In His Corner: Will the Real Billy Joe Please Stand [Paperback]

Joan Lewis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 11, 2001

The story of Billy Joe Billingsley, a troubled teenager who grew up to be a full-fledged criminal, and Jane Moss, his constant companion. Jane closed her eyes to Billy Joes activities until the FBI stepped in. Their journey takes you from Atlanta to Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and other southern states where the so-called Dixie Mafia flourished in the late 1960s. Billy Joe and Jane had one common thread their hometown of Overton.Billy Joe, a true Southern gentleman, would be penalized forever for one mistake he made in his youth. Not only was he penalized by some of the people in the small town of Overton, Billy Joe penalized himself. He thought he was unworthy of their trust and friendship.Janes top priority was her job. Her only other interests were shoes, clothes, and where she would wear them until the night she bumped into Billy Joe. Throughout the city of Atlanta in 1967, hippies were wandering the streets with their soulmates. Jane was no hippie, but she knew a soulmate when she saw one, and Billy Joe was definitely hers. It was obvious that Billy Joe felt the same towards Jane.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joan Moore Lewis, a native of Fayette County, Georgia, lived and worked in downtown Atlanta during the 1960s where she met a number of interesting people. She is a graduate of Southern Business University and attended Clayton State College. She holds a Georgia Real Estate Associate Broker License.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (September 11, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595199429
• ISBN-13: 978-0595199426
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,898,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poignant southern fiction -- Very highly recommended, September 5, 2002

By 

C. Penn "WordWeaving" (Greenville, SC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In His Corner: Will the Real Billy Joe Please Stand (Paperback)

The sleepy southern town of Overton did not forget or forgive young Billy Joe Bilingsley's transgression. Prosecuted as an adult, Billy Joe served time in prison for a simple, youthful mistake. He was branded a juvenile delinquent, and after serving his time returned to Overton only to realize he would never again fit in. Several years younger, Jane Moss never forgot the troubled young man.

Eleven years later Jane meets up with Billy Joe in Atlanta, knowing at once that they are soul mates. Despite the rumors of his criminal activity and attachment to the Dixie Mafia, Jane believes in Billy Joe's essential good. For a year he tries to protect her from the realities of his illicit activities. She determinedly denies the rumors, enjoying their time together shopping in exclusive stores, traveling to others states, or savoring fancy restaurants.

Lovers of southern literature will savor IN HIS CORNER. Author Joan Moore Lewis' mesmerizing voice captures the flavor of the sixties with a rich realism as she brings Atlanta in the sixties vividly to life. Moreover, she grapples with maintaining the belief in one's essential goodness no matter what. Jane purposefully blinds herself to Billy Joe's criminal behavior, yet her innocent faith in Billy Joe strikes the reader as believable as she determinedly reveals the truth of the Southern gentleman she loves. Billy Joe captures the reader's heart, proving that one wrong turn can forever determine one's life course, no matter the truth of one's character. IN HIS CORNER beautifully reflects the poignancy of the sixties song Ode to Billie Joe and the parallel, inevitable path of destruction. This entrancing novel of the south and soul mates comes very highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loving the bad boy, July 7, 2003

By 

Cathy Sumeracki (Scottsdale, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In His Corner: Will the Real Billy Joe Please Stand (Paperback)

We have all had that one relationship where we knew it was bad but refused to see it because it felt so good to be in love.

Joan Lewis allows us to revisit this experience with nostalgia and humor. We want to scream at Jane to get out before she gets hurt but know she wouldn't listen anyway - just as we wouldn't listen when we were told. At the same time, Joan's presentation of Billy Joe makes it easy to understand the tantalizing charm of the bad boy.

Readers will enjoy this one!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review by Jack Prather Published Author, January 19, 2003

By 

Edward J. Prrather "Edward (Jack) Prather" (Mobile, AL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In His Corner: Will the Real Billy Joe Please Stand (Paperback)

In His Corner
Will the Real Billy Joe Please Stand
By Joan Moore Lewis

This is a magnificent story about a very lovable young lady, Jane Moss, barely out of high school with innocence dripping from her every word and gesture as she ventures into real life. She is only a babe in the woods.

Jane grew up in Overton, a small southern town in central Georgia, in a very loving and caring family and community with many friends and a very caring but very strict father. Being the oldest child, this created a greater than normal desire for Jane to want to gain her freedom and independence to do it her way. She wanted to start her own life in the bright lights of Atlanta during the post World War II boom years of the mid 1960's. In Jane's case, this even turned into a "Damn it, stop me if you can attitude." Her confidence and drive is almost unbelievable for a young lady of her age in that day. This hurts Jane's father but he finally becomes reconciled, in his own way, to the fact Jane is a grown woman and there is nothing he can do to stop her.

Once in Atlanta, Jane very soon bumps into a slight acquaintance but older man, Billy Joe Billingsley, whom she had a small crush on in junior high school back in her hometown. This was just after Billy Joe returned from prison. Was this for a minor crime, or only a schoolboy prank that Billy Joe was sent up for? Jane doesn't really know or care to know, but she immediately falls blindly in love with this very cool, handsome, polished, very kind and tender man, in Jane's eyes. But, inside isn't he simply a mentally disturbed released convict, now a polished full blown con man, thief and mobster with a very strong need for Jane's affection? Is this need for affection only his desire to be forgiven by someone from his hometown? Does he really want Jane as his lover and some day for his wife? Or is his need only for her to act as a younger sister accepting and trusting him only because she is from his hometown? Jane is very intelligent, but is she so blinded by her love for Billy Joe that she only thinks that he is in love with her? He never shows his affection in this manner. In addition to his affection needs, is he actually using her as a cover for many of his wrong doings and can't admit this even to himself?

Here is where the brilliance of the talented author Joan Moore Lewis grabs her readers by their own conscience immediately with a direct challenge to the very inner core of their own morals by making them have to choose between right and wrong in forming an opinion about this strange friend of Jane's. She then holds their attention throughout the book, making them wonder if their opinion about Billy Joe was the one they really should have made. Some may even change their opinion several times during the read but they won't lose interest. They are hooked until the last word is read. In her clever way, the author lets Jane fulfill her desire for excitement and fine clothes by tagging along and flying to her dear Billy Joe on weekends at his every beck and call all over the southeast, eating in choice restaurants, staying in the best hotels, gambling at the strips in Biloxi and Las Vegas and meeting friends of Billy Joe's from prostitutes, pimps and mobsters to rich politicians and elected state officials. Billy Joe knows his way around. He knows his job and has been groomed and taught good taste and manners on high style living, which he gladly teaches Jane. Jane hangs on his every word. How will this all end?

This is a great read for everyone. The author presents the book in such a vivid manner that one can't help from wonder if this isn't a true story lived by the author instead of a novel. Then again, Joan Lewis's hometown of Fayetteville, Georgia was home for another great storyteller, Dr. Ferrol Sams. Might it be something in the water or was it transmitted through high school English teaches? If you remember, Dr. Sams wrote, "When all the World was Young," "Run with the Horsemen," "Whisper of the River" and others. No, it's not something in the water. Truth or fiction, it is simply the shining talent of this fine author Joan Moore Lewis breaking through the clouds to be seen again many times in the future.

This book is a must read for every parent and grandparent of a daughter or granddaughter and I suggest they get a copy for these young ladies to read before their graduations. It might save heartaches down the road.