Amy R. reviewed on 3/19/2011 + 5 more book reviews

This compelling story will remind you of "Stand By Me" (the movie - I didn't read the book), with its story of young boys on the cusp of adolescence learning about death and the dark aspects of adult life. The author also captures the essence of a small Southern town and its inhabitants in 1964 being transformed by significant social and economic change. Ultimately, though, I thought the author (who is white) simply couldn't face up to the enormity of the bigotry he needed to portray in this story, which is not straight autobiography but is clearly influenced by events in the author's own life. Tellingly, all the stock villains of a 1960s Southern small town (the bootlegger, the Klansman, the hate-spewing preacher) are made to look ridiculous and get a humorous comeuppance. The real bad guy (spoiler alert) turns out to be ... wait for it ... a Nazi. It's as if the author is saying, "Look, I know Jim Crow was wrong and I guess I was kind of clueless about it when I was growing up, but I just can't bear to portray the people who perpetrated the everyday injustices of my childhood as truly evil people - at least they didn't put anybody in ovens." It felt like a cop-out to me.

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