remssa's review against another edition
dark
funny
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
jem_andtonic's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
blackbiracialandbookish's review against another edition
4.0
Using magic and sorrow as well as hatred and humor, Lewis Nordan’s
mrb's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.0
katyjean81's review against another edition
5.0
I read this book in my contemporary fiction class in college and LOVED it. It's an extremely powerful telling of the murder of Emmett Till. I think it's a testament to the ways in which fictionalized accounts of true events can often be more powerful and influential than non-fiction.
armiles713's review against another edition
4.0
3.75 Read for a class. This book was... odd. It takes a serious and horrific event from the past and satirizes it, which some people praise and some criticize very harshly, and I'm not sure yet how I overall feel about the book. I think it's one of those you have to marinate on for a while before you can form a proper opinion. I will say that parts of the book were quite witty, and parts of it I'm sure were supposed to be quite witty but went straight over my head, and pretty much all of it made you stop and think. Definitely an interesting book, if nothing else. And unique.
radballen's review against another edition
5.0
Tremendous. Brilliant. More details to come. Thank you to the dear friend that recommended this novel to me.
moosegurl's review
4.0
"They spoke, finally, from their hearts. Maybe, finally, they did weep together, and maybe held each other tight. Nobody but Bobo knows for sure what happened next, but maybe, behind Alice and Sally Anne, the crystal ball in Swami Don's Elegant Junk shone with the bright blue light of empty interiors and of faraway and friendly stars and all their hopeful planets and golden moons."
jamiereadthis's review
5.0
Nothing about this should work, nothing, but God Almighty, so help me, it does. The white-trash telling of Emmett Till’s murder. The fantastical, twisty what-if of 1950’s Mississippi. It’s a lightning storm in the swamp. It’s electricity and madness and hilarity/horror and the boiled-down heart and soul of love and hate. It’s fiction, but it’s fact, and it’s history, and it’s history and fact and the heart of the matter in the way that takes fiction to get there. Larger than life. Magic even when you don’t believe a thing such as magic exists.
In my favorite review of it, the review that made me pick this book up, Jimmy says “It’s your own heart, idiot.” It’s all our hearts. It’s Mississippi.
In my favorite review of it, the review that made me pick this book up, Jimmy says “It’s your own heart, idiot.” It’s all our hearts. It’s Mississippi.
charlesdoddwhite's review
5.0
Nordan manages to tackle the legacy of racial violence in such a weird, unorthodox way that he delivers a unique but profound reading experience. The tone can be bracing at times, but the grace that pervades the book makes it truly remarkable. It is one of the best explorations of white guilt in the Southern consciousness that I've read.