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The Innocents By Ace Atkins-A Review
Welcome back to Tibbehah County, Mississippi !. If your view of humankind runs cynical, dark, and depraved, this is the book for you. The latest to feature Quinn Colson and Lillie Virgil, it paints a truly grim picture of life in small-town Mississippi. Corruption and misery seem as endemic to this place as the cicadas and heat; Lillie Virgil fights a hard battle against the tide as acting sheriff with Quinn as Deputy. There’s mayhem, murder, race, drugs, a titty bar, moonshine, bikers, Jesus, dirty politicians, guns, rednecks, and football involved. Whew!
I’ve been following this series from the beginning. The books just keep getting better and grittier, if possible. I lived for while in that part of Mississippi (a long, long, long time ago) and, while there is no actual Tibbehah County, Atkins’ description runs fairly accurate. Let it be known that I am not, shall we say, a fan of the state of Mississippi, despite having been born, bred, raised, and schooled there. I escaped after grad school. When people ask me, “Why don’t you go home?” I look at them like they’re crazy. They make laws against people like me there. I think it might be one of the states that still has a law on the books prohibiting an atheist to run for election. Not to mention that I’m Jewish, neutrois, and queer! Oh, yeah, a trifecta for being accepted down in Dixie! But I digress from the review. This is an outstanding book in the series. Read it for the mystery; read it for the grit; read it for the characters. I don’t care-just read it!
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Imagine Me Gone-A Review
Finally, a book review! I wish I were still reading Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett. The book was so rich in the different ways in which it engaged the reader that I’m measuring its effects on me afterwards. I wasn’t sure I was going to like the book at first. In the beginning chapters, the novel deals with the father and his story. But then the burden shifts to the children, in particular the eldest son, and the darkly comedic life of the book truly begins. The riffs on music-disco, house, synth, dub, and techno-are a constant refrain running throughout and worthy of special mention. The novel is worth reading just for them, but the manner in which they are made an integral part of the book is remarkable. Even if the book doesn’t inspire you to put on a soundtrack while reading it as it did me, you’ll read with music in your ears. And this is one of the best portrayals of someone with a mental illness I’ve come across lately in fiction, precisely because it’s NOT written as a description of someone living with a mental illness. Michael is shown living his life in all its complexity, not as a patient with a diagnosis. True, he does deal with anxiety, and I’m not going to spoil the novel by giving many details here, but this is a novel about a life, not an illness. Race and class privilege are prevailing topics for Michael, and homosexuality is an issue that both he and a sibling deal with. This is not an easy read, as it sometimes gets pedagogical, and the issues that the characters grapple with are fundamental and stark. But it IS most rewarding and will leave you enlightened, more learned, and with a new playlist!
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SCOTUS Temporary Hold on TG Case
I’m very disappointed that SCOTUS temporarily put on hold a brief from a lower court that allowed a transgender student to use a bathroom that conformed with his gender. This was the first time that the Supreme Court has ruled on transgender rights. As one would expect, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, the liberal wing of the court, would have upheld the lower court’s ruling and granted the student the right to use the bathroom that conformed to his gender. Justice Stephen Breyer, who usually votes with them, joined with the four conservative members this time, saying in a one-sentence explanation that he was doing so out of courtesy to preserve the status quo until SCOTUS could consider the matter more fully. This is only temporary, of course. The court WILL have to decide the issue, one way or another, since states are suing the federal government over Obama’s directive that transgender students be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice.
Here’s my take on the whole bathroom controversy. Stop gendering bathrooms. Period. Make them all clean, private, safe places with no open urinals and problem solved. I’ve been in places that only provide one restroom for patrons, and this has not been a problem. No children have been molested, nor women accosted. Bathrooms serve a function; work on improving that, and get the public’s mind out of the gutter!
