Stephen King listed Mark Childress' One Mississippi as one of the ten best books he read in 2006, so I read it. And liked it. I'm also happy Stephen King's list led me to it. A regular review would probably have mentioned that Childress had also written Crazy in Alabama, which didn't impress me at all.
One Mississippi, set in 1972, is a coming of age story that explores all sorts of issues—racism, integration, bullying, religion, homosexuality—and ends with a school shooting. All that's part of what King refers to as the "funniest novel I've read in ten years." OK. It's not totally false advertising. There are funny moments.
There were also moments that mean I'll definitely give the author another try.
1) Childress nails aspects of the high school experience. At one point the math teacher breaks down and cries. The narrator remarks, "You don't often see a non-substitute teacher break down and cry." (page 83) Yep. I remember how high school classes treat substitute teachers. It's never been pretty.
2) Childress nails aspects of the southern experience. The narrator and some friends devour three dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts. "We inhaled those doughnuts like the weightless sugar-drenched french fries they were." (page 279) They really are—which always makes me wonder how anything that melts in your mouth like they do can have any calories. There is no justice.
3) Alas, Childress does commit one I-can't-believe-he-did-that grammatical error, albeit a very common one these days. On the phone a character says, "… to his father and I …" (page 347.) Come on, folks. "Me" is not a four-letter word. There are times when it's correct, the object of a preposition being one of them. All right, I did give Childress the benefit of the doubt. The character was one who would use English so correctly that she'd use what was thought to be right, even if it wasn't. But then I have a time problem. The novel is set in 1972. I don't think "me" became a dirty word until sometime in the 1990s.
4) There's an interesting look to the future after the narrator's best friend, Tim, shoots up the school. A detective says, "Here's what I don't understand …. What if every kid who got picked on by some bully decided to do like Tim? What kind of a screwed-up world would it be?" (page 368) Sadly, we can answer his question.
5) One Mississippi was an interesting book to be reading these last few days. Tim writes the narrator a letter from jail and in it says, "I want the world to pay attention to me. Let's be realistic, this is the only way that will ever happen." (page 376) Sound familiar? Chills down the spine. A novelist's grasp of the human soul is often amazing.
6) And, finally, there's superstition and there's common sense. At one point the narrator says about his father, "Dad was not the kind of man who believed in ghosts, but he knew you don't hang around the graveyard when the funeral is over and the sun is going down." (page 384) A most sensible approach, IMHO.
I recommend.
