Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin – The quiet life of rural North America does
not mean life is simple. Judgments of neighbours can be harsher than in major
urban centres. From knowing everyone,
community reputations are assigned early in life with a permanence that is almost
unshakeable. No one is anonymous in small places.
Franklin’s description of life in
southeastern Mississippi reminds me of growing up in east central Saskatchewan.
I knew all the residents of the area. I knew their family histories. They knew
mine. Fortunately, the reputations around Meskanaw were positive. Not so in Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter.
Larry Ott, the odd awkward country
boy, who loves to read, especially horror, never fits in at school or in the
tiny town of Chabot. His ostracization by the community is sealed when a girl
he took on a date in high school, Cindy Walker, goes missing and is never
found. There is not a doubt from anyone beyond his mother that Larry must have
sexually assaulted and killed her.
While there is no proof and he has
never been charged Larry is shunned. No one comes to the garage, Ottomotive
Repair, he has carried on since his father died. No one calls him or visits him.
He is barely tolerated in area churches.
Now 41 Larry lives alone, eats KFC
suppers by himself, watches some T.V. and reads his horror novels.
Silas Jones is bright and sociable
and handsome and athletically skilled. Though he only came to town as a young
boy, he is designated a good guy. Since high school, when he was a talented
shortstop, he has been known as 32, his uniform number. 32 is Chabot’s
police department.
While he is unmarried and without
children 32 has a good relationship with his girlfriend, Angie. She is clearly
looking to build that relationship.
In the transformation of the South
during the 1960’s and 1970’s it is a twist that the solitary Larry is white and
the popular 32 is African American.
Each of Larry and 32 are living out their lives as expected by the community.
Life grows even more isolated for
Larry when the Rutherford girl, university aged daughter of the leading town
businessman, goes missing. Larry is the primary suspect. Many think he is a
serial killer.
At the same time local drug
dealer, M & M, the second baseman for 32 also disappears.
As investigations proceed the plot
moves seamlessly back and forth between current times and the youth of Larry
and 32.
It is a rare talent that Franklin
has to make the lives and characters of people just getting by and the poor
intriguing.
I have enjoyed those John Grisham
books set in rural northern Mississppi. Both Grisham and Franklin evoke the
feel of the country and the people who live there.
While Franklin’s book does not
have the same racist confrontations as Grisham there is still in the late 1970’s
when Larry and 32 were teenagers a continuing racial strain. Much has changed in the South since To Kill a Mockingbird.
I understand why so many reviewers
have loved this mystery. Franklin draws you into the lives of Larry and 32 to
depths uncommon in crime literature. He builds tension as lives are unfolded in
ways I did not see coming in the plot.
I expect Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter will be a crime fiction classic read and appreciated for decades to come around the world.
Bill - It's very good to hear you thought this was well-done. I agree with you that Franklin has done an excellent job of depicting the community, the people and the physical setting. The story line is strong too, and gives the reader a lot of 'food for thought,' I think.
ReplyDeleteMargot: Thanks for the comment. I thought you would have enjoyed the book.
ReplyDeleteAnother good review for this one - I must put it on my list. Thanks Bill.
ReplyDeleteMoira: Thanks for the comment. I look forward to a review.
ReplyDeleteI loved this book. It said so much about the human condition, about friendship lost and found, about alienation and loneliness. I cried at parts of this book about Larry Ott's loneliness and his missing Silas and other friends. And then later because it's Silas to reaches out to Larry, even though Larry had hurt him years earlier.
ReplyDeleteThere are episodes of racism in the book, which include the reasons why the friendship of Larry and Silas severed. Also, the descriptions about Silas' mother and the circumstances of employment and pregnancy say a lot about life in the South for Black women years ago.
Tom Franklin has the John and Renee Grisham Chair at U. of Mississippi. He follows in Grisham's traditions in being a good story teller about life in the South years ago and now, and being able to write well about human emotions and relationships. That interested me even more than the mystery.
Kathy D.: I agree Franklin took us deep in the lives of Larry and 32. (I did not know whether to use "Silas" or "32". I chose 32 as that is how people knew him in the area.)
ReplyDeleteI appreciated the stories of the lives of the characters in the same way I appreciate Gail Bowen writing about her characters in the Joanne Kilbourn series.