Helpful Score: 6
I finished this book a few minutes ago and am already bereft that it isnt there for me to return to this afternoon. I typically prefer a linear story - or thought I did. I guess any writer can do that; but it takes a true master to so successfully weave the present into the past into the present as Tom Franklin has done here. The result is as intricately beautiful as a French braid. I'm going to have to track down which book actually won the Edgar Award for Best Novel (for which this book was nominated). It is difficult to imagine there was a better one in 2010 - or just about any other year in recent literary history. I have one bookcase (in a home lined with bookshelves on all three floors) where I keep "my classics" -- Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is already there.
Helpful Score: 5
This is the first book I've read by Tom Franklin, and was intrigued enough to look for more. This is a mystery involving a series of murders in the present day, which brings back recollections of a long-past murder suspect (a white man), and his nearly forgotten friendship with the black man who is now the police constable.
Being a northern-raised Yankee, I felt a little out of my element with the rural Mississippi setting, and felt like the flashbacks to 1980 could have been 1950 for the backward racist element, but I suppose a little culture-shock might be good for some of us. The plot was well-done, and the book as a whole was one I can highly recommend.
Being a northern-raised Yankee, I felt a little out of my element with the rural Mississippi setting, and felt like the flashbacks to 1980 could have been 1950 for the backward racist element, but I suppose a little culture-shock might be good for some of us. The plot was well-done, and the book as a whole was one I can highly recommend.
Helpful Score: 4
I could not put this book down. It is every bit as wonderful as all the reviews say it is. It cannot be labeled by genre, as it is more than a murder mystery. It is also a beautiful, sad and poignant story about friendship, racism, isolation and loneliness. It is beautifully written literary fiction, with a terrific cast of characters and a vivid sense of place. Very highly recommend.
Helpful Score: 2
I understand why this book has received high praise - it is well written and deals with "heavy" issues. It's a fairly quick read and kept my interest. It is one of those books you appreciate having read, but it is not a cheery story and I can't picture wanting to re-read.
Helpful Score: 1
I finished this book only because I kept thinking it would get better, much better. It was written in such a manner that it was so slow and not in the least bit exciting. I am often duped by those books with all the hype of being such a tremendous read, this one to me fell completely flat, not worth the time.
Very interesting and intriguing story about segregation in the deep south. This book had several twist and turns that kept me wanting to read more. Personally, I wouldn't find it a beach read due to the heaviness of the subject matter, but definitely a book worth reading!
~ Highly recommend; a book of quiet strength, about the choices we make and the indelible effect they have (4 stars) ~
This book was often heartbreakingly sad, but a wonderful read that I highly recommend. While CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER took me awhile to get into, I read the last 250 pages in one sitting late into the night. From the beginning there are certain things the reader pretty much knows, but there is still a great deal of mystery in the story. Franklin does a good job of achieving a nice balance between the two and of drawing you steadily in until you feel that a need to know the truth about these characters and what happened.
Silas and Larry seem to be relatively clear and simple characters at the beginning, but their complexities and dimensions are subtly revealed as the story progresses, the book being mainly about these two men and how their lives intertwined and connected. The book flashes between the past and the present until they eventually converge, but the transitions are done smoothly and there is not so much back and forth as to leave the reader feeling lost - several chapters go by before you return to the other time period.
The book is a difficult read emotionally due to the overwhelming sadness woven throughout the story. The characters and their lives often border on the tragic, though in simple and real ways. Loneliness, exclusion, isolation, loss, regret, longing, guilt - these things seem to define the characters' lives, but there is also a strength that we see in many of them and in their ability to continue and survive. You sense Larry's shame and longing to belong when he is made fun of or tries to fit in with the kids at school and you feel his loneliness as he sits in his auto shop everyday without a single customer or anyone to even talk to. Ina (Larry's mom) and Alice (Silas') were also very tragic characters and though seemingly small in the context of the overall plot, the boys' relationships with their mothers (both past and present) were very well-crafted and added a certain depth to all four characters.
One of the biggest dilemmas with these types of stories is how to finish them - at least that's how I feel as a reader - and as I approached the end of the book I was torn between whether I wanted a tragically poetic end or one of resolution and closure - which has the additional danger of bordering on the corny and overly sentimental. I obviously don't want to give anything away, so I will just say that the ending Franklin gives us was, in my view, absolutely perfect.
BOTTOM LINE:
I definitely recommend CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER and also think it would be ideal for a book group, providing a wealth of topics and issues to discuss and debate. The plot draws you in and the story was well-done; it makes you think about the different choices one makes and how certain decisions can impact other people's lives, sometimes indelibly. In my opinion, the characters are the book's greatest strength: you end up truly caring about them and feeling invested in their lives. Without some type of connection to a book's characters, its story can only affect you so much and take you so far, so I think that when an author is able to create both characters that pull at some part of you and a story that makes you debate and think and feel, he or she has done what they are supposed to do as writers.
[This review is of an advanced copy format of the book]
(Note: There were more than several typos throughout the book, however since this was an advanced reader copy, I am assuming/hoping they were fixed in the final edition.)
This book was often heartbreakingly sad, but a wonderful read that I highly recommend. While CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER took me awhile to get into, I read the last 250 pages in one sitting late into the night. From the beginning there are certain things the reader pretty much knows, but there is still a great deal of mystery in the story. Franklin does a good job of achieving a nice balance between the two and of drawing you steadily in until you feel that a need to know the truth about these characters and what happened.
Silas and Larry seem to be relatively clear and simple characters at the beginning, but their complexities and dimensions are subtly revealed as the story progresses, the book being mainly about these two men and how their lives intertwined and connected. The book flashes between the past and the present until they eventually converge, but the transitions are done smoothly and there is not so much back and forth as to leave the reader feeling lost - several chapters go by before you return to the other time period.
The book is a difficult read emotionally due to the overwhelming sadness woven throughout the story. The characters and their lives often border on the tragic, though in simple and real ways. Loneliness, exclusion, isolation, loss, regret, longing, guilt - these things seem to define the characters' lives, but there is also a strength that we see in many of them and in their ability to continue and survive. You sense Larry's shame and longing to belong when he is made fun of or tries to fit in with the kids at school and you feel his loneliness as he sits in his auto shop everyday without a single customer or anyone to even talk to. Ina (Larry's mom) and Alice (Silas') were also very tragic characters and though seemingly small in the context of the overall plot, the boys' relationships with their mothers (both past and present) were very well-crafted and added a certain depth to all four characters.
One of the biggest dilemmas with these types of stories is how to finish them - at least that's how I feel as a reader - and as I approached the end of the book I was torn between whether I wanted a tragically poetic end or one of resolution and closure - which has the additional danger of bordering on the corny and overly sentimental. I obviously don't want to give anything away, so I will just say that the ending Franklin gives us was, in my view, absolutely perfect.
BOTTOM LINE:
I definitely recommend CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER and also think it would be ideal for a book group, providing a wealth of topics and issues to discuss and debate. The plot draws you in and the story was well-done; it makes you think about the different choices one makes and how certain decisions can impact other people's lives, sometimes indelibly. In my opinion, the characters are the book's greatest strength: you end up truly caring about them and feeling invested in their lives. Without some type of connection to a book's characters, its story can only affect you so much and take you so far, so I think that when an author is able to create both characters that pull at some part of you and a story that makes you debate and think and feel, he or she has done what they are supposed to do as writers.
[This review is of an advanced copy format of the book]
(Note: There were more than several typos throughout the book, however since this was an advanced reader copy, I am assuming/hoping they were fixed in the final edition.)
~ Highly recommend; a book of quiet strength, about the choices we make and the indelible effect they have (4 stars) ~
This book was often heartbreakingly sad, but a wonderful read that I highly recommend. While CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER took me awhile to get into, I read the last 250 pages in one sitting late into the night. From the beginning there are certain things the reader pretty much knows, but there is still a great deal of mystery in the story. Franklin does a good job of achieving a nice balance between the two and of drawing you steadily in until you feel that a need to know the truth about these characters and what happened.
Silas and Larry seem to be relatively clear and simple characters at the beginning, but their complexities and dimensions are subtly revealed as the story progresses, the book being mainly about these two men and how their lives intertwined and connected. The book flashes between the past and the present until they eventually converge, but the transitions are done smoothly and there is not so much back and forth as to leave the reader feeling lost - several chapters go by before you return to the other time period.
The book is a difficult read emotionally due to the overwhelming sadness woven throughout the story. The characters and their lives often border on the tragic, though in simple and real ways. Loneliness, exclusion, isolation, loss, regret, longing, guilt - these things seem to define the characters' lives, but there is also a strength that we see in many of them and in their ability to continue and survive. You sense Larry's shame and longing to belong when he is made fun of or tries to fit in with the kids at school and you feel his loneliness as he sits in his auto shop everyday without a single customer or anyone to even talk to. Ina (Larry's mom) and Alice (Silas') were also very tragic characters and though seemingly small in the context of the overall plot, the boys' relationships with their mothers (both past and present) were very well-crafted and added a certain depth to all four characters.
One of the biggest dilemmas with these types of stories is how to finish them - at least that's how I feel as a reader - and as I approached the end of the book I was torn between whether I wanted a tragically poetic end or one of resolution and closure - which has the additional danger of bordering on the corny and overly sentimental. I obviously don't want to give anything away, so I will just say that the ending Franklin gives us was, in my view, absolutely perfect.
BOTTOM LINE:
I definitely recommend CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER and also think it would be ideal for a book group, providing a wealth of topics and issues to discuss and debate. The plot draws you in and the story was well-done; it makes you think about the different choices one makes and how certain decisions can impact other people's lives, sometimes indelibly. In my opinion, the characters are the book's greatest strength: you end up truly caring about them and feeling invested in their lives. Without some type of connection to a book's characters, its story can only affect you so much and take you so far, so I think that when an author is able to create both characters that pull at some part of you and a story that makes you debate and think and feel, he or she has done what they are supposed to do as writers.
[This review is of an advanced copy format of the book]
(Note: There were more than several typos throughout the book, however since this was an advanced reader copy, I am assuming/hoping they were fixed in the final edition.)
This book was often heartbreakingly sad, but a wonderful read that I highly recommend. While CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER took me awhile to get into, I read the last 250 pages in one sitting late into the night. From the beginning there are certain things the reader pretty much knows, but there is still a great deal of mystery in the story. Franklin does a good job of achieving a nice balance between the two and of drawing you steadily in until you feel that a need to know the truth about these characters and what happened.
Silas and Larry seem to be relatively clear and simple characters at the beginning, but their complexities and dimensions are subtly revealed as the story progresses, the book being mainly about these two men and how their lives intertwined and connected. The book flashes between the past and the present until they eventually converge, but the transitions are done smoothly and there is not so much back and forth as to leave the reader feeling lost - several chapters go by before you return to the other time period.
The book is a difficult read emotionally due to the overwhelming sadness woven throughout the story. The characters and their lives often border on the tragic, though in simple and real ways. Loneliness, exclusion, isolation, loss, regret, longing, guilt - these things seem to define the characters' lives, but there is also a strength that we see in many of them and in their ability to continue and survive. You sense Larry's shame and longing to belong when he is made fun of or tries to fit in with the kids at school and you feel his loneliness as he sits in his auto shop everyday without a single customer or anyone to even talk to. Ina (Larry's mom) and Alice (Silas') were also very tragic characters and though seemingly small in the context of the overall plot, the boys' relationships with their mothers (both past and present) were very well-crafted and added a certain depth to all four characters.
One of the biggest dilemmas with these types of stories is how to finish them - at least that's how I feel as a reader - and as I approached the end of the book I was torn between whether I wanted a tragically poetic end or one of resolution and closure - which has the additional danger of bordering on the corny and overly sentimental. I obviously don't want to give anything away, so I will just say that the ending Franklin gives us was, in my view, absolutely perfect.
BOTTOM LINE:
I definitely recommend CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER and also think it would be ideal for a book group, providing a wealth of topics and issues to discuss and debate. The plot draws you in and the story was well-done; it makes you think about the different choices one makes and how certain decisions can impact other people's lives, sometimes indelibly. In my opinion, the characters are the book's greatest strength: you end up truly caring about them and feeling invested in their lives. Without some type of connection to a book's characters, its story can only affect you so much and take you so far, so I think that when an author is able to create both characters that pull at some part of you and a story that makes you debate and think and feel, he or she has done what they are supposed to do as writers.
[This review is of an advanced copy format of the book]
(Note: There were more than several typos throughout the book, however since this was an advanced reader copy, I am assuming/hoping they were fixed in the final edition.)
This is not your typical murder mystery. It's about humans - humans who abandon their friends, who are afraid to speak up when it might help someone else and finally, about a man who grew up when he finally told the entire story that had caused a town to ostracize his friend.
The story begins with Silas, a deputy, finding a body in the swamp and having the feeling that he should check on an old childhood friend, Larry. He asks another deputy to do so and Larry is found shot, laying in a pool of blood in his home. As Silas investigates, memories of their childhood experience flash through his mind over and over.
Silas, known in the community as 32, investigates the death of the man he discovered and follows his hunches. Larry is alive, but just barely. The book flashes back to Larry and his life prior to his being shot. More narrative flashes back as Silas recalls the past, too. Larry has been shunned by the community because a young woman disappeared during his first date with her. In fact, it was his first date ever. The incident colors his entire life as those in the community shun him, believing that Scary Larry as he has become known is a killer on the loose. Now another young woman has disappeared.
The story begins with Silas, a deputy, finding a body in the swamp and having the feeling that he should check on an old childhood friend, Larry. He asks another deputy to do so and Larry is found shot, laying in a pool of blood in his home. As Silas investigates, memories of their childhood experience flash through his mind over and over.
Silas, known in the community as 32, investigates the death of the man he discovered and follows his hunches. Larry is alive, but just barely. The book flashes back to Larry and his life prior to his being shot. More narrative flashes back as Silas recalls the past, too. Larry has been shunned by the community because a young woman disappeared during his first date with her. In fact, it was his first date ever. The incident colors his entire life as those in the community shun him, believing that Scary Larry as he has become known is a killer on the loose. Now another young woman has disappeared.
A read for my book club at One More Page bookstore, it is definitely not one I would have picked off the shelf myself, but that is why I belong to book clubs. So on to my review. I am writing this review a full week after finishing the book and a few days after book club, why you say? Because I still have no clue as to what I make of it.
Confession - the story is about a black boy and a white boy and their relationship as it evolves over time. WELP this girl got the characters mixed up and had to back it up a few (50) pages and re read to get myself on track. So read closely and make sure you know who is talking!
Maybe because of my character mix up or because I just wasn't connecting with the story - I thought the characters were endearing and the story believable and interesting, but I just wasn't drawn to find out what was going to happen next.
Some people at book club empathazied with Larry, while I saw him as meek and a boy/man with very low self confidence. There were several times where I was trying to play therapist and give Larry some pep talks to buck up and confront the townspeople, but alas he just kept keeping on. I guess don't upset the apple cart!
Now without using too many more cliches, I am going to say that it was enjoyable, the writing was very descriptive, but not overbearing and it was worth picking up.
Confession - the story is about a black boy and a white boy and their relationship as it evolves over time. WELP this girl got the characters mixed up and had to back it up a few (50) pages and re read to get myself on track. So read closely and make sure you know who is talking!
Maybe because of my character mix up or because I just wasn't connecting with the story - I thought the characters were endearing and the story believable and interesting, but I just wasn't drawn to find out what was going to happen next.
Some people at book club empathazied with Larry, while I saw him as meek and a boy/man with very low self confidence. There were several times where I was trying to play therapist and give Larry some pep talks to buck up and confront the townspeople, but alas he just kept keeping on. I guess don't upset the apple cart!
Now without using too many more cliches, I am going to say that it was enjoyable, the writing was very descriptive, but not overbearing and it was worth picking up.
An enticing murder mystery. I have to admit that I was kept guessing.
Well- written page turner! Although described as a mystery novel, I consider it more of a 'life' story, an eye opener to the secrets of small-town life, the accepted dysfunctional lifestyles of the times. Easy enough to figure out the who-done-it part, but surprises anyway. As I finished the last sentence, I could only exclaim, "Wow."
I am writing this review as someone who grew up in Mississippi, who learned the "crooked letter" song as a child, who moved away but then came home again.
Somehow, Franklin managed to make this fictional town in Mississippi as much of a character in the book as the people who supposedly lived there. He was able to harness those intangible elements of everyday life here and make them intimately recognizable to those of us who know what to look for. I could almost feel the humidity of the summer here dripping off the pages.
I always wonder how books like this will look to those who don't live in Mississippi, and especially to those who have never been here. But this is a book that is about so much more than race. It is a book about memory, regret, forgiveness, and redemption. It is a story about loneliness, friendship, and finding your true family.
There were elements of the plot that were not much of a surprise, but there was so much more that was meaningful in many other ways. This is a haunting but easy read and one that I would gladly recommend.
Somehow, Franklin managed to make this fictional town in Mississippi as much of a character in the book as the people who supposedly lived there. He was able to harness those intangible elements of everyday life here and make them intimately recognizable to those of us who know what to look for. I could almost feel the humidity of the summer here dripping off the pages.
I always wonder how books like this will look to those who don't live in Mississippi, and especially to those who have never been here. But this is a book that is about so much more than race. It is a book about memory, regret, forgiveness, and redemption. It is a story about loneliness, friendship, and finding your true family.
There were elements of the plot that were not much of a surprise, but there was so much more that was meaningful in many other ways. This is a haunting but easy read and one that I would gladly recommend.
This book was fantastic. I stayed awake waaaay too late because I had to know the ending. The dialog is difficult to get used to at first (the book is set in rural Mississippi) but stick with it. Am still thinking about the characters. Extremely well written story about friendship, family, race, and an intriguing set of murders.
fabulous book
This was an excellent story. When I first started reading it, I didnt know if I would like it or not. As the story progressed, I really began to understand the characters and wanted to know what was going to happen to them next. I had a hard time putting it down and want to read more stories like this one. I give it four stars at the least, maybe four and a half.
