Helpful Score: 14
Type: {Airplane Read: makes time fly.}
Rating: {An Unputdownable: Couldnt eat or sleep until I finished this book.}
Why Youre Reading It:
You enjoy a well written book and a compelling plot
You find unique characters refreshing
You love the South, and the books that feature it as a character
A well thought out mystery keeps you turning pages
What I Thought:
Wow. Wow, wow, wow. I have been texting my friends telling them to go get a copy of this book for book clubs, airplane trips, or just sitting on their porch and reading this weekend. I devoured every word of this; part character study, part mystery, part exploration of a small town in Mississippi. How to get you to read this? Im not sure what to say that would convey the message.
This story explores how misconceptions can break a person but not their soul; how important it is to tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth; how sometimes the most beaten down people can be the most loving and how sometimes they can be the most disturbed. It will make you feel love for someone who, if you actually lived in this fictional town, you would probably fear. It will make you wonder who you are ignoring, neglecting, judging. It will make you think about how much you ridicule and isolation you could endure if made to do so.
Interwoven in the richness of the characters and their plights is a mystery; about a girl who went missing 25 years ago and another who went missing in the past few weeks. What happened to these girls, why it happened, and the effect it caused on the people left behind will have you tearing through the pages of this incredibly readable, short novel.
Please read it and do so before they make the movie; the rights have been bought and it is being optioned, but there is so much that they wont be able to capture. So read it this summer, you wont be sorry.
*One last thing: I will forgive Tom Franklin for using my name the way he did. But looking forward to someone, someday naming a charming, lovely, female character Wallace.
Rating: {An Unputdownable: Couldnt eat or sleep until I finished this book.}
Why Youre Reading It:
You enjoy a well written book and a compelling plot
You find unique characters refreshing
You love the South, and the books that feature it as a character
A well thought out mystery keeps you turning pages
What I Thought:
Wow. Wow, wow, wow. I have been texting my friends telling them to go get a copy of this book for book clubs, airplane trips, or just sitting on their porch and reading this weekend. I devoured every word of this; part character study, part mystery, part exploration of a small town in Mississippi. How to get you to read this? Im not sure what to say that would convey the message.
This story explores how misconceptions can break a person but not their soul; how important it is to tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth; how sometimes the most beaten down people can be the most loving and how sometimes they can be the most disturbed. It will make you feel love for someone who, if you actually lived in this fictional town, you would probably fear. It will make you wonder who you are ignoring, neglecting, judging. It will make you think about how much you ridicule and isolation you could endure if made to do so.
Interwoven in the richness of the characters and their plights is a mystery; about a girl who went missing 25 years ago and another who went missing in the past few weeks. What happened to these girls, why it happened, and the effect it caused on the people left behind will have you tearing through the pages of this incredibly readable, short novel.
Please read it and do so before they make the movie; the rights have been bought and it is being optioned, but there is so much that they wont be able to capture. So read it this summer, you wont be sorry.
*One last thing: I will forgive Tom Franklin for using my name the way he did. But looking forward to someone, someday naming a charming, lovely, female character Wallace.
Helpful Score: 2
~ 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.)
Helpful Score: 1
I really liked this book. While there is a criminal case to be solved it's more like a novel with a detective story imbedded. The character development is good and there are surprise developments and unpredictable twists.
Kitty S. (kittynewengland) reviewed Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter (P.S.) on + 116 more book reviews
A well-written book part murder mystery and part coming of age story. The author smoothly transitions from present day to past to tell the story of Larry Ott, a man ostracized by his Mississippi town because of his connection to a missing persons case, and Silas Jones, his childhood friend who has returned to the town as constable. Though slow to start, I found this story of race, friendship and secrets gripping, sad and ultimately redemptive.
Read about one third of it and couldn't get into it
A great "beach read" or book club book - no boring spots and the story moved right along. May not hit the popularity of "The Help", but I certainly liked it better. I'm from VT, and you don't need to be from the south to enjoy this book - the author paints vivid pictures that really add to the story.
There is a pervasive sadness in this book. Larry Ott is a heartbreakingly lonely, bullied character who desperately wants to belong. He and Silas are almost-friends despite living in a community that eschews friendship between the races. Tom Franklin tells their story in a seamless confluence of past and present. This is a novel for anyone who likes character-driven books with a heart.
Franklin's novel starts off slow, by this perhaps is by design, to illustrate Larry Ott's shadowy, sheltered, and lonely existence. The writing picks up nicely and takes the reader on a flashback-present narrative to show the culture clash in Mississippi between Ott's lower-middle-class family situation and that of Silas Jones'. Tragedy draws the men together in their youth, dividing them and reuniting them as adults.
The story is pretty good, but I felt that it dragged a bit at the beginning. Once it got going though, it was good.
This book is so well written, with characters and a story that will stay with you long past the time you have read the last page. A rare book that I would take the time to read a second time.
I really enjoyed this book.........great story and wonderful writing!
A thought provoking, often painful look at family and racial relations in past decades.
Great book.
