Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

Dear Books ‘n’ Wine Club,

Tom Franklin’s Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter goes beyond a crime novel or mystery, it’s a coming of age story. The two main characters, Larry Ott and Silas Jones, were once boyhood friends, but find themselves in an unusual situation in adulthood. The rural Mississippi setting is an integral part of this story as Franklin explores race in the 1970’s south.

This clip is from Barnes and Noble: Meet the Writer. This clip is lengthy (over 10 minutes) and provides a detailed summary of the book, the sparks that spurred Franklin to write the story, the reasoning behind the title, and additional stories from his childhood.

What is the story behind the title of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter? In an interview Franklin explains: “The title comes from a pneumonic device to teach southern children how to spell Mississippi. M, I, crooked letter, crooked letter, I, crooked letter, crooked letter, I, humpback, humpback, I. We moved to the crooked letter (slang for Mississippi) in 2001. I just loved it and wondered why no one had used it before. It sounded like an Elmore Leonard novel to me, and that was a good thing. It also seemed, or sounded, like a crime novel. When I began to try and figure out how the title fit this story, the story of 32 Jones and Larry Ott, it occurred to me that, in some ways, the book is about how southern children are educate into racism.”

The Reader’s guide can be found here.

Looking forward to discussing this novel with you all at our next meeting.

Until then…Happy Reading,
Jenn

January 2011 - Meeting Notes

Dear Books ‘n’ Wine Club,

Last night we started the 2011 year discussing The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton. Many thanks to a tired and overworked, Ellen for being such a gracious host. We dined on fantastic take-out from Panera. Who didn’t love the barbeque chicken salad?

We missed Allison and Marrie and very much look forward to their return next meeting.

I am not sure we lived up to our New Year’s resolution and discussed the book more; however, we all had lots of wine and laughs!

For all of us we appreciate the historical aspects of this book. We appreciated the tie ins to the women’s movement of the late 60’s and were able to identify with the at-home mom vs. working mom dilemma. Social changes unfolded as the book’s characters did. The author weaved in the space program, Miss America Pageant and Vietnam War. Clayton explores the topics of sexism, class and race within the novel. However, overall for many of us the characters lacked depth and were never really developed.

We discussed the Miss American Pageant and how in the beginning when the group met to watch the pageant it totally fit the time, place, and who they were as women. As the women evolved they began to see the pageant in a different light – as they began to see themselves and each other in a different light. In fact many of the cornerstones of the book symbolically represented the evolution of each character. Even the “Miss Havisham” manor ironically was wreaked the day Ally brought Hope home from the hospital, symbolizing the end of Ally’s empty and dark suffering.

The funeral home scene garnered the collective response – creepy. So what was Linda’s point bringing the group to the funeral home and taking pictures in the casket? At first the scene appears morbid, sad and out of place. But upon closer examination Linda was trying to emphasize to the group that in the end and we’d die without ever achieving our dreams it would be because we’d been too afraid to try. I really was taken with this quote: “You’re brilliant, Brett,” Linda said. “If you can’t do this how are the rest of us suppose to have any hope?” She was talking about Brett’s writing, but she meant more than that. She meant How are the rest of us supposed to have any hope of becoming whoever it is we’re meant to be?”

So what about Kath and her desperate need to cling to her marriage with an unfaithful husband? Kath’s husband certainly angered us. However, Kath’s mindset was so typical of the time. As Susan quoted: “A divorcee.” Ally said it the way we were all thinking it, as though it were a terminal disease.” We did applaud Kath’s determination to seek employment to support herself and her children.

Despite its lack of character development The Wednesday Sisters made us appreciate the women from this time period and ultimately what they did to advance all women! We have come a long way and bottom line from our conversation was one word: CHOICE! We have the choice: to stay home, to work, to marry, to divorce…..

Ladies, follow your dreams……

Our next meeting is set for March 11th at Jenn’s to discuss Tom Franklin’s novel Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter. Until then stay warm.

Best,
Jenn