2024 Book Review #44:One Mississippi

 

This is a new-to-me author who has written other novels.  This one is the first of his that I've read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It's a nice family drama set during the early 1970s in Mississippi. 

STORY SUMMARY

The Musgrove family (Dad, Mom, Bud, Daniel, and Janie...along with Mom's paralyzed uncle Jacko) are moving to Mississippi after living in Indiana. They're moving the summer before Daniel's junior year of high school and he is appalled. 

He has to learn to say "y'all" and "Co-cola" and drop the 2nd syllable in Mississippi like the locals do so he can fit in. He doesn't want to be ostracized for being a Yankee. 

At first, Daniel is lonely.  But then he meets Tim Cousins  a fellow outsider. He figures you only need one best friend and Tim fits the bill. 

They become inseparable and they share a fascination with ridicule, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, and Arnita Beechum, the prettiest girl in the high school, who also happens to be black.  At Minor High, blacks and whites have just been allowed to integrate. 

Minor High is full of interesting people. There's their math teacher, Mrs Passmore, whose mind is slipping off the tracks and she's only 43! There's the class bully who also happens to be the star football player, Red Martin. 

Tim and Daniel join the cast of a bouncy evangelical musical called Christ! (think Godspell only not as good).  

They both take prom dates to the prom in matching blue tuxedos. They kiss the girls (a set of religious twins) on the lips in Tim's father's Buick to the tune of "Nights in White Satin". 

But....on Prom Night things go horribly wrong. The friends' feud with Red gets out of hand. They commit a small crime that grows bigger and bigger and threatens to engulf the entire town. Arnita, the first black prom queen in the history of Minor High, is injured and wakes up from the coma a changed person. 

And Daniel, Tim, and their families are swept up in a shocking chain of events. 

MY THOUGHTS

This book is ripe with solid characters and setting. The setting is the deep south in 1973 and the author does an excellent job of describing the culture and people of that time. 

I loved the plot and the antics of the Musgrove family.  There's many layers to this story but it's a quick read and full of comedy, drama, and a bit of romance. 

This is like a "coming of age" story. Daniel's character really is shaped throughout this entire story. And there's a couple of twists that I didn't see coming which was nice. 

The main themes in this book appear to be: teenagers/growing up; racism; lust/teenage crushes; friendship; betrayal; homosexuality; bullying; the Vietnam War; gun violence; threats of suicide; family relationships; death; unemployment; marital difficulties; poverty; "redneck" nuances. 

There's a lot to this book.  Those concepts listed above all work well in a surrealistic manner almost. 

There were two quotes that jumped out at me: 

"It was an answer to a prayer I'd been praying my whole life without realizing it". (pg 224 One Mississippi by Mark Childress, c.2006)

"For the first time in our lives, Dad was putting me ahead of everyone else......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" (pg 384) 

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older (depending on the maturity of the 14 yr old).

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 9.