One Mississippi (Reprint)

Mark Childress
Back Bay Books (2007)
ISBN 9780316012126
Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (11/07)

Daniel Musgrove isn’t too sure about his family being relocated to Mississippi for his junior year of high school.  He is even less sure when the moving truck catches on fire and burns all of his family’s belongings.  He begins high school at a school that has just been desegregated.  He and his siblings discover that the school is very far behind from the one that they left.  They decide not to complain because they can get easy “A’s.” 
           
Daniel finds a good friend in fellow classmate, Tim Cousins.  They both share an irreverent attitude towards their classmates.  When Daniel finds himself attracted to a black student, Anita Beecham, it hinders their friendship.  When they are involved with a tragedy involving Anita, Daniel hides behinds their lies, but tries to compensate by helping the family out.  This brings him closer to Anita, but he still has to hold back because of the cover up.  Tim is jealous of their closeness.
          
Daniel and Tim share many adventures together including getting involved with a Baptist musical presentation, going to see Sonny and Cher, and doing everything that they can to make their nemesis Red suffer for the injustices that he has inflicted upon them.  When their adventures begin to turn into misadventures, Daniel begins to see a darker side of Tim.  Things begin to escalate out of control and the results are devastating to the whole community.
        
Mark Childress has done a great job writing a coming-of-age story about a young man from a dysfunctional family in a dysfunctional town.  In addition to having to deal with the normal crises that teenagers have to deal with, he also has heavier issues such as prejudice, and homosexuality.  Daniel’s character warms your heart because he really cares about doing the right thing.  Even when he does something bad, you can’t help but think that the other person deserved it for wronging him.  He has a huge heart and when he falls hard for Anita, you know that there will be a lot of painful moments coming for both of them.
         
“One Mississippi” is a novel that should not be missed.  I found myself totally caught up in the plot. I highly recommend it to reader’s groups, or college level fiction courses.  There is a reading group guide and questions for discussion section included in the back of the book.  The questions will stimulate some interesting discussions.

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