The Wettest County in the World: A Novel Based on a True Story*The inspiration for the major motion picture Lawless* Based on the true story of Matt Bondurant’s grandfather and two granduncles, The Wettest County in the World is a gripping and gritty tale of bootlegging, brotherhood, 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. Howard, the eldest brother, is an ox of a man besieged by the horrors he witnessed in the Great War; Forrest, the middle brother, is fierce, mythically indestructible, and the consummate businessman; and Jack, the youngest, has a taste for luxury and a dream to get out of Franklin. Driven and haunted, these men forge a business, fall in love, and struggle to stay afloat as they watch their family die, their father's business fail, and the world they know crumble beneath the Depression and drought. White mule, white lightning, firewater, popskull, wild cat, stump whiskey, or rotgut—whatever you called it, Franklin County was awash in moonshine in the 1920s. When Sherwood Anderson, the journalist and author of Winesburg, Ohio, was covering a story there, he christened it the “wettest county in the world.” In the twilight of his career, Anderson finds himself driving along dusty red roads trying to find the Bondurant brothers, piece together the clues linking them to “The Great Franklin County Moonshine Conspiracy,” and break 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. |
Contents
Section 1 | 30 |
Section 2 | 83 |
Section 3 | 106 |
Section 4 | 121 |
Section 5 | 136 |
Section 6 | 172 |
Section 7 | 270 |
Section 8 | 303 |
Section 9 | 307 |
Section 10 | 310 |
Other editions - View all
The Wettest County in the World: A Novel Based on a True Story Matt Bondurant No preview available - 2008 |
The Wettest County in the World: A Novel Based on a True Story Matt Bondurant No preview available - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
Abshire ain’t Anderson thought arms Aunt Winnie barn barrel began Bertha Blackwater station blood Bondurant boots boys brother Burnt Chimney Carter Lee Charley Rakes chest cigarette coat Cormac McCarthy corn County Line Cricket Cundiff damn dark deputy dirt door drink Dunkards Emmy Everett eyes face father feet filling station fingers fire Forrest Franklin County front gonna gotta Granville grin hair hands head hill Hodges Howard Jack felt Jack thought Jack’s Jeff Richards knew leaned legs liquor looked Lucy Maggie Maggodee Creek mash Minnix moonshine Moonshine Conspiracy mountain mouth neck night nodded Penhook Pierce-Arrow pistol pocket porch pulled Richards road Roanoke Rocky Mount rotgut running sawmill seemed Sherwood Anderson shotgun shoulder side smoke snow chains Snow Creek stared stood stream Tazwell thing tobacco took trees turned walked wanted watched whiskey window Winesburg Wingfield wood yard