Cotton Song

This book was extra special, since it was written by Tom Bailey, my former writing professor at Susquehanna. Last year, I really loved his first novel, The Grace That Keeps This World. I really recommend it to anyone, it was absolutely fantastic.


Cotton Song was also a very intense novel, with a cast of very interesting and devoted characters. It was a very tough subject to read about - race violence and the KKK in Mississippi in the 1940's, but I think I ultimately learned a lot about a world I knew nothing about. It all starts with the lynching of Letisha Johnson, who was wrongly accused of drowning the child of the well-to-do family she worked for. Letisha leaves behind a 10 yr old daughter, Sally, who it is Baby Allen's charge to protect. It takes a lot of surprising and sometimes disturbing turns. I'm not gonna lie - if you're a prude, don't pick up this book bc there's a lot of, um, graphic & violent parts. But, I think in the end it all contributes to the plot and makes Cotton Song a really complicated and deep book about the Deep South during the 1940's and about doing what's right, and the price of progress... he's a really great writer. :)

I'm listening to him on NPR from a few years ago talking about TGTKTW.