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Mississippi Sissy
Mississippi Sissy is the stunning memoir from Kevin Sessums, a celebrity journalist who grew up scaring other children, hiding terrible secrets, pretending to be Arlene Frances and running wild in the South. As he grew up in Forest, Mississippi, befriended by the family maid, Mattie May, he became a young man who turned the word "sissy" on its head, just as his mother taught him. In Jackson, he is befriended by Eudora Welty and journalist Frank Hains, but when Hains is brutally murdered in his antebellum mansion, Kevin's long road north towards celebrity begins. In a memoir that echoes bestsellers like The Liar's Club, Kevin Sessums brings to life the pungent American south of the 1960s and the world of the strange little boy who grew there.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published March 6, 2007
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1455 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 237 reviews
September 20, 2012
Nicely written. I did not have any idea who Sessums was and after reading this book, I felt that he was like a friend to me. He shared everything including the emotional and physical tortures that he suffered from the hands of his father who could not accept him as gay, the sexual abuse and rape that he experienced at his young age and the many other homosexual encounters that he had with his lovers.
Looks like a typical gay boyhood memoir, right? Well, prior to this, I read America's Boy: A Memoir (2 stars) by Wade Rouse, A Boy's Own Story (3 stars) by Edmund White, and Running with Scissors (2 stars) and A Wolf at the Table (1 star) by Augusten Burroughs. I used to abhor memoirs with explicit and detailed sexual encounters so I gave that Burroughs book with 1 star (Too much sex; I did not like it!). This book, "Mississippi Sissy" by Sessums even went a lot further vividly describing those masturbation, rape, and sex scenes, but I did not feel any apathy against the book nor the author. Maybe my mind is now open to this kind of subject but I think it is more because of these three reasons:
And oh, he met and brushed elbows with Eudora Welty, an author that I am still to read. His mother influenced him to love books at a very young age so there are many book titles mentioned in this book and they seem to be interesting. One of them is Katherine Porter, who was his mom's favorite author, and was on her deathbed (cancer). I have to put that book, her short story collection, on my front burner soon.
Another nice pick from nowhere. As they say, when it rains, it pours.
Looks like a typical gay boyhood memoir, right? Well, prior to this, I read America's Boy: A Memoir (2 stars) by Wade Rouse, A Boy's Own Story (3 stars) by Edmund White, and Running with Scissors (2 stars) and A Wolf at the Table (1 star) by Augusten Burroughs. I used to abhor memoirs with explicit and detailed sexual encounters so I gave that Burroughs book with 1 star (Too much sex; I did not like it!). This book, "Mississippi Sissy" by Sessums even went a lot further vividly describing those masturbation, rape, and sex scenes, but I did not feel any apathy against the book nor the author. Maybe my mind is now open to this kind of subject but I think it is more because of these three reasons:
1. The writing style is stylish. Sessums first told his stories clearly when he was young. However, he withheld some of the details or information. Then when he grew up and experienced all those abuse, rape, death, etc as an adult, in each of those painful events, he interspersed those boyhood scenes earlier told and revealed those previously-withheld details. The effect is astounding. It is like watching a horrendous scene and then some scenes that happened when he was a boy were quickly flashed on the screen for added shock and further heightened the emotion. Very effective. If this were a movie and I was one of the Oscar jurors, I would definitely nominate this for Best Editing. Very cinematic, I would say.My only comment is that the book has the tendency to be too melodramatic (compared to the more subtle approach of Edmund White). However, Sessums' choice of words is commendable and occasional lyrical prose is interesting.
2. The book did not try to conceal the fact that it is about a gay person. My edition of those Burroughs books, for example, did not mention anything on their covers that they were about gay boy/man. [When I was starting here in Goodreads, I just picked books with interesting covers and obviously did not know about Burroughs until I read his "Running With Scissors."] This book by Sessums is more transparent. Even its title screams that this is about a sissy. That transparency is also built in the narration. Sessums does not care whether you love or hate him. He just told his story and it is up to you to react. I like that: I'd be the judge and he does not care.
3. This memoir has a plot. Unlike those earlier books that a mentioned above, Sessums followed the standard way of telling a novel. There is a nice engaging and interesting intro, clear characterizations, well-developed characters, interesting build up to a satisfactory climax and finally the denouement. He just did not start from his birth and end as an adult or death in case of most of the memoirs around. As stated in #1, he polished his material to arrive at an interesting piece of work.
And oh, he met and brushed elbows with Eudora Welty, an author that I am still to read. His mother influenced him to love books at a very young age so there are many book titles mentioned in this book and they seem to be interesting. One of them is Katherine Porter, who was his mom's favorite author, and was on her deathbed (cancer). I have to put that book, her short story collection, on my front burner soon.
Another nice pick from nowhere. As they say, when it rains, it pours.
June 2, 2009
I wouldn't have read this memoir, by a gay emeritus of the Vanity Fair staff, if my book club hadn't picked it, which goes to show the value of book clubs. This is a thoughtful, un-self-pitying reflection on an extremely tough childhood and adolescence. (Just for starters, as the book jacket lets on, Sessums was orphaned by age 8.) The memoir is also, for this lesbian who could pass as straight, an interesting look into the world of a boy who never could have passed and apparently never tried to.
As a young teen, Sessums was befriended by a journalist of regional renown, and he occasionally socialized with Eudora Welty and her friends. He continually name-drops and comments on plays, TV shows, pop songs, etc. that may or may not be familiar. Another criticism is that although his writing is always perfectly structured, he's occasionally showy, indulging himself with mile-long sentences and interrupting his thoughts with long digressions. Both require a lot of patience from the reader.
But this book is well worthwhile, partly because of the supporting cast. Sessum explains at the start that every person, fact, and event is real, and it's compelling to meet his family and his few friends. Just for example, his mother allows him to wear a skirt at age 3 and later tells him: "'Write down that word. S-I-S-S-Y.......Now, whenever anybody calls you that again you remember how pretty that looks on there. Look at the muscles those S's have. Look at the arms on that Y. Look at the backbone that lone I has. What posture. What presence.'"
Two particularly interesting threads in the book are Sessums' relationship with Matty Mae, his grandmother's black maid and a sort of nanny to him, and his conjuring of an imaginary black girl modeled on Matty Mae, who keeps him company during the 12-odd months between the deaths of his father and mother. Matty Mae leaves the family's employ when he's a boy after hearing him say "eeny meeny miny moe, catch a ______ by the toe," even after she had taught him never to say the N-word. Later, Sessums makes one of the most naive statements in all of nonfiction: "I had to admit to myself that sleeping with Frank Dowsing [a black gay football star] would be a way of doing penance for insulting Matty Mae so deeply. [Here I was already cringing, remembering the white woman who sang about her black "mammy" at the Michigan Womyns Music Festival about 20 years ago and was trashed so soundly that she never performed again, as far as I know.].....If I truly were not bigoted---my whole life, since Matty walked away from me......had been spent proving that point to myself---then I would suck Frank Dowsing's dick and anything else he wanted me to do. It would be more than a sexual act on my part; it would be a political one."
That's Sessums. He's honest, sometimes to a fault. He was born in 1956; this memoir takes him only to age 19, when he still had a lot to learn about "race" and a whole lot else. If he can keep sitting apart and listening, as he says sissies are wont to do, I would be happy to read another someday.
As a young teen, Sessums was befriended by a journalist of regional renown, and he occasionally socialized with Eudora Welty and her friends. He continually name-drops and comments on plays, TV shows, pop songs, etc. that may or may not be familiar. Another criticism is that although his writing is always perfectly structured, he's occasionally showy, indulging himself with mile-long sentences and interrupting his thoughts with long digressions. Both require a lot of patience from the reader.
But this book is well worthwhile, partly because of the supporting cast. Sessum explains at the start that every person, fact, and event is real, and it's compelling to meet his family and his few friends. Just for example, his mother allows him to wear a skirt at age 3 and later tells him: "'Write down that word. S-I-S-S-Y.......Now, whenever anybody calls you that again you remember how pretty that looks on there. Look at the muscles those S's have. Look at the arms on that Y. Look at the backbone that lone I has. What posture. What presence.'"
Two particularly interesting threads in the book are Sessums' relationship with Matty Mae, his grandmother's black maid and a sort of nanny to him, and his conjuring of an imaginary black girl modeled on Matty Mae, who keeps him company during the 12-odd months between the deaths of his father and mother. Matty Mae leaves the family's employ when he's a boy after hearing him say "eeny meeny miny moe, catch a ______ by the toe," even after she had taught him never to say the N-word. Later, Sessums makes one of the most naive statements in all of nonfiction: "I had to admit to myself that sleeping with Frank Dowsing [a black gay football star] would be a way of doing penance for insulting Matty Mae so deeply. [Here I was already cringing, remembering the white woman who sang about her black "mammy" at the Michigan Womyns Music Festival about 20 years ago and was trashed so soundly that she never performed again, as far as I know.].....If I truly were not bigoted---my whole life, since Matty walked away from me......had been spent proving that point to myself---then I would suck Frank Dowsing's dick and anything else he wanted me to do. It would be more than a sexual act on my part; it would be a political one."
That's Sessums. He's honest, sometimes to a fault. He was born in 1956; this memoir takes him only to age 19, when he still had a lot to learn about "race" and a whole lot else. If he can keep sitting apart and listening, as he says sissies are wont to do, I would be happy to read another someday.
February 22, 2008
Imagine this likely scenario: 24 year-old new graduate from a writing program from a Major University releases their first book. Although said graduate has not been out of school since before kindergarten, they've chosen a memoir. Write what you know! say the teachers (themselves having published memoirs). The new grad's story revolves around some autobiographical hook (born albino, raised by a pet Corgi, lived in a van in Alaska and wrote a lot of songs...) which may be interesting enough. Ultimately, though, the best of these are like having a gourmet chef shop for food that your 9-year old niece then cooks: the meal tastes like crap.
Which brings me to Sessums, and the complete opposite of the above scenario. If there were ever a memoir to write (and read!), this is it. Moreover, Sessums, born in 1956, has the added benefit of wisdom. And he's honed his writing chops with 20 years of writing and editing for Vanity Fair, Interview, and other magazines. The book is flat-out terrific.
The story: The title says a lot. (Have their been no other sissy writers from Mississippi? How has this title, at least, not been used before?) From the beginning, the boy and his folks knew he was different. They both die by the time he's nine, and, to steal the author's summation, death and love are the throughlines of the story. Sessums writes a long line, and his sentences and paragraphs move fluidly back and forth through time as well as Proust. Unlike Proust, Sessums has a journalist's ability to evoke setting and character, enhanced but not overwhelmed by self-reflection.
Thus we meet richly drawn places and people--some, like Eudora Welty and Billy Graham, famous; most others, like the Sessums' housekeeper Matty Mae, people that you might simply have wanted to meet. Or not! in the case of one preacher. Or if you did meet them, you'd want to seriously destroy them. Or not...
In the end (or the beginning), Sessums offers a choice: between hate and love, violence and peace. He leaves the reader--oddly for a book (and a country) with so much tragedy--a sense of possibility, even hope.
Which brings me to Sessums, and the complete opposite of the above scenario. If there were ever a memoir to write (and read!), this is it. Moreover, Sessums, born in 1956, has the added benefit of wisdom. And he's honed his writing chops with 20 years of writing and editing for Vanity Fair, Interview, and other magazines. The book is flat-out terrific.
The story: The title says a lot. (Have their been no other sissy writers from Mississippi? How has this title, at least, not been used before?) From the beginning, the boy and his folks knew he was different. They both die by the time he's nine, and, to steal the author's summation, death and love are the throughlines of the story. Sessums writes a long line, and his sentences and paragraphs move fluidly back and forth through time as well as Proust. Unlike Proust, Sessums has a journalist's ability to evoke setting and character, enhanced but not overwhelmed by self-reflection.
Thus we meet richly drawn places and people--some, like Eudora Welty and Billy Graham, famous; most others, like the Sessums' housekeeper Matty Mae, people that you might simply have wanted to meet. Or not! in the case of one preacher. Or if you did meet them, you'd want to seriously destroy them. Or not...
In the end (or the beginning), Sessums offers a choice: between hate and love, violence and peace. He leaves the reader--oddly for a book (and a country) with so much tragedy--a sense of possibility, even hope.
September 21, 2010
As a southerner and proponent of gay rights, I was intrigued by this memoir. Early on, I began to realize that I found it hard to trust Sessums in his accounts of what he thought and felt as a very young child. Not that I think he doesn't know or remember, but that he seems willing to attribute extremely sophisticated reflection and vocabulary ("chicanery," really?) to his four-year-old self. Toward the middle of the book, I just became a little put off by his compulsion to describe his emerging (and again, questionably precocious) sexuality in the most aggressive terms possible. I'm no prude, but I can only read about what people's buttholes smell like so many times before I've had enough. The main thing that kept me reading was a desire to find out what had happened to poor Frank Hains after his murder is breifly mentioned early in the book. And in fact, the final section, full of stories about Hains and his circle of compatriots, (which included Eudora Welty) comprises the best parts of the book.
December 28, 2008
Astonished. What can I say. As a gay boy who grew up a sissy in the South, I completely identified with the alienation that Sessums felt. But the ability of this boy/man to transcend the most awful of setbacks early in life is without a doubt one of the more inspiring stories I've ever read. I finished this book over three months ago and I am still haunted and bewitched by this book. The women in this book are full of such strength. The author's mother, grandmother, his maid Matty Mae, his Aunt Lola. A poignant portrayal of author Eudora Welty who along with his mentor Frank Harris, groomed this author to write an autobiography that is absolutely perfect. Run to the bookstore. BUY this book. 100 stars out ten (sorry to digress to such cliche's it's the only way to express sufficiently my enthusiasm for this book). I guffawed and cried my way through this brilliant book.
June 27, 2011
Mississippi Sissy, fantastically written with long canters, tells Kevin's story in the format of a conversation, like someone might have sitting around a Southern table in the kitchen sharing sweet tea with a neighbor. I loved the style, the insertions and tangents, and the story itself - honest, brutal, vulgar, but mostly honest - at moments, I was surprised he would share the secrets which we all keep, those twisted, tarnished riches we keep locked away, as if treasure in our hearts and minds, that we don't share with anyone.
Mr. Sessum's life was a tragic tale - when it comes to suffering, he's right up there with Elizabeth Tailor. I love Southern stories and this one delivers.
Mr. Sessum's life was a tragic tale - when it comes to suffering, he's right up there with Elizabeth Tailor. I love Southern stories and this one delivers.
May 22, 2015
Mississippi Sissy is one of those books that changes you. We dove right in, and were instantly enveloped in this fascinating, heart-breaking, humorous, Southern life story. Afterwards, it felt as if the world weren't quite the same place that it was before we began, and that's a really good thing. Highly recommended.
January 12, 2015
Gah. Found this paperback when unpacking boxes in my new apartment. Hadn't read it in year but so very happy to have re-read it. Will always be one of my favorites and such an important read to me as a gay kid raised in the south.
June 27, 2008
This autobiography started off well enough but then descended into a long drawn out affair that sadly became a chore to finish. Sessums repeats himself endlessly but I blame the editor for not stopping this self-indulgence. Did the editor just pack it in half-way through the autobiography? Maybe I should have.
There were a few magical moments that showcased his writing. One example that springs to mind is his retelling of a conversation between his grandmother, her sister (Vena Mae) and her sister-in-law (Lola). It captures the dismay of these three older women unable to deal with the turoil of the 60s and the loss of their southern racist institutions. It's a small side-conversation about pie, but it says it all.
"Honest now, Lola, you think I'm a'losin' my pie crust touch? This'un don't seem near 'bout flaky enough. I'm faultin' the Crisco. I think they're makin' it different. Ever'thing else is changin' in this world, don't know why Crisco should be no different." "I don't know," said Lola, pricking the crust on her own plate with her fork. "I figure Crisco's one of the last things we can count on."
There were a few magical moments that showcased his writing. One example that springs to mind is his retelling of a conversation between his grandmother, her sister (Vena Mae) and her sister-in-law (Lola). It captures the dismay of these three older women unable to deal with the turoil of the 60s and the loss of their southern racist institutions. It's a small side-conversation about pie, but it says it all.
"Honest now, Lola, you think I'm a'losin' my pie crust touch? This'un don't seem near 'bout flaky enough. I'm faultin' the Crisco. I think they're makin' it different. Ever'thing else is changin' in this world, don't know why Crisco should be no different." "I don't know," said Lola, pricking the crust on her own plate with her fork. "I figure Crisco's one of the last things we can count on."
August 5, 2011
Being a Minnesota Sissy, I found this a painful read at times. But still, I read this pretty quickly, finding it very hard to put down. Sussum’s prose is a little flowery for me, but he weaves a darn good story, flashing between the present and the past. Truly some unforgettable characters. Warning: a couple of pretty graphic sex scenes; also a graphic description of a murder victim. Totally appropriate in this book; very much a part of the story – just thought I’d warn ya!
January 7, 2010
GREAT memoir about a little boy growing up hopelessly gay in rural Mississippi and where his "adventures" eventually lead him. This one I will read again from time to time, though have to buy a new one. Loaned it out, and it never came back. Hopefully it is still making the circuit I started by loaning it in the first place!
September 24, 2015
Sessums describes his childhood with relentless honesty and keen insight – a treat for those who (like me) find the American South somewhat mysterious. Unfortunately, the book is overlong. Minor events that could've been described in a couple of pithy pages are dragged out into chapter-long episodes of workmanlike prose, diminishing their impact considerably.
May 27, 2019
Kevin Sessums is a terrific writer. There's no doubt about that. Some of his passages in Mississippi Sissy are strikingly beautiful and I marveled at his ease in describing life growing up in Mississippi. I especially liked his recollections of Matty May and how he picked cotton with her. He captured her language beautifully and her personality was larger than life in this book. I can see that he was paying tribute to her and he did a wonderful job.
His memoir is raw and brutally honest - perhaps a bit too honest and shocking.
Although he shares a haunting tale of losing his parents, his sexual abuse, and the brutal death of a boyfriend, I felt his writing was a little too graphic. (His vivid descriptions of masturbating, the smell of buttholes, and the description of his growing sexuality were too much.) I'm not a prude, but there were parts that just didn't need to be in the book.
This is a heartbreaking story, though. It's dark and disturbing. The parts about his relationship with his mother were so sweet and touching.
My only other complaint about this book is Sessums' tendency to write about rather unimportant events that could've been described in a few pages, rather than drawing out his stories into immense chapters.
His memoir is raw and brutally honest - perhaps a bit too honest and shocking.
Although he shares a haunting tale of losing his parents, his sexual abuse, and the brutal death of a boyfriend, I felt his writing was a little too graphic. (His vivid descriptions of masturbating, the smell of buttholes, and the description of his growing sexuality were too much.) I'm not a prude, but there were parts that just didn't need to be in the book.
This is a heartbreaking story, though. It's dark and disturbing. The parts about his relationship with his mother were so sweet and touching.
My only other complaint about this book is Sessums' tendency to write about rather unimportant events that could've been described in a few pages, rather than drawing out his stories into immense chapters.
Read
December 6, 2008This is the most heartbreaking, affecting book I've read since Pat Conroy's autobiography. Forest, Sessums' Mississippi home, is 30 miles from Carthage, my husband's childhood home where we still spend a lot of time, so I understand the culture. (I'm just glad I missed the old, segregated days. I don't think I could have stood to be around all that hatred and prejudice.)
Sessums was obviously homosexual even from a very early age. His parents died within a year of each other when he was a small child, and his maternal grandparents raised him and his brother and sister. He had so many strikes against him--orphaned, gay, liberal--but so much in his favor too: intelligence, sensitivity, talent. The book ends when he moves to New York City at age 18. He went on to become a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and Allure magazines and editor of Andy Warhol's Interview magazine.
One word of warning: Sessums is brutally honest and describes his early sexual experiences in some detail.
Sessums was obviously homosexual even from a very early age. His parents died within a year of each other when he was a small child, and his maternal grandparents raised him and his brother and sister. He had so many strikes against him--orphaned, gay, liberal--but so much in his favor too: intelligence, sensitivity, talent. The book ends when he moves to New York City at age 18. He went on to become a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and Allure magazines and editor of Andy Warhol's Interview magazine.
One word of warning: Sessums is brutally honest and describes his early sexual experiences in some detail.
October 15, 2008
This book, in the words of my roommate, is NOT for sissies. It's raw and honest and heartbreaking. I cried. More than once. More than twice.
Not an easy read, emotionally speaking, but totally worthwhile. Sessums' writing is deliberate and well crafted, weaving multiple stories and decades together. Many of his chapters (and the book as a whole, really) spiral seamlessly back on themselves. Sessums is especially eloquent when it comes to describing his deep-south relatives.
There was more than a little name dropping and the story was slightly less enthralling once he grew up and started sleeping around, but I enjoyed it from the first gory paragraph to the last poetic line.
One of my bookgroupies called it _Stone Butch Blues_ for gay men. I'm not sure about that, but it seems like an excellent jumping off point to start negotiations.
Not an easy read, emotionally speaking, but totally worthwhile. Sessums' writing is deliberate and well crafted, weaving multiple stories and decades together. Many of his chapters (and the book as a whole, really) spiral seamlessly back on themselves. Sessums is especially eloquent when it comes to describing his deep-south relatives.
There was more than a little name dropping and the story was slightly less enthralling once he grew up and started sleeping around, but I enjoyed it from the first gory paragraph to the last poetic line.
One of my bookgroupies called it _Stone Butch Blues_ for gay men. I'm not sure about that, but it seems like an excellent jumping off point to start negotiations.
May 26, 2011
An engaging narrative using interjected anecdotes to convey a life story as though through a series of long conversations, yet maintaining the strong narrative arc of a novel. Sessums weaves together his story with continuity of thematic elements from childhood through young-adulthood, capturing the religious and political climate of the Southern U.S. in the 50s and 60s from his particular vantage and through his experience. Empowering the word "sissy," this is a thoughtful portrayal of a specific time and place exploring life as an 'other' and the way in which identity is crafted and roots are understood (or at least acknowledged).
July 30, 2011
Nice, solid summer read... I was expecting something much lighter than what it ended up being, however... Being from the South, I could relate to many of the stories he shares... could have done without some of the graphic sex scenes -- they seemed to be a bit gratuitous... Loved hearing about his growing up near Eudora Welty...
April 11, 2012
This is one rowdy memoir. A little feller growing up gay in Mississippi. I near 'bout died laughing at the scene where he goes slam crazy at the Halloween fair. Toward the end he has true tales to tell of carryings on with Eudora Welty and other literary types. I really enjoyed it . . . but it ain't for the faint of heart.
April 26, 2023
I don't remember what brought my attention to this book. The author was born and raised in Mississippi and he tells his stories from what looks like his earliest memories. A large part of the focus is on his sexuality and what it was like living in such an ultra conservative place. He wrote of his family's reaction to the deaths of MLK and Bobby Kennedy and his personal feelings about that. A good portion of his childhood is in the sixties and I know that the general attitudes towards minorities and persons who have other than hetero sexual preferences was not tolerant even where I live, so in Mississippi I imagine it was (and still is) worse. Still, it is an interesting book to read. Sessums dealt with that climate very well and didn't let it get him down. There are very frank and descriptive accounts of sexual activity in his life, including abuse by adults when he was a child. Just a warning for those who feel they wouldn't want to read that. The end of the book focuses on the death of a very good friend of his who was murdered. The death scene is also described in it's entirety. Another warning. A note; Eudora Welty, a famous Mississippi author, was a character who was in Sessums life and she shows up in the book. I enjoyed that celebrity inclusion in the book.
May 2, 2023
I don’t know why I never read this before considering the Mississippi connection, but I was recently reminded of it by an article in a local magazine that actually happened to be about Kevin Sessum’s brother. I think if I’d known how brutal this memoir is in places I might have kept on skipping it, but I’m glad I didn’t. It’s a beautifully powerful story about coming of age is Mississippi a gay man. I will be thinking of this for a while.
May 21, 2021
What a Life!
Kevin’s life feels familiar on so many levels. We are all blessed and cursed with our life experiences. I’m curious to see where the story goes after his arrival in New York.
Kevin’s life feels familiar on so many levels. We are all blessed and cursed with our life experiences. I’m curious to see where the story goes after his arrival in New York.
June 28, 2018
Interesting memoir about growing up gay in the south in the '60s. It brought back memories of what life was like during that time, and I felt grateful for what has changed and sad about what hasn't that should. Beautiful writing, but I still found myself skimming passages at times.
June 8, 2010
This one looks like it's one of those crazy memoirs like Augustin Burroughs. But actually it's a really dark, disturbing memoir. I didn't enjoy it much at all. He had a pretty bleak childhood. But he's a fantastic writer so there were passages that were transcendent. His writing kept me going. My favorite sentence in the book:
"One of his sons, a brainy sort who was a linguist who had been called by God to interpret the Bible into languages as yet to be transcribed, had asked a first cousin of mine to marry him, and after their wedding they were headed off to the jungles of the Phillipines and later Brazil to be linguistic missionaries, the two of them turning newfound yet ancient tongues into the numbered chapters and verses of Deuteronomy and Acts and Leviticus."
He also did a fantastic job of describing the old south. The kind with brutal beatings, and cotton picking, and forbidden best friends. The kind mired in a thick haze of ugly. His description of his extended family's glee the night RFK is shot is particularly chilling. Very southern. Very ugly.
"One of his sons, a brainy sort who was a linguist who had been called by God to interpret the Bible into languages as yet to be transcribed, had asked a first cousin of mine to marry him, and after their wedding they were headed off to the jungles of the Phillipines and later Brazil to be linguistic missionaries, the two of them turning newfound yet ancient tongues into the numbered chapters and verses of Deuteronomy and Acts and Leviticus."
He also did a fantastic job of describing the old south. The kind with brutal beatings, and cotton picking, and forbidden best friends. The kind mired in a thick haze of ugly. His description of his extended family's glee the night RFK is shot is particularly chilling. Very southern. Very ugly.
March 14, 2008
An interesting memoir about growing up in Mississippi during the 60's and 70's as a "sissy". Frankly, I found the tidbits about Eudory Welty and the juxtaposition of Sessions personal story with the civil rights events transpiring in the deep south during that time more interesting than the gay coming of age story, which is of course the premise for the memoir. While I hate to sound like a prude, I also found the book occassionally a bit graphic for my taste. I asked myself if it was because the sex was gay instead of straight but adults sexually abusing kids is very distateful whether gay or straight. Maybe I'm being too picky but there are 10 ways to tell a story and sometimes being less graphic requires more skill. I am being too picky; it was a well written and very ineresting memoir.
March 7, 2019
Growing up in the south in the 60s as a young sissy boy is tough, tougher still when your father is a retired pro athlete and a coach at the local high school. Sessums later goes on to be a celebrity and entertainment journalist, but the book mainly covers his childhood and young adulthood up to about age 19, when he is out as gay and ready to get out of the South. In between, he's the target of predatory older men who sense he's a young gay man on the brink of discovering his sexuality. Luckily, he also has some wonderful mentors along the way and gets to party with southern novelist Eudora Welty. Possible trigger warning for some readers: While I loved this book, I found the explicit description of his sexual abuse to be pretty squicky. Overall, though, recommended, as entertaining as a novel.
October 30, 2009
Hard to choose the star rating. The book was written well. The author had a strange life as a child in Mississippi -- he definitely was a sissy. I had to skip chunks of it in the last third or fourth -- the vivid descriptions of pedophilia and homosexual acts were too much. The descriptions did not, for me, add to his memoir -- I believe I could learn just as much about him without the details. So, I liked what I read but not enough to recommend it to anyone else without the "warning" about "a little too much."
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December 13, 2023This memoir is about an effeminate young boy growing up in the deep South whose father is a coach and his family is quite religious. He describes coming to terms with being homosexual. The first 2/3 of the book was rather meandering and I was never quite sure exactly where the author was going. The very last 10 pages or so redeems the story by putting the pieces of the puzzle together. It wonders me if the parts of the story should have been rearranged to better guide the reader & make it a more enjoyable read the entire way through.
February 11, 2008
Don't bother. It's one thing to have had life experiences, and it's quite another to write about them so a reader wants to go along and share them or, at least, consider them. This memoir about growing up, orphaned and gay, in the South, sounded terrific, especially on NPR and in reviews. Hard to imagine making so little out of so much material.
May 23, 2009
Very few books shock me but this one did...not for the faint of heart but there were things I loved in it...the view it gave of Mississippi literary life alone would have been enough to make the book good but the personal story was shocking to me...I guess because there was one incident I just did not see coming and it was so unexpected I was left reeling.
April 21, 2011
We are defined in what we do, not in what we are. I loved the book. It's a pageturner of a memoir. His childhood resembles close to mine but mine is yet to come. One of the best since Mary Karr, & Jeanette Walls memoirs. I love it! Two thumbs up! :)
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