Customer Reviews

One Mississippi: A Novel

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Don't miss this darkly comic book. The hilarity of the first chapter alone is worth the cover price. I was immediately transported back to my teen years in the 1970's. My husband and I were howling in recognition before page 10. Childress, as always, finds ways to help us rethink family, race and religion. We're left wondering whether to laugh or cry. We can't help laughing at his crazy characters and crying as we identify with their full-blown humanity.

Daniel Musgrove is a teenager in the early 1970s. His dad is a salesman, and his company moves him around from year to year. Now they're moving to Minor, Mississippi.

Halfway through high school, Daniel is out of place not only as a new student, but as a Yankee who couldn't care less about the integration issue. He and his new best friend, Tim Cousins, spend most of their free time together. They share their obsession for Sonny and Cher, and they go to the prom with a set of twins.

When the boys are involved in a terrible accident that seriously injures Arnita Beecham, the school's first black prom queen, life gets complicated. Daniel ends up helping the Beecham household, then helping Arnita when she gets home. Due to a major head injury, she is going through an identity crisis that devastates her family.

The chronicling of Daniel's time in Mississippi meanders through teen and adult issues, as he faces that crucial moment of leaving childhood behind. His friendship with Tim will explore dimensions he never imagined, even with the hints along the way. Despite his desire to be "cool" instead of a "brain/loser," Daniel enters this book an innocent. He will emerge from his tale something entirely different.

Childress vividly captures a difficult coming-of-age story. Racism, teen love, family, bullies, and other issues are encompassed in a seamless flow. The characters around Daniel, especially Tim, are larger than life. Viewing the 1970s South from a young "Yankee's" perspective is sometimes hilarious, sometimes heart wrenching.

This book is a half step from greatness. While I recommend this for summer reading, there is a sense of something missed. Whether it be a lesson learned--as Daniel seems to learn lessons then immediately discard them--or a larger point, there is a shadow hanging over the end. The disastrous events at the end of the novel seem to promise an epiphany that doesn't quite happen--something hard to define. Then again, maybe that is the purpose, and the reader is to find their own meaning.

Go out and read this novel. Find your truth in Daniel's words.

Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer

6/20/2006

Daniel Musgrove's family has moved six times in 10 years. That's what happens when your dad is a saleman for TriDex, who moves its sales force frequently. Daniel's mother is thrilled to be moving closer to family and a place where her toes will finally be warm, but the children not.

Things quickly go from bad to crazy in characteristic Mark Childress style. On the drive to Mississippi, an accident destroys the van carrying all their belongings. Daniel and his siblings start school on the first day of court-ordered integration. A few months later their Granny dies and crazy Uncle Jacko comes to live with them.

All of these are minor happenings compared to Arnita Beecham, a beautiful black girl, winning prom queen and, later the same night, being run down by another student as she bicycles home. Suddenly the hidden tensions rise to the surface, spiraling ever farther out of control. The match that finally sets it all a-light: Arnita comes out of her coma believing she is white.

One Mississippi carries on in the trademark narrative style of Crazy in Alabama and Tender, a form descended from generations of front-porch storytelling sessions--luminously descriptive, yet full of caustic wit. Childress peoples his novels with exaggerated characters, misguided do-gooders and desperate loners, all in their own way demanding the reader's empathy and understanding.

The South itself is a strong character in Childress' novels, for it is only in these expertly crafted settings that his novels can exist. Time and place demand as much attention as the people.

Childress writes coming-of-age stories particularly well, effortlessly transporting the reader to the awkward days of adolescence.

"In high school it's all about how you walk down the hall--whether you stroll through the flow or dart along the edges, whether you hold the stack of books on your hip with one hand (guys) or press them two-handed to your chest (sissies and girls.) Notes are scribbled and passed, rumors fanned and blown down the hall."

One Mississippi feels like you've stepped into a world where the air is thick enough to chew, the lemonade is tart enough to kill a three-day thirst and the neighbors are friendly enough to invite y'all over for some southern fried chicken.

Armchair Interviews says: This is the perfect read for the long, hot days of summer.

While I enjoyed the references to 70's culture, which brought back lots of memories, I just don't see this as a humorous book at all. (the cover even featured a quote from, of all people, Stephen King, that it was the funniest novel he'd read in ten years--guess I should have considered the source) On the contrary, it was very dark, from beginning to end. Many of the characters were downright disturbing, from Daniel's father to Arnita, to Tim, as well as some of the minor characters. It is difficult to elaborate on these comments without giving away key events, but Daniel's father was a most unsympathetic character, the effects of Arnita's injury are far from humorous, her mother is strange and disturbing, the "Christ" play was too ridiculous to be believed, and Tim was one creepy character from the start. One had to wonder over and over why Daniel would want to be friends with him. The ending was really bizarre, even though there was plenty of foreshadowing, so not that much of a surprise. It just didn't seem to fit. However, I am most puzzled by the depiction of this story as "humorous," "uproarious," "hilarious," or "rollicking." Disturbing, dark, and troubling are more accurate.

This is a great coming of age novel that takes place in the 70s. Daniel Musgrove moves around a lot because of his father's job. In this chapter of his life they have moved to Mississippi, where it is the first year that black students will be attending his high school. Add to this the fact that Daniel and his best friend Tim just dont quite fit in. An accident, amnesia, bullies, girlfriends and a prom are all just some of the aspects of this book. As well as Daniel's quirky family. Put this all together and you have a read that keeps you interested, laughing, crying and thinking.

I'm not going to waste time rehashing the observations of others, but I do agree that this book covers a lot of ground. I found this story to be utterly hilarious at times, depressing and menoncholy at others. Childress does a good job of keeping a scattered plot together with engaging characters, a wicked sense of humor, and astute cultural observations. I'm sure some would find themes in this book mildly disturbing if not offensive (I'm thinking of older or culturally conservative folks here-- no disrespect, though) but I think he managed to step on and off the soapbox without irritating the reader too badly. Not bad. It gets a full 5 because I seriously did laugh aloud several times! :)

I checked this book out first during high school and I loved it so much that when I actually found it at my college library, I decided to read it again for old time's sake.

And finished it in probably less than two days! And then held on to it to reread over and over for another two weeks!

Giving a bit of a spoiler here, I think what kept me rereading it was just the underlying affections Tim had for Daniel. And their general humor as well (while reading this during lunch at college, I know more than a few people gave me quizzical looks as I couldn't hold back a giggle or two, lol).

Something that maybe a few might have disliked about the book though was the ending, how overly dramatic it was. Perhaps so...but in a way, were you really that surprised? Tim made it no secret how much of a grudge he held against Red and no matter how Daniel tried to dissuade him, he would always say that nothing they did was enough. So...while it did surprise me to an extent, on the big picture, no.

But ahh, if only Tim hadn't gone totally off the deep end...

Anywho, I really enjoyed this book and I seriously should now buy a copy (so that I don't keep checking it out every time I run across it in a library, xD). Absolute kudos to Mark Childress and I do believe this makes me more interested in his other works. ^_^

...this could also make a decent movie too, but let me not get ahead of myself.

I love Mark Childress and his take on small town southern life. His novels are always easy to pickup and just read, characters are interesting and well developed. Started off on a humorous note and started getting dark pretty quick. I could pickup on the mean streak in Tim, but couldn't figure out just where it would lead. I kept hoping Daniel would just drop him as a friend. The end of the book came as a complete surprise - it could possibly have happened in the 70's, but felt more like the present.

Well, that didn't take very long. Once I got to about the halfway point in this book I was able to just fly right on to the end. To say it's action-packed is putting it very mildly.

One Mississippi is a good read, and as I believe I may have mentioned previously, the southern voice is so authentic I forgot I was reading it in the Yankee North. Very well captured, Mr. Childress. Very well, indeed.

The book is about friendship bordering on obsession, and also about the complexity of budding adolescence. Without giving away too much that's plot-spoiling, suffice to say it covers the subject of exploring sexuality, as well as the confusion of sexual orientation and the worst of its ramifications. The book is by turns hilarious, poignant and also very violent. There's a lot packed into this one that you wouldn't at first supposed. Finding that unexpected complexity of plot was a very nice surprise, indeed.

Though I think the average reader could find a lot in the book, I know it's definitely enriched by the fact I identify with the Mississippi setting. It's hard to disassociate from that, but I would still say the appeal should be universal. Books about coming-of-age are popular largely because we've all been there and recognize all the good, bad and ugly of it. It's all too familiar, and in Mark Childress's hands the resulting issues are handled deftly with with a good degree of skill.

I enjoyed spending time with this book, and the time went by all too quickly. Definitely the mark of a good read.

Each Childress book is different, the indicator of a creative mind. In his latest, "One Mississippi," a 1970s Southern community is dissected with merciless precision, often comic, and the rites of passage of two teenage boys is the prism through which all is viewed. Those who grew up in the time and place will recognize much that is rendered with clarity and truth. Each character is bound by circumstances into the hapless, stereotypical roles into which he is born with the exception of Arnita, black prom queen who believes herself white after an accident and whose break with her own reality is also her downfall. The mosaic of Southern patterns...the template for a male, the dedicated female teacher whose elevator sometimes doesn't go to the top floor, the insensitive, ignorant preacher, the hysterical wife and mother with grandiose Southern ideas, the obsessed young church music leader, the intelligent and belligerent black mama, the stud football hero, the stern but absent traveling salesman father, the confused teenage boy...grout these with frictions that come about in contacts in their daily lives and fateful disaster is inevitable. You may put this book down to attend to daily necessities, but you will soon be drawn back to find out what happens next, like a tongue probing a loose tooth. You won't be satisfied until you've turned the last page. Can you ask more of a book?