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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 his memoir, Kevin Sessums brings to life the pungent American south of the 1960s and the world of the strange little boy who grew there.
"Kevin Sessums is some sort of cockeyed national treasure.” ―Michael Cunningham
- Sales Rank: #697699 in Books
- Published on: 2008-03-04
- Released on: 2008-03-04
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x .72" w x 5.50" l, .62 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 352 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. As an eight-year-old boy coping with the horrific loss of his parents and a nagging sense of being "different" from his peers in the Mississippi town of Forest, Sessums assumes the persona of What's My Line panelist Arlene Francis. "Call me Arlene!" he insists, and his grandparents—despite their rather reactionary stances in the realms of politics, religion and sexuality—manage to lovingly comply. In performing his electrifying coming-of-age memoir, Sessums adroitly introduces the cast of characters who shaped his journey. The vocal renderings of such memorable figures as the family's loving and devoted—as well as self-confident and determined—maid Matty May, who repeatedly recites "Poitier" as a mantra in the days and weeks following Sidney Poitier's 1963 Oscar win, resonate with remarkable clarity. Listeners accustomed to contemporary autobiographical titles should be forewarned that they are entering unapologetic gothic territory akin to that of Eudora Welty (a friend and mentor to Sessums) or even Flannery O'Connor. Raw human emotions of love and hate play starring roles, refusing to remain mere stage props.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School—Sessums, a journalist who specializes in celebrity interviews, describes and analyzes his own childhood and youth, writing candidly of both sexual orientation and race relations in the '60s and early '70s. As a toddler, he swished and posed instead of responding to his basketball coach father's expectation of masculinity. His mother was more broad-minded. However, both parents were dead by the time he was nine, and he and two younger siblings were reared by their maternal grandparents. Small-town Mississippi during the third quarter of the 20th century was less hostile to the young gay boy than outsiders might imagine. Sessums recalls his grandmother's willingness to call him Arlene, in honor of television personality Arlene Francis; his sixth-grade teacher allowed his book report to be on Jacqueline Susann's best-selling Valley of the Dolls; there was even a local gay bar, which Sessums began visiting at 16. However, life provided great and certain bad times as well: the author recalls a sexual assault by a stranger when he was not yet a teen, and another by a preacher a couple of years later. Most harrowing is the event that frames the narrative, the murder of his mentor, and 19-year-old Sessums's discovery of the bludgeoned body. Whether gay or straight, readers will relate to the author's youthful awareness that self-certainty and terrifying uncertainty seem to be inextricably bound. His observations on—and, more importantly, his experiences of—race relations engage and reveal, and remind readers of the complexity of social status.—Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“A charming but bracingly unsentimental work . . . Utterly compelling.” ―People
“What a writer! What honesty! Kevin Sessums seamlessly weaves his heart-breaking, funny, outrageous, can't-put-it-down story.” ―Ellen DeGeneres
“Mississippi Sissy is a book I've been waiting for most of my life, though I didn't fully understand that fact until I read [it]...Kevin Sessums is some sort of cockeyed national treasure.” ―Michael Cunningham
“Mississippi Sissy manages to be both hilarious and heartbreaking, often in the same moment. Kevin Sessums not only has a great story to tell, he is a great storyteller.” ―Carole Radziwill
“Sessums re-creates a colorful cast of characters. . . . [His] unique sensibility shines through . . . in his wonderful ear for language, and his eye for Southern foibles.” ―Elle
“Heroic and heartfelt . . . [Sessums] describes situations with clarity and humility. . . . With no small amount of wit and grace, he captures life then as he saw and heard it.” ―Christina Eng, San Francisco Chronicle
“With a patiently observant and chillingly sensual voice, Sessums has written an important memoir.” ―Matt Saldana, Jackson Free Press
“Mississippi Sissy is an unforgettable memoir. I think it will strike a strong chord with many, many readers. It's a far different book than ""Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,"" but it cast the same kind of spell over me while I was reading it.” ―Mark Childress
“Kevin Sessums is a brilliant writer. He is also a courageous one. Mississippi Sissy is beautifully told - hilarious yet harrowing, tragic yet inspiring. This book will deeply touch anyone who has ever felt different, which means every single one of us.” ―E. Lynn Harris
“The depth of the writing equals the depth of his wounds and yet there is an optimism, a surviving instinct, an honesty and an incredible dignity throughout. This book is very powerful!” ―Diane Von Furstenberg
“I could not put Kevin Sessums memoir down. A young, white, gay boy, who grew up in a whirl and survived the injustices of class and prejudice, Sessums lyrically, narrates his escape from this tyranny of southern hate. This is the story of an angel with asbestos skin. Were this fiction, it would be on a par with John Kennedy Toole's The Confederacy of Dunces.” ―Andre Leon Talley, Editor at Large, Vogue
“Wow! What a book! I was both shocked and moved by it. It is said that an unexamined life is not worth living. Kevin Sessums examines his with wisdom and humor and a true writer's sense of grace. This book will create more than the proverbial buzz. It will cause a sensation.” ―David Geffen
“I was so moved by Kevin Sessums's funny, sad evocation of his childhood and teenage years in Mississippi Sissy. His youthful instinct for finding the theatrical, musical, and literary locals who opened his eyes to the outside world that he yearned to know about is wonderfully touching.” ―Dominick Dunne
“Mississippi Sissy manages to be both hilarious and heartbreaking, often in the same moment. It is a poignant story of innocence and sexuality; tragedy and courage. But it is ultimately a tale of perseverance of the human spirit. Kevin Sessums not only has a great story to tell, he is a great storyteller.” ―Carole Radziwill
“Gutsy, moving, richly-textured and immensely funny revelation, and a precisely remembered evocation of the southern political and cultural landscape in the 60s and 70s.” ―Patti Carr Black"
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Moving masterwork
By Gregory Lewis
This is a truly remarkable piece of literature. Kevin Sessums writes with the blatantly refreshing honesty that is so true to his southern roots. He delves deeply inside his feelings; enabling the reader to feel as if he is present. The book is quite entertaining but it goes beyond sheer entertainment. There are lessons to be learned, yet it's not at all preachy. The insights into Eudora Welty also make you appreciate her all the more.
I'm so glad to have picked this up. Bravo Mr. Sessums!!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Moving
By Reecia Thompson Stoglin
This is the most moving book I have read in a very very long time. It took me through the full range of emotions--laughter to tears. It had such a hold on me I finished it in one day. It made me feel like being 11 years old again reading "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" for the first time.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Just wasn't that impressed
By Cambel
I was looking foreward to reading this book, but frankly was disappointed. It all seemed a bit manufactured, as if somebody was repeating a story they had once heard their friend tell after he heard it from his grandmother. Perhaps the author is too far removed from the events. The book wasn't terrible, it was just one of the few books where it never once occured to me to lend it out to a friend.
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