Or the competition. It was all a matter of which got you first. The battle between the moonshiners (a northern term) and the local police and revenue men demonstrates what we all secretly know: there is a very fine line between what is lawful and what is criminal.
Yet out of this despair and weariness come three brothers who mind their business on the wrong side of the law while still determined to do what they can for those they love.
Despite the passing of time, and the determination of the brothers not to brag of their exploits, Jack's grandson does an excellent job in bring their legend to life in a style at once imparting the violent edge on which the men lived, and the tenderness of their relationships with their loves. His style portrays scenes and interactions in a way that the film will take for granted and for that reason I'm glad I read it first. This is a book I will read again. Do I want to watch the film now? Perhaps I will, but I feel no real need to after this experience.












