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
No comments:
Post a Comment