AUDIO

The Wettest County in the World

by Matt Bondurant
9 CDs. library ed. unabridged. 10½ hrs. AudioGO. 2012. ISBN 9780792785279. $74.95; 9 CDs. retail ed.; digital download. F
COPY ISBN
Bondurant offers a fictionalized account of moonshining in Franklin (the wettest) County, VA, during and after Prohibition and the corruption and violence that led to the "Great Moonshine Conspiracy" trial of 1935. The author adds to the legend of the notorious Bondurant Boys, his grandfather Jack and Jack's brothers Forrest and Howard. No nice guys here—these are tough, violent men forced into moonshining by years of drought and failed tobacco crops during the Great Depression and confronted with a protection racket run by local law enforcement. Sherwood Anderson, who covered the trial for Liberty Magazine, also appears.
VERDICT This somewhat uneven story is well read by Broadway actor Erik Steele. ["This is a cracklingly good novel, with plenty of action and local color," read the review of the Scribner hc, LJ 7/08.—Ed.]
Reviewed by Cliff Glaviano, formerly with Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., OH , Apr 15, 2012
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