Kim
Rating:
Review
Larry Ott and Silas Jones evenly share the focus of this masterfully-written story, as they are both complex men in their own ways. Growing up poor in Chabot, Mississippi, Larry and Silas were quick friends as teenagers for only a short period of time when Larry takes a local girl on a date to a drive-in movie, and she is never heard from again. Larry is suspected of killing her, even though her body is never found and he is never charged, but everyone in town thinks Larry is guilty so he and his parents are ostracized. Soon after, Silas and his mother move to a different town, and then Silas is eventually off to college and the armed forces, only to return to Chabot many years later as the town’s police officer. Larry still lives and works in Chabot, and when another girl disappears, all fingers point to Larry, especially after he is found at his house near death with a bullet wound that appears self-inflicted. Larry and Silas have many secrets from way back when, though most are Silas’s, and all is eventually revealed in a number of shocking ways. I enjoyed this story immensely though I found some of the dialogue troubling. I did like that Silas turned out to be more introspective than I first gave him credit for, and the strange character of Wallace Stringfellow was as sick and disturbed as his dog, who was interestingly named after a serial killer. This is not a dark story though, believe it or not, which is why I recommend it to so many people.
Best Line:
“When he left, Larry lay amid his machines, thinking of Silas, how time packs new years over the old ones but how those old years are still in there, like the earliest, tightest rings centering a tree, the most hidden, enclosed in darkness and shielded from weather."
SuzanneRating:ReviewTom Franklin is a talented storyteller - he made it seem like I could feel and smell rural Mississippi all overgrown with kudzu and snakes while I was reading this book. The story centers on two boys, Larry Ott and Silas Jones, who become friends one summer, and traces how their lives separate and then come together again many years later. Larry is white and Silas is black. Both come from very poor families and live way out in the country. Eventually Larry takes a girl on a date for the very first time and he’s accused of murder when she never returns. He denies it and it’s never proven, but no one in town ever sees him the same way again. Silas ends up going away to a different school and returns many years later as a police officer. When another murder happens the townspeople once again turn their eyes to Larry Ott. Larry and Silas are thrown together in an uncomfortable situation after many years of disconnect, and old secrets are finally brought out in the open. There is sadness and loneliness here, but also redemption and hope.
Best Line:
“He wished you’d been the white one,” Larry said. (pg. 255)
