Visible Spirits [Hardcover]

Steve Yarbrough (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 8, 2001

A heart-stopping story—by an award-winning novelist—located at the dead center of Southern mythology and our most intransigent national trauma.

The Mississippi Delta, fabled “South of the South,” is replete with plantations carved from the wilderness, rich soil and King Cotton, with field chants and blues laments, violence and tragedy. In this austerely beautiful landscape,
by 1902, Reconstruction is being encroached upon by Jim Crow. And in the town of Loring, the tenure of a black postmistress is compromised when the prodigal son of a once mighty planting family returns home. A gambler run
out of luck and a great many venues, he finds his diminished prospects as unappealing as the political moderation of his brother, now both mayor and editor of the newspaper. Their fraternal tension quickly spreads through the countryside—some citizens striving for the better world ostensibly promised, others for the vestigial antebellum order. Caught squarely in the center of this tortured dynamic is the postmistress herself, her fate further complicated when President Roosevelt, on federal grounds, intervenes personally.

And so this local, even familial dispute inevitably erupts, fueled by all the dark, brutal memories of slavery, civil war and emancipation. In this crucible of race relations and mythology, people black and white alike are tested relentlessly by history and human nature, by passions at once ambivalent and fierce. And with this masterful novel, Steve Yarbrough confronts character with morality, love with hatred, reason with blood—and with great authority and compassion he extends a rich tradition of our national literature.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The South depicted in Steve Yarbrough's haunting new novel irresistibly calls to mind Yeats's famous lines, "the best lack all conviction, while the worst/ are full of passionate intensity." The best and worst, in this case, are brothers who, despite their common upbringing, are diametrically opposed on issues of race. Tandy Payne, who returns to Loring, Miss., in the early 20th century after squandering his inheritance on gambling, whores and liquor, has absorbed all the hypocrisy and racism of the old South. Loring's mayor, Tandy's brother, Leighton, stands 6'5", harbors liberal opinions and is handicapped by a perpetual awkwardness. He runs Loring's newspaper and uses it as a platform for moderation. Yarbrough divides his story between the Payne siblings and Seaborn and Loda Jackson, who are black. Loda is the town's postmistress, the only African-American in the state with a government appointment. Tandy covets her job, and he decides to steal it by starting a race-baiting campaign, claiming Loda encouraged a black laborer to behave insolently. To prevent conflict, Loda resigns, but Theodore Roosevelt's administration decides to make a civil rights stand by not accepting her resignation. In the escalating dispute, Leighton becomes a pariah for siding with Loda. Connecting Loda, Tandy and Leighton is their common father, Sam, a plantation owner who massacred a group of black men and women who tried to escape the Delta in the 1880s. Based on a real 1902 incident, Yarborough's sad, elegantly wrought story proceeds like a mesmerizing lesson in the skewed logic of violence, and it builds to a powerful ending, a tragic testament to the dark heritage haunting the South. Yarbrough, who earned critical kudos with The Oxygen Man, has again written a novel that resonates with understanding and compassion. (May 7)Forecast: While his subject matter is somber, Yarbrough's restrained narrative pulls the reader into its time and place with beautifully calibrated suspense. Critical recognition that he's a writer to watch should bring attention to this novel.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

A family's complex relations and dark history are the central forces binding together plot and theme in this latest novel by the author of The Oxygen Man (1999). The year is 1902, the dawn of the modern era in American race relations and state's rights. Drifter and ne'er-do-well Tandy Payne has returned to Loring, Mississippi, and it appears his only purpose is to stir up trouble. His older brother, Leighton, is the mayor of Loring as well as the editor-in-chief of the town's newspaper. When Tandy hatches a scheme to remove the town's African American postmistress, Loda (who is his half-sister), and secure the job himself, Leighton opposes him, with federal assistance. However, the diabolical Tandy has allies of his own--particularly the area's wealthy white planters--and soon Loring is a divided town. The plot avoids both sentimentality and a tidy ending, and it is strong on characterization. Although Tandy's weaknesses as a character are readily apparent, the well-roundedness of the other characters more than make up for it. Frank Caso
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (May 8, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375411593
• ISBN-13: 978-0375411595
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,718,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bridging Race Relations, June 11, 2001

By 

Zellie Rainey Orr (Marietta, Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Visible Spirits (Hardcover)

I completed Visible Spirits (June 8th- a month to the day after its release). The book held my interest, especially since though fictional it was of personal sentiment for me. Had I not known the real story of the Cox episode, I would have been inclined to believe yours. The way you write is quite convincing. Your ability to cross racial lines via the message in Visible Spirits has me awed in that you were able to focus on and express the goings on in a culture which is so divided as it relates to black and white issues yet, you who grew up on the other side of the tracks- have connected mentally and spiritually. I do hope that those who read your book will walk away with the understanding that our past is a part of our present, and that our destiny lies in the hands of each of us, individually and collectively. A house divided cannot stand...perhaps Visible Spirits has come to heal us and bridge race relations in Mississippi, and the world. Keep writing!!!

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, July 10, 2001

By 

Elizabeth Hendry (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Visible Spirits (Hardcover)

Visible Spirits is a wonderfully well-written novel with strong characters and a great story. It's 1902 in Loring Mississippi. Tandy Payne has returned to his hometown after running out of money to find that his brother Leighton, editor of the local newspaper, has become mayor of the town. Tandy figures he can use his brother's position to get a job so that he can reclaim the family plantation. He decides that the job for him is postmaster because the current postmistress is a black woman, and he believes that the incipient racism in the town, which he incites, will support his quest. She resigns under pressure, but the president gets involved, seeking to reinstate her. The story is not pretty, but the telling is beautiful. Yarbrough is a fine writer, and while some of his characters are pure evil, most are caught somewhere between good and evil. The situation is difficult, with many people caught between doing what is right, and doing what will help them survive. Visible Spirits is a great American story. Enjoy.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I wept at the truth of it all., January 15, 2009

By 

Leslie Ann Lewis (San Antonio, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Visible Spirits: A Novel (Paperback)

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Having grown up in the Deep South, I can attest that even today there is much racism and racial resentment. I have seen it in other places, but I have never lived in another place where it was as much a part of everyday life as drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. I wept because so much of this story rang so true, not only to what I knew of history, but also to what I had seen first-hand.

Tandy Payne, a gambler with no manners (when we first meet him he tracks mud into his brother's office), returns home since he has no money. When he finds out that his brother Leighton is now the mayor, he hopes that Leighton can use his position to get him a nice job. Despite the fact that the position is already filled, Tandy decides he would like to be the postmaster. He manipulates those around him to kindle (or re-kindle) their racists attitudes and get the black postmistress to resign.

As I read, I cried not only for those who were and are the targets of such behavior, but for the perpetrators of it as well. Such ignorance and intolerance is surely a disability and I mourn for those who cannot work past these things to live a life of appreciation for all humanity. I can only hope that we continue to strive to consign such events to history and create a better future.