ONE MISSISSIPPI by Mark Childress
I had not read Martha’s review of this book. I had just seen that she recommended it and it was available for loan.
I admit, to a prejudice that led me toward assuming I would not like the book. A family moves to Minor, Mississippi from Indiana. The middle son comes with his set of prejudices against the south. The year was 1972 and the schools had just been ordered to integrate.
I have only a few things to add to Martha’s excellent review of this book.
I laughed the first time on page 41 when Daniel Musgrove and his friend Tim picked up the Frillinger twins for their first prom.
Mrs. Frillinger grabs the girls and fairly yells, “Oh honey, I just can’t let you go! Don’t leave me like this—whatever you do just don’t please leave me alone in this house.”
Daniel felt pity until he remembered the monster in his own house. “I guess lots of families have monsters.” It is an old Southern expression that all families have “secrets.” In the South we just put them on parade.
I was reminded of the first generations who left the farm to work for corporations. On page 225 Daniel’s father: “That’s how it worked in those days, if you were lucky enough to get a job with a good company, give’em all you got, they’ll look after you the rest of your life.”
Page 321: “Coach Adkins was no longer teaching driver’s ed, since someone informed the school board of his habit of buying a six-pack of Miler bottles at the beginning of each driving session.” Some things never change: My son, Alex’s driving ed teacher, packed four students into the student car and they drove around town. He actually parked the students and left them to cool their heels while he went into Spry (yes we have a funeral home in Huntsville named Spry Funeral Home) to arrange for his own father’s funeral. Mr. Stitcher (sp) has now gone on to the great highway in the sky.
Favorite moments in the book for me: Dad blowing up the house that was owned by the Chemical Company from which he was dismissed. Dad purchasing a drive-in theatre just as the days of the drive-in was dying and moving the family into the house attached to back of the giant screen.
Best descriptions of the human condition that brought familiar sorrow: descriptions of forbidden love and love lost, the horror of high school and the need to fit in at any cost.
I recommend ONE MISSISSIPPI but then I liked CRAZY IN ALABAMA also.
Kathy Albers
