Mississippi Books

The author did an outstanding job of flowing the novel in a way that it captured my heart and could not wait to read what would happen with the next generation. At the end she connected all and showed how a strong foundation of love from family takes a person a long way. I cried at the end ..touch my heart like I knew Cora and her family. I was happy when David and Cora got back together. I thoroughly enjoyed this book!!!!!!!

I wish there was a sequel.

This is the first book that I have read by Donna Hill and I just loved it.....Now I'm waiting for the follow-up .....

THIS STORY IS THE TALE OF 3 GENERATIONS OF WOMEN - THE STORY IS MAINLY ABOUT THEIR RELATIONSHIPS WITH EACH OTHER AND HOW IT EFFECTED THEIR LOVE RELATIONSHIPS IN THE FUTURE.

IT SHOWS HOW TRUE LOVE IS WORTH THE STRUGGLE. DONNA HILL IS A BRILLIANT WRITER
I LOVE THIS BOOK - IT WAS WRITTEN PERFECTLY. I REALLY BECAME WRAPPED UP INTO THE STORY. THIS IS ONE OF THE DEEPEST BOOKS THAT I HAVE EVER READ - THIS BOOKS STARTS OUT AS A BEAUTIFUL LOVE STORY THEN MOVES INTO SOME VERY DEEP AND EMOTIONAL PARTS OF THE CHARACTERS LIVES. THIS BOOK IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. SUCH A BEAUTIFUL HEART WRECHIING STORY.

(TOPICS SPOKE UPON: LOVE, BETRAYAL, RACISM, TRUST, AND RAPE)

When Cora's parent's are brutally murdered, she leaves her Mississippi home and her boyfriend David for Chicago, where there's a lot of thing's going on that, she is not use too, when she is brutally raped, she returns home, and loses the love of her life, David, when she have a biracial baby. I did not understand, why the couple was not able to work through that, since their love was so strong and all. Emma, Cora's daughter from the rape, grew up feeling unloved, so she also leaves, also for Chicago. Emma, end's up marrying a italian guy, who think's she is white. When Emma has a brown baby, she secretly hides the delivery of her baby, from her husband, and takes the baby home to Cora to raise. Parris, grows up thinking, her parents were dead, but later on finds out that's not the cause. I thought this was a good book, my only complaint is the book ended, without anything really being settled but it was still good.

I truly enjoyed this saga of the three generations in this family. Cora, Emma and Parris were all strong women in their era of time. In this novel, the reader learns of the saga of 3 generations of women who dream of getting out of the small town of Rudell, Mississippi and realizing their dreams in the Big City.

Cora has a beautiful voice and wants to get to the city to sing. After the untimely death of her parents, Cora finally is able to realize her dreams. She leaves behind the love of her life and goes to Chicago. Only Cora finds that making her dreams a reality is at best difficult. She returns to Rudell, disillusioned and broken.

Emma, Cora's daughter has never been happy in Rudell. At the first opportunity, she flees and goes to New York. Everything seems to be going her way until she marries and has a baby. A midnight visit to Rudell makes things okay.

Parris, Emma's daughter inherits her grandmother's voice and her desire to sing in the Big City. With her grandparents blessings she moves to New York, meets Nick and begins to sing in his nightclub and the sparks fly. Parris has the means and the opportunity to do what the others could not.

The sad thing about their stories were that their lives were all sheltered from truths. Cora was not aware of the ways of the world because of her mother, Emma was not aware of what unconditional love felt like because of her mother, and Parris didn't know why she felt incomplete in her life's trials because of her mother. The one great thing about their stories is that they all met and loved strong men. The ending was very touching and very good. I couldn't put this book down and finished it in one setting. The romance in this novel was warming and just right, the drama was perfect and characters were totally developed. Donna Hill's writing in this story was well done, a reader could just picture the scenes, the action and the scenery. But, I will say this is not a book to be missed.

Hillary Jordan has written a beautiful and challenging novel about the struggle of individuals and a society to break free of their human and cultural limitations. The literary structure of telling the same story from the perspective of the different characters has become popular to the point of stale but was essential to this story. The Jackson and McAllen families have a great deal in common in terms of prejudices, hopes and fears and though there is growing insight, they are not yet able to step outside of their world view. The theme of "who has a voice and who chooses to use it" is well developed and we see clearly the problems that result when people are afraid to enter into conversation about things that matter.The only person who was not allowed to speak was Pappy ~ the man most representative of the established order was marginalized. The behaviors and beliefs of this era were never acceptable, righteous anger suppressed, and for too long people felt that the the land would never produce anything different. The events of this novel seem to have served the same purpose as the plow ~ churning up the hardened ground for the sowing of next year's crop. Though the ending was somewhat predictable and equivocal, it was consistent in its support of the ongoing interplay of circumstance and choice that each of us faces. This is an impressive debut novel that would be an excellent choice for a book club or for a student discussion.

Hillary Jordan brings the story of Mississippi delta bigotry and honor together through the voices of her main characters. She deftly weaves each character's perspective into an intriguing tale of love, commitment, racism, and passion that speaks volumes about what humans can both inflict and endure.

Jordan's skill in capturing the nuances and tones of each character's personality makes this book a very enjoyable read. At times the characters might seem stereotypical and the plot somewhat predictable, but the novel carries the story off very well, and in the end Jordan succeeds admirably, leaving the reader with a tragic yet hopeful conclusion. Such skill requires courage to attempt and much talent to achieve, but Jordan does so brilliantly.


This is great, quick read you won't want to miss.

Mudbound was the best read of the summer. Well written and penetrating. I hit the middle of the book and "bam"! Stayed in my pjs till I finished it. Loved the lay out of the chapters. They were divided into the voices of each character except the grand father. A must read for anyone who loves southern novels.

This is a debut unlike any that I've come across. It possesses the grace and fluidity, polish and drama that usually come with experience. Hillary Jordan's talent for psychological acuity is remarkable. Jordan is a gifted writer whose ability to speak to the reader with economy is enthralling. It's about life before, during and after WWII, as well as farmlife. This reader felt Laura's bewilderment [annoyance, as well as stoicism] at facing life without the everyday amenities [household running water, etc.]. Mudbound is about the complications of a marriage, [racial] prejudice that this reader has always found disgusting, as well as shameful. I [almost] meshed with Laura from page one. [It was extremely easy to get into and stay with this story.] Her [Laura's & Jordan's] insights were a treat to this reader's eyes, as well as ears. [Marital status bringing a certain "cachet" -- how dated is that -- or is it?] I could hear all of the characters speak [it's that amazing]. Jordan tells each character's story through his/her voice [a la Picoult, etal.]. Mudbound is an astonishing tale of two families. [Laura & Florence are wonderful!!] It's filled with insights, different kinds of love, a character's sensual/sexual awakening, as well as hate [racial prejudice] that is beyond shame. I predict that Mudbound will, someday, be declared a "classic." This reader came to care about each character, as well as his/her fate. At times, this book left me gasping. Fans of Pat Conroy should run out to buy this book!! This is recommended reading without reservation!

Two world wars, poverty and racism combine to create tragedy in this powerful story of a Mississippi family living on a farm with no electricity and no running water, heavy rains cutting the farm off from civilization until the raging river abates. It is here that Henry McAllan brings his wife, Laura, a former school teacher from Tennessee, their two daughters and his ancient, angry father, a mean-spirited man who looks at the world through hate-filled eyes. Henry has promised Laura a rent house in town when he buys the farm, but fate conspires to defeat that plan and the city-bred woman must make do with her lot in life at "Mudbound": "This was the truth at the core of my existence; this yawning emptiness, scantily clad in rage." Henry is oblivious to his wife's unhappiness. Landsick, all Henry can think about is his farm and what he hopes to accomplish. But then Henry is not an introspective man, leaving his cantankerous father to harass an already overburdened wife.

When Henry's younger brother, a pilot, returns from World War II, Laura's life markedly improves, Jamie filled with a lightness that seems to make this harsh world more bearable. Even Henry is overjoyed, doting on the brother who has always looked up to him. It is 1949 in Mississippi, Jamie not the only returning soldier. Nearby, Hap and Florence, Henry's share tenants, welcome home their oldest son, Ronsel, one of the decorated black troops that served under General Patton. The bright shine in Ronsel's eyes soon dims in the glare of the white man's criticisms. Racial tensions still thrive in the south, Ronsel quickly cataloging the danger if he remains in this place. Whatever he has come to know of the world has no value in this town, where blacks are little more than irritants to the superior whites.

In alternating chapters, Laura, Henry and Jamie speak of their experiences at Mudbound, their personal histories, the shattered hopes and disappointments life has dealt them, the endless battle with the sucking mud that smothers everything and everyone. In other chapters, Florence, Hap and Ronsel tell another story, a loving family who bear their troubles together, a strong black woman who works the fields when her husband is injured, who worries for an older son who has lost his way in the confines of this limited place. Certainly tragedy is not unexpected in this novel, given social conditions and the ready aggression of men outraged that a returning soldier thinks too highly of himself. A dark drama unfolds, one more act of rage and stupidity, fulfilling a destiny begun long ago. Jordan takes hold of this bitter tale and rides it to the end, each of her characters a study in longing, loss and the evasive remnants of hope that hide in the human heart: "When he is best, he is a little worse than a man; and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast." Luan Gaines/ 2008.

At first, Hiram is excited about visiting his favorite grandfather in Greenwood, Mississippi. But before long, Hiram begins to feel that the small town of Greenwood is not the same place where he spent the golden years of his childhood. Then he crosses paths with Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago who is also visiting over the summer, and Hiram sees firsthand how local white folk treat blacks who "don't know their place." When Emmett's body is found floating in a river, Hiram is determined to make sure justice is served. But what will it cost him?

Mississippi Trial, 1955 begins during Hiram's childhood with his grandpa in Greenwood, Mississippi. His parents could not raise him at the time because Hiram's dad was in the process of getting a master's degree in English at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). Hiram's heart was broken when he had to move to Tempe, Arizona for his father's job. Flash forward a few years. When Hiram was sixteen, his father reluctantly decided he was old enough to go back to Greenwood for the summer. Hiram arrived there happy, but as time went on, he could not shake the feeling that something was different. Then he met Emmett Till, a nice young black boy from Chicago. Hiram and Emmett see each other a few times at the Tallahatchie River, where Hiram played and shared food with Emmett (it was a little unusual down there for whites to hang out with blacks, but Hiram didn't mind). A few days later, a body of a young black man was found in that same river. Hiram thinks he knows something about the hate crime. A day before, Hiram's racist friend, RC Rydell, said something about planning to murder a black boy. Meanwhile, there is a huge media blow-up throughout the country about this cruel crime, so Hiram tells the country sheriff about what he heard. Hiram was subpoenaed to the impending trial to present his evidence, despite his grandfather's misgivings about it. At the trial, the defendants, Mr. Bryant and Mr. Milam, explained how Emmett had made rude gestures to Mrs. Bryant the day before the homicide, but neither of them had killed Emmett. The plaintiff, Emmett's uncle Mose, said that Emmett had been kidnapped by the two men and driven off, never to be seen again. However, there was another man in the car, a blue Ford pickup truck by the looks of it. Just as he was about to testify about RC, Hiram discovered that RC had not even been in town the night of the murder, so it could not have been him. The all-white jury found Bryant and Milam innocent of all charges, even though they, in fact, did kill the young man. The morning after the trial, a few men came to pick up grandpa's blue Ford pickup after they bought it from him a couple days beforehand. Grandpa claimed the transmission went bad, but Hiram was not so sure. Finally, Ralph Remington, a neighbor who would talk in circles to anyone, told Hiram the real story of what had happened. Grandpa had been the third man in the pickup and had sold the truck to remove the evidence and perhaps, a little of his guilt. Hiram felt sick to his stomach, as if his whole world was crashing down. A couple days later, Hiram went back home to Tempe, where he and his father finally saw eye-to-eye... Dad had been right, the south was not a good place to be.

Mississippi Trial, 1955 is an excellent book to spite the sad reality of events. There is happiness as well to balance it out in this historically accurate story.

There were many examples of sadness in Mississippi Trial. One was when Hiram was a child, his grandma died. Hiram was very much upset, because he had lived with his grandparents for so long. Another example of sadness was when Hiram's new friend, Emmett Till, was found brutally murdered in the Tallahatchie River. The last bit of sadness was when Hiram discovered that his grandfather, whom he had known and trusted all his life, was part of the group who killed Emmett. That was like the final blow - Hiram felt broken after that.

The examples of happiness in Mississippi Trial were sparse, but nonetheless, they were there. One happy moment was when Hiram's father granted him permission to go back to Greenwood, the small town Hiram loved. Another was when he saw Naomi, the girl whom he rather liked, again. Hiram was happy because now he had someone who would criticize him when he talked about everything that was going on. The last example of happiness in the book was when Hiram and his dad made up when he came home - they did not always see eye-to-eye and they always argued.

Mississippi Trial was historically accurate in many ways, although the story about Hiram and his family was all fiction. One historically correct aspect of the book was, of course, the cold-blooded murder of Emmett Till, which aroused the entire nation. Another historically correct part was when Hiram's grandfather explained to Hiram that the Jim Crow Laws were the only thing keeping the southern schools segregated. The last major historically correct element of the story were how the jury was all white men, how the black people had to sit in the back of the courthouse, and how grandpa, a cotton farm owner, said the only reason black people were put on the Earth was so they could work the fields.

Mississippi Trial, 1955 was a very good book - I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good historically correct story, but does not mind a little bit of sadness mixed I as well, although there was happiness to balance things.


-Elizabeth H =]

Welcome to the Delta. Back in 1955, slavery was still the way of life in Mississippi. No one cared about crimes committed to colored people. When a young colored boy is murdered for whistling at a white woman, no one but a young white boy, Hiram Hillburn, cared. I recommend this book to people who like reading about history.
This book really makes you appreciate the basic rights that we take for granted every day no matter what color or sex you are. Nowadays if you murder someone, you will suffer the consequences. The two men that murdered the colored boy, Emmit Till, got away with the murder with no punishment just because they were white.
Chris Crowe did an extremely good job of writing this book. The way he describes everything puts a descriptive picture in your mind. When a bully named R.C. Rydell was messing with Emmit Till, you can actually picture R.C. shoving fish guts all over Till's face. You can also see the tears dripping down the cheeks of Till's loved ones.
Suspense is a key factor in a book, but this book barely had any suspense. Once you figure out about the trial, you can already assume how the book is going to end by the reaction of the people in the Delta. Nobody cared about the murder, and some were happy about it because "it showed colored people their place".
This was a mediocre book. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't good enough. Sometimes it just got really boring and you get tempted to put the book down and never pick it up again. Like when Hiram was dreaming about Naomi Rydell, R.C.'s sister. I only recommend this book to people who like reading about history.
D. Clayton

This novel, Mississippi Trial, 1955 is a fictionalized account of the actual events that happened around the murder of Emmett Till. However, many of the plot elements are unoriginal and very similar to To Kill a Mockingbird.

This book is about a boy named Hiram who goes to stay with is Grandpa in Greenwood, Mississippi. While there he meets an African American boy named Emitte Till. They became good friends. When Emitte is found dead floating in the river. Hiram sets out to find out who it was that killed him.
I thought this book was very good. It is a Non-Fiction book based on a true story. It is a great mystery.

The title of this book is Mississippi Trial, 1955. The author is Chris Crowe who is a professor of English at Brigham Young University. He has written other books about racial causes and this book was written in 2002. The story takes place in Greenwood, Mississippi. This book is about when there was much racial injustice in the south of the United States. It sees this injustice from the point of view of a teenager.
The main characters are Hiram and his grandfather. Hiram is a sixteen year old boy who lives in Arizona, but in the summers, he visits his grandfather in Mississippi. His grandfather has lived in the Deep South all of his life and actually, Hiram grew up there. One other character, R.C. Rydell, is also important to the story.
The main idea of the story is that a boy Emmett, a black boy, is found shot, dead floating in a river. R.C. told Hiram that he going to talk with Emmett before he was killed. R.C. was a bit of a bully. There are three men who took Emmett away and were going to kill him because they thought that he was rude to a white woman. When Emmett was found dead, two of these men were accused of killing him. It was brought to trial and the judge decided that there was not enough evidence to convict them. However, Hiram still thought that the third fellow was R.C..
My least favorite part was when Hiram went with his grandfather to check the cotton fields. Hiram saw that his grandpa was not nice to the black workers. Hiram was not accustomed to this attitude toward other people.
I give this book four and one half stars out of five because I understand more about racial issues and the issues raised in this book upset me. It was sad to read this book and see that people really do this. I want to add that I liked how the author wrote the book and used such specific details to describe feelings and actions. I would recommend this book for others to read.

This book was so deep, we took 3 hours to discuss it in great detail. With prayer as its' core theme, the author does a wonderful job developing her characters and weaving their plots. At first, some of us were a little lost not really following where Ms. Foster was taking us, but wow, just when it slowed down, we hit the climax. It was a page turner all the way to the end, and it kept us asking what will happen next? This book is an excellent choice for a book club reading. So many questions were generated and discussed. How powerful prayer can be! Not to mention, what about that potato salad theory?

I picked up the novel to give "Christian fiction" another shot. As usual, I was disappointed with the craft itself. The story depended on dialog too much to give a lot of information, quickly. Instead of allowing the plot and the characters' actions/descriptions etc. to "show" us...there was a ton of dialog to "tell" us. I mean pages connected to pages of just dialog.

I managed to finish to see what happened, but the
journey itself was unrewarding.

Foster's book addresses important issues and it is a good story. My low rating is due to poor craft, which only distracts me from the story. Ernest Gaines also uses simple language and is sensitive to characterization, but he manages to help me see and feel and think without "telling" me everything.

This is book is, however, a pretty good first novel.

Passing by Samaria is an historical fiction novel that focuses on life in Chicago and Mississippi during 1919. I enjoyed this piece of Christian fiction because Sharon Foster has used a wonderful story to demonstrate a biblical truth..."A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36:26 Alena's character moves from tragedy to triumph in this heart wrenching story of life in Chicago and Mississippi during the early 1900's

I received this book as a gift for my 30th birthday. I had it for about a year or so before I finally read it! I had no idea what I was missing. The characters really come alive in this story. The author does a beautiful job of weaving in scriptures and songs that inspire. And her message is strong and clear. I wholeheartedly recommend this book. I have read all of this author's other books and I am anxiously awaiting her next release!

I read this book on the recommendation of several others who had read and were praising it. As strong as their praises were I wasn't expecting to be impacted by it the way I was. The book is simply beautiful in its delivery of this inspiring story. I am committed to reading all of Ms. Foster's books as a result of my pleasure with this one.

I believe Tennesee Williams is the most versatile modern playwright who truly exemplifies the dysfuctionality of family morals. The Glass Menagerie, Streetcar Named Desire, and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof are indeed his masterpieces. I found Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to be my most favorite. The characters were memorable (who can forget Margaret "aka Maggie The Cat," Brick, Big Daddy, and Big Mama?) and the lines truly classic ("What's the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof? Just staying on it, I guess, as long as she can..."). Also, just like Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on A Hot Tin Roof touched upon subjects that were controversial then and just as controversial now (homosexuality, child molestation, prostitution, etc.), which makes Tenesee William's works highly relevent. His plays age well with time. Not to mention that there have also been INCREDIBLE movie adaptations of all of his famous plays. After you read Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, or Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie, watch the movie as well. There is no other modern playwright (except Oscar Wild and Anthony Wilson)whose plays will truly have a place in my heart for years to come.

This play is the usual extreme histrionics that I have come to expect from Tennessee Williams. In this book set on a Southern Plantation we have the obligatory hysterical woman, an alcoholic and a homophobe. After a while one cannot help but get the impression that Mr. William's works all consisted of the same stock, cardboard characters and he only changed the settings and their names.I do give this book 5 stars because I have always liked Elizabeth Taylor who starred in the movie of this play although she is in fact a Real Life Serial Monogamist as the Sociologist would refer to her .

Only Williams could have gotten away with naming his hero "Brick," as names were always his strong suit. He found comfort in names, and a wild exotic beauty, and even in his last faltering years was usually able to pull a final name out of his hat, something perfect. I remember seeing CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF on stage, with Elizabeth Ashley, some time before I read the play, so naturally my experience of the text is colored by Ashley's sizzling interpretation of Maggie the Cat, all hisses and feral screams. She was so strong I can barely remember who played Brick or Big Daddy in that production. I think it was Keir Dullea from DAVID AND LISA. Maybe Big Daddy was the man from the MUNSTERS TV show. What we, the audience, cared about was if Maggie was going to get her wway and triumph over all the mendacity and the "no neck monsters" that were swarming the plantation.

Maggie gets angry, but mostly we value her for her tenderness. Even when she knows her husband has lost his heart over a long-gone teammate, and that he's probably gay, she never gives up the ship. She knows that without her in his corner 100 per cent, he'll give up, drown in his own sorrows. He needs her to kick his ass and bring him back to the land of the awake. She wasn't going to be an enabler, she would always discourage him from drinking from the time he got up in the morning till he passed out at night, his crutches tangled up in his boxer shorts. For Brick, drinking is a way out of his tortured memories of Skipper, the boy he loved in high school and college. Taking a drink is "like a switch, clickin' off in my head. Turns the hot light off and the cool one on and all of a sudden, there's peace." Secretly the family has a plan to ship his butt off to Rainbow Hill, sort of a Betty Ford Clinic without the mercy.

We love Maggie trying to semaphor the truth into his thick skull by screaming, "Skipper is dead but I'm alive! Maggie the Cat is alive!"

Tennessee Williams was a genius. This play runs the full spectrum of human emotion-desire, frustration, depression, denial, grief, longing,need, inadequacy. Its all laid right out in shocking bursts of deep naked revelation. This is my favorite play of all time.

Like the other great American playwright Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams was not afraid of creating controversy through his work. Touching on themes of money, social status, and sexuality, Williams presents the dark side of each character. While it is hard to like any character, it is difficult not to be compelled by them.

Brick Pollitt is the favored son. Failing to recover from the death of his best friend and fight the demons that come with booze, he has no desire to gain the good graces of his dying father and inherit his wealth. His brother Gooper and his wife Mae, that "monster of fertility", are engaged in a competition for the father's favor. But even nearing a sixth child, they can not measure up to Brick. The climax comes as Big Daddy and Brick attempt to reach the resolution that Brick has no desire to attain. Accusations of homosexuality and an inability to let go of his days as an athlete are among the reasons that Big Daddy suggests for Brick's inability to settle down and expand his family. Yet the resolution is not Brick's choice.

The explosion at the end is hardly as stinging as the process of getting to the conclusion. The ultimate question is whether the cat (Margaret) will choose to stay on the hot tin roof or seek refuge. The fast paced drama moves at an unflinching pace that will make readers anticipate the direction of each page. It may be difficult for some readers to disengage from this drama.

In the interest of full disclosure, I need to say at the outset that I'm a lifelong admirer of the subject of this lively, witty biography. Born and raised in Missouri, Clemens' home state, I, like many country boys of my generation, dreamed of floating down the Mississippi on a raft. I even tried to build one; it sank, which was likely for the best. But I digress.

Ron Powers evidences great sympathy for his subject without coddling or sugar-coating the crusty curmudgeon with the wild white mane. His prose is appropriately tongue-in-cheek at times--as Twain would have wished, I think--and his research is scrupulously thorough without adopting the plodding pace that plagues so many scholarly biographies. He allows the reader to marvel at the Sage of Hannibal as he glitters in all his brilliance... and as he curdles in his own self-centered blindness.

Best of all, Powers illuminates to great advantage Mark Twain's pointed social satire and political commentary, uncovering what was, for me at least, the important and previously unknown record of Twain's scathing critiques of U.S. expansionism and colonialist exploitation in places like the Philippines during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Steaming upriver against the popular currents of the day, Twain anticipates by decades--and, in some ways, lays the groundwork for--the rhetoric of dissent that would become prominent in the 1960s.

For Twain junkies like me, or for anyone interested in the rise of the uniquely American literary voice before and during the Gilded Age, MARK TWAIN: A LIFE is a better find than the loot stashed in Injun Joe's cave.

I was disappointed by this biography of one of the most interesting and popular figures in American history and letters. Unlike so many of the other reviewers I found this biography to be excruciatingly long and boring. It takes quite an effort by a writer to make as fascinating a person as Mark Twain dull, but the author succeeds. The writer kept throwing in his personal asides in an effort to be clever, but instead was merely annoying. The writing style is awkward and stilted and it takes a real effort to push through to the end. The author seems to be trying to direct attention to himself as much as the subject. This style makes the 722 pages seem twice as long.

This biography is a well written, comprehensive account of Twain's life. What is missing is a coherent, compelling life story or insightful interpretation of Twain's creative process.

I've read several biographies of Twain over the years, none more beautifully written than this book. It reads like a cultural history of the US during Twain's lifetime. I highly recommend this book to any serious student of Twain's work.

Powers gives us a terrific chronology, densely packed information, charming and insightful prose, plenty of great Twain quotes and anecdotes, empathy for the tragedies of Twain's life and twitting of his oddities when called for. I found it quite remarkable that the book could be so factual and also so readable. There's an excellent index, solid background references, and many laugh-out-loud moments. Adding to the pleasaure of this reading experience are some delightful and - new to me - photographs. Strongly recommend this outstanding biography.

I just recently read this again--each time it grows on me even more. It's a deceptively simple memoir that grows more complex in its structure and style with each re-reading. It's subjective memory at its best, and W's style is just a joy. I'm just back from Jackson, the best place to go after reading the book.

I was assigned this book twice in college, when it first came out, and I still don't know why. It's a very nice memoir of growing up in the south, but there's little that has to do with actual writing. The same can be said for a documentary I saw of the same title - Welty is a very intelligent and charming lady, and the book and documentary tell a good deal about her early life, but that's about it.

If you wish to learn how someone actually became a writer, and all the challenges of living such a life, you'd be much more rewarded by Somerset Maugham's "The Summing Up," Louis L'Amour's "Autobiography of a Wandering Man," the letters of Keats, Irving Stone's biography of Jack London, and "Women Writers at Work," in which there's a twenty-two page interview with Welty. (In fact, you can find it in the Interview archives of the Paris Review website.)

So again, nothing against the author or this book as a memoir, and if you love her stories, then definitely go for it, but if you're thinking of assigning it for a writing class, or simply looking to see how someone became a writer, there are better books to learn from.

I spent my vacation absorbing this book. I had heard of Eudora Welty, but this was my first opportunity to read her writing. I sat in Kentucky, listened to the cicadas singing, and read the words of Miss. Welty. Glorious!

"Listening," "Learning to See" and "Finding a Voice," Eudora Welty entitled the three chapters of her autobiography "One Writer's Beginnings." And while these may be steps that most writers will undergo at some point, Welty's compact memoir is notable both because it allows a rare glimpse into the celebrated writer's otherwise fiercely protected private life and it illustrates the roots from which sprang such extraordinary protagonists as "The Ponder Heart"'s Edna Earle and Daniel Ponder, Miss Eckhart and the Morgana families in "The Golden Apples" and, of course, the anti-heroes of her Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Optimist's Daughter," Judge McKelva, his second wife Fay and (most importantly) his daughter Laurel.

A native and -- with minimal exceptions -- lifelong resident of Jackson, Mississippi, Welty received her first introduction to storytelling as a listener; and early on, learned to sharpen her ears not only to a story's contents but also to its narrator and its protagonists' individual nature: "[T]here [never was] a line read that I didn't hear," and "any room ... at any time of day, was there to read in, or to be read to," she notes in "One Writer's Beginnings," adding that the discovery that all those stories had been written by someone, not come into existence of their own, not only surprised but also severely disappointed her. Equally importantly, family visits to relatives brought out the born observer in her; each trip providing its own lessons and revelations, each a story onto itself -- the seed from which later grew her manifold unforgettable literary creations. At the same time, her father's interest in technology introduced her to photography as a means of capturing visual impressions, one moment at a time; and when traveling around Mississippi as an agent for a state agency (her first job) she learned to use that camera as "a hand-held auxiliary of wanting-to-know" and discovered that "to be able to capture transience, by being ready to click the shutter at the crucial moment, was [then] the greatest need I had." Not surprisingly, her photography was published in several collections which have found much acclaim in their own right.

Thus, from early childhood on, Eudora Welty not only had a keen sense of the world around her but also, of words as such: of their existence as much as the interrelation between their sound, physical appearance and the things they stand for. Encouraged by her mother, a teacher, and over her father's worries (he considered fiction writing an occupation of dubitable financial promise and, worse, inferior to fact because it was "not true"), Welty embarked on a writer's path which would lead her to award-winning heights and to a reputation as one of the South's finest writers, with as abounding as obvious comparisons to fellow Mississippian William Faulkner in particular; a literary debt she acknowledged when she wrote that "his work, though it can't increase in itself, increases us" and "[w]hat is written in the South from now on is going to be taken into account by Faulkner's work" ("Must the Novelist Crusade?", 1965).

An approach that Welty herself developed early on was to consider the publication of her short stories in periodicals merely a step towards each story's final shape, and she generally revised her stories before including them in their various collections. -- Not only a keen observer, she was also a writer endowed with a sharp sense of humor and satire, and with the gift to brilliantly use location, localisms, accents, patterns of speech and customs to make a point.

Yet, "[t]here is no explanation outside fiction for what its writer is learning to do," Eudora Welty maintained in "Writing and Analyzing a Story;" explaining that each story references only the writer's vision at the moment of the creation of that very story, and the creative process itself: nothing that can be "mapped and plotted" but a product taking shape within the process of its creation as such, thus giving each story a unique identity of its own. And considering her reluctance to comment on, or to explain her own fiction writing, the insights into that creative process's origins she allowed her readers in "One Writer's Beginnings" are all the more to be treasured.

Also recommended:
Eudora Welty : Stories, Essays & Memoir (Library of America, 102)
Eudora Welty : Complete Novels: The Robber Bridegroom, Delta Wedding, The Ponder Heart, Losing Battles, The Optimist's Daughter (Library of America)
Flannery O'Connor : Collected Works : Wise Blood / A Good Man Is Hard to Find / The Violent Bear It Away / Everything that Rises Must Converge / Essays & Letters (Library of America)
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter/Reflections in a Golden Eye/The Ballad of the Sad Cafe/The Member of the Wedding/The Clock Without Hands (Library of America)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Universal Legacy Series)

For someone like myself, who is fascinated by the writing process, there is no book I value more than this book by Eudora Welty. The book, beautifully illustrated with family photographs, consists of three lectures delivered by Miss Welty at Harvard University in April 1983. A paragraph written by Miss Welty and inserted at the beginning of the book, in my view, perfectly illustrates the eloquence and subtleties of biography:

"When I was young enough to still spend a long time buttoning my shoes in the morning, I'd listen toward the hall: Daddy upstairs was shaving in the bathroom and Mother downstairs was frying the bacon. They would begin whistling back and forth to each other up and down the stairwell. My father would whistle his phrase, my mother would try to whistle, then hum hers back. It was their duet. I drew my buttonhook in and out and listened to it - I knew it was 'The Merry Widow.' The difference was, their song almost floated with laughter: how different from the record, which growled from the beginning, as if the Victrola were only slowly being wound up. They kept it running between them, up and down the stairs where I was now just about ready to run clattering down and show them my shoes."

One Writer's Beginnings is divided into three sections, representing the three individual lectures: Listening, Learning to See, and Finding a Voice. As I read "Listening," I felt another good title for it would be "Observing." Miss Welty knows her two parents as, I believe, few children know their parents. Her acute powers of observation--the differences and similarities between these two important people in her life, their separate tastes and talents, the daily habits of their household--are insightful and fascinating to read. This section makes clear how reading and being read to were as regular a ritual in her life as eating three meals a day. I love her observation that "It had been startling and disappointing to me to find out that story books had been written by people, that books were not natural wonders, coming up of themselves like grass." The author's observations about her life and the people around her are both sensitive and incisive. I quickly realized her reason for calling this chapter "Listening." She does not merely take in the literal content of words. Since childhood, apparently, she heard the cadences of words and the less obvious message of their inner meanings. This has been a particularly helpful revelation for me. With my strict German background, I tend to respond literally to what I hear and see, to what I read and write. Even journalism today does not limit itself to mere reporting, and I gained enormously from reading Miss Welty describe this aspect of her writing. What she does so well is to convey her own feelings inherent in words rather than merely their factual content. In short, she trusts what she hears, she trusts her inner voice that listens... and this is the source of all her writing.

Thus, it is not surprising to learn that Miss Welty was unable to feel comfortable with organized religion, that her reverence for the holiness and mystery of life was found in the great churches she visited and her contemplation of the King James Version of the Bible with its beginning offering: "In the beginning was the Word."

In the section "Learning to See," Miss Welty describes her love of traveling--road trips in the car for shopping sprees, to visit grandparents. She writes of how Ohio (where her father grew up) had her father "around the heart" as her mother adored West Virginia from whence she came...before her parents settled in Jackson, Mississippi, where Miss Welty lived her entire life. She observes and gives examples illustrating that her father, the optimist, was the one prepared for the worst, and her mother, the pessimist, was the daredevil. How many children see their parents that clearly? In this chapter, we learn a bit about the personalities of Miss Welty's grandparents. Her observations are replete with her love of them...not merely factual recountings of their backgrounds.

Perhaps it is here that another of Miss Welty's distinctions lies--her love of the people about whom she writes. Her love and respect for them is as plain between the lines as it is in the words she uses to define herself and her family in this revealing biography. My heart opens as I read her memories on the page, so filled with love are they.

It is clear I love every page of this small book, but I confess that my favorite chapter is the last one--"Finding a Voice." I love it best perhaps because it tells of one particular rail trip Miss Welty took with her father and reveals how the support for her becoming a writer came from her mother. She shares her feelings about her college experience, her discovery of poetry, and a host of helpful comments to do with her writing. I love that she writes: "I was always my own teacher." She shares her belief that a writer should remain "invisble," not "effaced" but invisible. A good example of this is her description of a soldier who had unexpectedly stepped off a halted train and was walking across a field into the distance. Rather than describe what she felt in watching him disappear, Miss Welty writes from the soldier's point of view: "...I felt us going out of sight for him, diminishing and soon to be forgotten." Another helpful reminder for me was her discovery that "...all begins with the particular, never the general."

There is too much of value in this book for any review to convey it adequately. However, I cannot end before quoting her last brief paragraph: "...I am a writer who came of a sheltered life. A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within."

There could be no better ending to this treasure of a book.

by Duffie Bart
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Red Azalea is one of my favourite novels, and so I read Katherine with great anticipation. I was very disappointed--the story was weak, and the writing not as sharp as what I expected after the freshness of Red Azalea. I think it is common for writers to have difficulty with their "sophomore" book though, especially after such a smashing debut, as Min had with Red Azalea. Happily Becoming Madame Mao was very good, and I am looking forward to reading Wild Ginger.

The year is 1982, only six years after Mao's death and China is only beginning to open up to the West. The narrator, a woman named Zebra succeeds in describing her very narrow, limited world, a world which holds almost no options of change and no possibilities of getting out, of improving your state. There seems to be comfort nowhere and even Zebra's home closes around her when she needs to give up the room she shares with her brother. The limitations seem to be even on the mind, one's wishes, loves and dreams. A feeling of suffocation pervades and is very clearly transferred to the reader.
Katherine is an American English teacher which symbolizes the entire Western world for her Chinese students. Everything she does, her actions, topics of conversation and the way she looks has the air of another place. Katherine represents a far away desired place which seems beyond reach; yet, she manages to evoke feelings and thoughts which are sometimes hard or forbidden to deal with. For the Western reader the limitations and the Chinese way of thought are not always comprehended - a good example would be Katherine's story about her youth. Her parents, so she tells her students, wanted to move near Lake Michigan. They preferred the suburbs... she loves to breath the air and listen to the waves at night... These words are totally uncomprehended by the Chinese students. They could not understand the meaning of "preferred", "bought a house"... "decided"... We never thought, writes the narrator that we could have an option to choose... that a person can do what he "likes" to do...

This is post revolution China but it seems that one person is meaningless and his future can be determined by some uneducated personality which happens to be in charge of a little "power" and the ability to determine one's fate.

I read this book holding my breath, expecting the tragedy that was sure to come. The book is an easy read but its content is harsh and thought provoking... For me it provoked feeling such as how lucky I am to be living in the Western world. Zebra describes her life and the change her life undergoes after she gets to know Katherine. The American Katherine undergoes a change as well.
All in all the entire book leaves you with a very heavy feeling, but still a highly recommended read and a good insight into China.

I, as a person living in the unique city of Hong Kong, have only seen China and its interaction with the western world from afar. Anchee Min's Katherine offers us a close-up of such things as individuals fighting against collective interests and foreigners trying to open up this giant piece of land and culture that we have long been hearing and reading about, yet not thinking and feeling about, even as Chinese myself. The courage that both Zebra and Katherine exhibit in suspecting, confronting and accepting each other's culture enables a true union of the Chinese way and the American way, thus the East and the West. I don't see Zebra's final leaving of China as a victory of the West over the East, because her departure is motivated by her desire to seek her true self, which is lost in the Communist China. Communist China, or Mao China, is not the true China after all.

This is a riveting story of how two women overcome cultural differences to build a true friendship. Although Zebra and Katherine were from two different worlds, in the end they found that they had much in common- as Katherine herself said, "I am an American, but I'm a human being first." This novel reads like an autobiography- although I know it is not, I hope it is "true," since although I have traveled extensively, I have never been to China, and I am counting on it as an accurate source about understanding Chinese culture and people.

Katherine by Anchee Min is a wonderful book. I was browsing through my local library, (where I used to work until not to long ago) and I stumbled upon it. I had read Red Azalea previously and when I saw Katherine (and Becoming Madame Mao) my heart started to race. (I had not come in to looking for other books by Anchee Min.) I also picked up Becoming Madame Mao and on my way out in the new books display guess what I found? Wild Ginger.

God bless Anchee Min. She brings to America what we had long expected, the true horrors of Red China. Her characters evoke their emotions to an amazing extent (I am talking about Jasmine and Lion Head specifically in Katherine). She is truly an excellent writer.

Well, now I have all of the books she has ever written (I own Red Azalea). I can't wait for what she will come up with next.

...Thanks very much and I hope you enjoyed these wonderful books as much as I! Look for a biography review coming next from me

i just discovered Parrish and this series and I bought them all! The first one was a great read and since I read another one later in the series I know they are all going to be good. Can't wait to read the next in the series. A good story of Southern misdeeds that can't be forgotten. Somewhat easy to figure out, but a good read anyway.

DARK of the MOON by P.J Parrish / excellant service and I appreciate the expedited delivery.

this was his very first book, and introduced a younger version of kincaid, who i met in a latter book. i liked learning about the psychology of a southern, racist town. even though it was the 80s, it felt like the 50s or 60s. the mystery itself was great too. go read it.

This is my second Louis Kincaid novel, having read Island of Bones a few months ago. This one blew me away. It centers around the investigation of a decades old lynching, a small town, and the secrets that haunt some of the pillars of the town. Louis Kincaid investigates this crime, refusing to "let it go" at the urging of the town's leaders. What follows is a great story of what happens when the truth is finally revealed.

I have not had a lot of time to read much fiction lately, but I had to know what was keeping my wife up late at night. I took the opportunity to read this story and could not put it down! It wasn't just a mystery, it was so much more. It was a captivating story of life in small town Mississippi. How events in the past shaped the people of the present. I really cannot wait to start the second book in the series. In fact, I am stopping right here to go do just that.

If you are a fan of Larry Brown, or Southern Literature in general, you will be spellbound with "Joe". As usual, Brown's characters are believable in their flaws. You will want to talk about this novel with someone after you read it..so recommend it to a friend and then be reinspired when you discuss the possibilities of what "really happened". What a terrible loss when Larry Brown died! Read anything you can get of his previous novels, especially "Fay" and the unfinished last novel "Miracle of Catfish"

Larry Brown came as a recommendation from another writer I admire (Vicki Hendricks) ... then it was seconded by Steven Sidor ... and my advice is to listen to what those two have to say about good books. Joe is wonderful stuff and Larry Brown was a wonderful writer. I'm ordering Faye today (after saving this). Larry Brown, like William Faulker, Daniel Woodrell and two writers mentioned above, needs to be read. What flavor ... what writing. Just excellent.

Larry Brown is a very under-appreciated Southern author, who hits his high mark with "Joe". Without going into a long detailed review, if you want a great modern, southern gothic book that you can't put down, this is it. Trust me.

"Joe" is the first book I'd read by talented author Larry Brown and I have to say I'm glad."Joe" held my attention in many ways-despite being a very large book to read. The main character is not perfect, some people might call him a straight up jerk. Somehow when I kept reading about this man, and all his flaws I couldn't help but to like him. Mr. Brown made him so real, so human and so imperfect, that I felt like I could know a JOE living next door or down the street even. However in realife-very rarely do you get to see and understand a person, like the author made me understand Joe and the reasoning behind his motives.
I highly recommend this book.

This novel is a whiskey soaked Faulkner-esque book of life in a rural Southern community. Quality American literature. A modern classic. I don't want to give anything away. I kid you not when i suggest you read it if you even sorta like American literature. Larry Brown seems to have mastered the form. Really, trust me and all these other reviews on here.