Can literature and sleeze successfully crossover? The Bastard says, yes, now take off your pants you dirty whore.
I picked this up for its trashiness but was immediately surprised when it read like Grapes of Wrath or something. Early 1900’s American dust bowl literature. I felt swindled! I don’t want no art talkin’ book, I want gutter talkin’. And then surprise surprise, amidst all that proper writing came the most inappropriate book I’ve ever read.
Gene Morgan is the bastard. His mother was a hooker who abandoned him. Never knew his dad (obviously, or he wouldn’t be a bastard). Starts with a little poetic backstory of Gene travelling around following the woman who should have been his mom and then it’s dropped nonchalantly that he hired her services one night. Eeeew. And so, begins the grizzled tale of the bastard.
Gene gets a job in a small mining/farming town. He shovels grain or something. Not important. His boss’s wife hangs around making eyes and showing him her tits. He wants to hit that. Then she stops showing up. His boss chums up to Gene and asks him to keep a lookout because he’s bringing in a hooker today. Gene’s all, no problem.
Gene stays with some friends. Everyone is merry until his friend’s Dad, the town Doctor has taken off to get married to some young harlot in another town. Doctor Dad’s current girlfriend is the madame of the town brothel and very surly. When dad gets back to town with his horny new wife the shit hits the fan.
This book is less linear and more snippets of drama. Most involve prostitutes and cheating spouses but there is murder, rape, conspiracies, and blatant racism. Gene is complex, I guess. Like in the way a psychopath is complex. I don’t think he’s supposed to be our hero. In fact, one night in jail for drunkenness he is awoken by some crying of a girl in the cell next to him. He asks the cop on duty what the deal is. The cop says she’s a vagabond and he just had a good time raping her and asks if Gene wants a go. Without hesitation Gene is like, yep.
There is murder for nothing. Gene and his friend…well, shit I don’t want to spoil anything, but a person may or may not get cut in half with a saw. It’s very graphic and grisly and the event leading up to it is heartbreakingly meaningless and of a different era, if you get my drift.
The closest book I can compare it to is the 1992 book Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson. One central character and short snippets of total debauchery. A chaotic walk through life with someone unwanted and lacking morality.
By the end of the book, you think Gene is going to become a standard member of society. He finds a girl, gets married, gets a steady job and place to live. He also becomes a father but there is a karmic twist to it. The ending is like a David Lynch movie. Seriously, this book is fucked. Highly recommended.
Erskine Caldwell also wrote Tobacco Road (1932) and God’s Little Acre (1933). He wrote about poverty, racism and social problems as a way to bring light to the subjects. The Bastard was his first book. It got banned by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice- “an institution dedicated to supervising the morality of the public.” He was arrested at a book singing but was exonerated in court.
Originally published in 1929.
My copy is Manor Books 1974
Review by Nick Anderson
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