Another 2010 Mini Reviews
I often read books but don’t write a full review about them – but still think that they’re worth mentioning. These are just a few of the books I’ve read this year that fall into that category.
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
By Tom Franklin
William Morrow
$24.95, hard cover, 274 pages, 978-0-06-202066-4 (2010)
Horrible title – great book!
I read some reviews of this novel and it was mentioned so laudably by some of my favorite writers that I just couldn’t resist reading it. I mean, when you get blurbs from Richard Russo, Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos and Ann Hood, you’re hanging out with some pretty good folks.
Set in rural Mississippi, the novel is about boyhood friends, Larry Ott (poor, white lower-class) and Silas “32” Jones (even poorer, black, and raised by a single mother), and how their relationship as kids in the 1970s changes dramatically when Larry takes a girl out on a date and she’s never heard from again. Larry is never charged with anything but the stain of implied guilt hovers over him. Silas never speaks to him again.
Over twenty years later, Larry is a mechanic and Silas returns to the area as a constable. Another girl disappears and the suspicion again turns toward Larry. Now the two men must interact despite their childhood estrangement.
This is one of my favorite books of the year.
Buy it on Amazon here.
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