Steven Roy

Jefferson has to return home from his new successful life he has built for himself as a successful author. And he’s not very happy about it.

His childhood home is the small, rural town of Piacyune, Mississippi and he’s spent a long time denying he had any part of it – or the skills and persona he once adopted there. The locals aren’t too pleased with his return either and he has a lot of demons to fight.

He also has aliens to fight – the Devourer, a giant, jelly-fish monstrosity scarfing down catfish and turning people into zombies. And he thought locals opposing his property development and trespassing teenagers were the worst he’d have to deal with.

Ok, when I was sent this book I have to admit I looked at the title and said “you have got to be kidding me?!”

But I’ve been surprised by terribly titled books before and I read the text around it and thought I might be surprised. So I accepted, I read it and fully prepared to unleash the snark I was halfway certain I would need to review this book.

I am glad I gave it the chance. There will be no snark. This book was astonishingly deep and nuanced with many shades of characterisation and oppression.

Jefferson, the protagonist is a Black man raised in a predominantly White area of the rural south of the US; he was adopted by a White family and, when his adoptive parents died he was left in the care of his not particularly bright (but very caring) brother.

He faced racism – a considerable amount in fact – as you’d expect. It was well presented, from several sources and always made clear to be unacceptable. It wasn’t covered up or dismissed and it wasn’t sanitised –but nor was it presented in cartoonish, exaggerated sense with lots of melodrama and monologue milked out for every last iota of tortured-protagonist angst. It was an excellent, balanced presentation.

There was also a wonderfully nuanced depiction of well meaning, but short sighted liberal people in this place encouraging Jefferson, as a child to be whatever he wanted to be – and like many children who idolise their big brothers he says “I want to be a redneck like my brother”. Cue the liberal teacher both wanting to encourage him to achieve something more academic since he’s so intelligent – and not wanting to tell the only Black boy in her class that there’s a career he CANNOT do.

There’s a whole lot of nuance in the depiction. And this becomes more complex when we go on to an adult Jefferson who has left this tiny little rural town in the south and moved north to the big city and he’s a super successful author. He returns home for important non-spoiler-so-I-won’t-reveal reasons and his attitudes are very different. He has natural hostility for the racism he faced but there’s also a huge stripe of contemptuous classism. He’s ashamed of where he’s from, he lies in his author biographies, he looks down on his old friends and neighbours and the way they live.

Read More… (lisätietoja)

I must say, I've never read anything quite like this. The characters Roy created were endearing and imaginative. The story takes us on a journey through space and time and centers around Jefferson Balladeer, the Black Redneck. When Big Beau Balladeer dies in a car crash after leaving the local watering hole, his brother Jefferson returns to the town he fled from to escape his childhood home with a chip on his shoulder; Picayune, Mississippi... rel="nofollow" target="_top">Check out my blog for the entire review… (lisätietoja)