Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsIf you like great writing and a good story.
Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2020
Ever been to Oxford, MS? Great bookstore - Square Books - been there, got the T-shirt. Must be something in the water that inspires authors who lived here -from the classic, Faulkner to the modern, Grisham. Also where Tom Franklin lives and teaches as well as a number of other noted writers.
I enjoy books like this, an interesting story with a literary bent and love stumbling over nuggets like "... how time packs new years over the old ones but how those old years are still in there, like the earliest, tightest rings centering a tree, the most hidden, enclosed in darkness and shielded from weather. But then a saw screams in and the tree topples and the circles are stricken by the sun and the sap glistens and the stump is laid open for the world to see."
The story centers on an early friendship in a small Mississippi town between a black and white youth. One leaves for Oxford and college later returning as a town constable. The other, the white lad, took a girl on a date and she was never seen again. He was never charged but suffered 20 years of being ostracized and worse. The friendship would probably not have survived into adulthood anyway, given he times in MS, but the later developments are at the center of this story.
Normally during my daily "mental health break" with lunch and a book, I alternate a novel with a non-fiction tome, changing them from one day to the next.. Interesting that at the core of both of my recent selections is the matter of race relations. However, this one is interesting enough that I set the other one aside until I finished it. Interesting twists and turns and a worthy read. Caused me to round up from 4.5 stars.
