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jenmangler's review against another edition
2.0
I went into this expecting a mystery, but it just wasn't - or at least, not a very good one. All the "twists" were telegraphed and pretty obvious. Once I let go of that expectation, I enjoyed reading it a lot more. Larry's story was very compelling and my favorite part of the book.
salgalruns's review against another edition
5.0
“MI crooked letter, crooked letter I, crooked letter, crooked letter I, humpback, humpback, I” (how southern children are taught to spell Mississippi.)
- Can I tell you how much I loved this opener and how I loved this book more than I was ever expecting to! I downloaded it a year ago, after reading on blog after blog about how it was a great read, and yet never got to it until the last day. Read the whole story in a day.
Larry Ott is an introverted horror book lover who is a little off of the norm when it comes to social skills. However, he is so genuinely kind-hearted and never speaks ill of anyone. You love him. You hope that if you pass him on the street, that you would befriend him. The town completely shuns him and I am truly flabbergasted that NO ONE ever gives him a second glance, not even his former friend. Breaks my heart.
As for Silas - parts of his storyline were somewhat obvious, but he's such an intriguing character. I loved hearing all about his life, where he came from and how he ended up where he is. Such an incredible athlete, with such amazing secrets. You're kind of, well very, ticked off at Silas for shunning Larry as well. I mean, seriously? That's just wrong.
This story explores how misconceptions can break a person but not their soul; how important it is to 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.
- Can I tell you how much I loved this opener and how I loved this book more than I was ever expecting to! I downloaded it a year ago, after reading on blog after blog about how it was a great read, and yet never got to it until the last day. Read the whole story in a day.
Larry Ott is an introverted horror book lover who is a little off of the norm when it comes to social skills. However, he is so genuinely kind-hearted and never speaks ill of anyone. You love him. You hope that if you pass him on the street, that you would befriend him. The town completely shuns him and I am truly flabbergasted that NO ONE ever gives him a second glance, not even his former friend. Breaks my heart.
As for Silas - parts of his storyline were somewhat obvious, but he's such an intriguing character. I loved hearing all about his life, where he came from and how he ended up where he is. Such an incredible athlete, with such amazing secrets. You're kind of, well very, ticked off at Silas for shunning Larry as well. I mean, seriously? That's just wrong.
This story explores how misconceptions can break a person but not their soul; how important it is to 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.
heathercottledillon's review against another edition
4.0
I loved every page. I know a lot of people think the story begins too slowly, but I enjoyed the writing so much that I didn't mind. The atmosphere is certainly bleak, but it's described beautifully and feels amazingly real. What really got me hooked, though, were the characters, who are some of the most intriguing I've found in a novel in quite a while. There's Larry, who just completely breaks your heart. It's hard to imagine how he accepts his lot in life and doesn't get bitter toward the people who treat him so badly, especially his own father. He made me think about the prejudices I have against other people and how I behave based on those prejudices. Then there's Silas, who is more complicated and, I think, more easy to relate to. He's obviously a good person at heart, but he's made some mistakes that are haunting him. I found myself getting frustrated with him at times, but then I'd remember that he was a black man in the deep South in the early 80s, so he had obstacles that Larry didn't. And he definitely grows throughout the story, which always makes a character more interesting. I like the way that the plot goes back and forth between the past and the present, and the ending felt right to me--there's closure, but it's not too cheesy or fairy-tale-like.
kathydavie's review against another edition
5.0
A standalone mystery-thriller that will keep you on your toes with your heart in pieces in this psychologically wrenching story set in the Mississippi of the late 1970s, to which I'd give a "7" if the rating system allowed it.
In 2011, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter won the CWA Gold Dagger Award and the Alabama Author Award for Fiction and was nominated for three different awards for Best Novel: the Barry Award, the Anthony Award, and the Edgar Award. In 2010, it won the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award for Best Contemporary Mystery, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller, and the Willie Morris Award. It was nominated for the Hammett Prize.
My Take
It’s a “fascinating” look at Mississippi in the 1970s and the racism that flourishes. It could be thirty years back before Civil Rights with the attitudes people have. Sure, black and white kids go to the same school. I’m sure they use the same bathrooms and drink out of the same bubblers. But get out of a white man’s truck? Be seen with a black girl? Heck, walk next to one?? No.
And it’s a two-sided racism perpetuated by the adults.
There are two sides to this story…maybe that’s what led to the title being repeated?? We hear Larry’s thoughts as he lives from day to day, then Franklin switches to Silas as we hear his thoughts which provide the foreshadowing (and there is a LOT of foreshadowing!), his regrets, his angers.
Franklin’s story slips back and forth bet ween Larry and Silas, using a third-person dual point-of-view, but also between now and twenty-five years ago. No, it’s easy enough to follow. My only regret is how impatient I was to find out what really happened.
Larry only knows the one side of the controversy Silas and his mother’s presence causes, and it’s sad, especially as you read of their friendship. How much more it could have been for both boys.
That Franklin hints his little heart out, and there are truths you don’t want to hear but know to be true. A hateful tale of bigotry that knows not racial lines and leaps to judgment with a law that isn’t that concerned with the truth or true justice.
It won’t matter what he’s done, you can’t help but feel for Larry, the ostracism, the hate directed at him more than twenty years later. He’s such a lonely boy, despised by his peers, and yes, his later ostracism is simply a continuance of his youthful experience. Jeez, kids are cruel and so are those adults who ought to know better! That poor boy was so desperate to fit in, to be accepted.
It’s Wallace’s visits that make Larry realize how hungry he was for friendship, and Franklin uses his mother’s participation in religious fasting as a metaphor.
I get that Silas was destroyed by Larry’s comment, but he did help, unknowingly, set up the scenario. And when you see what Silas does to Larry over the years…geez…Larry did NOT deserve this. Nor what came later. And as much as I like Silas, he’s also a shit. About Larry, about letting those sleeping dogs lie, about how he treated his mother.
The dialect is amazing. You want a good example of how to write dialect without resorting to respelling words? Read Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter for Franklin's use of syntax.
That ending was unexpected, so much more hopeful than I had thought it would be. Thank god.
Something to consider “how time packs new years over the old ones, but how those old years are still in there, like the earliest, tightest rings centering a tree, the most hidden, enclosed in darkness and shielded from weather. But then a saw screams in and the tree topples and the circles are stricken by the sun and the sap glistens and the stump is laid open for the world to see.”
The Story
The fear is a repeat of the girl who went missing twenty-five years ago. Tina Rutherford has been missing for eight days now, and the whole county knows that it’s Scary Larry Ott.
Ostracized by all and faithful to his parents, Larry survives day by day through his books. Until one day he doesn’t.
The Characters
Larry Ott is the white book-loving son of Carl, an alcohol-swigging, lying mechanic with his own garage, Ottomotive Repair, and Ina Jean Ott, a stay-at-home mom and regular church volunteer. Ina raises chickens, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Barbara Bush, and Rosalynn Carter. Colin is Ina’s brother…a vegetarian.
Constable Silas “32” Jones is a black cop and the sole law enforcement of Chabot, Mississippi. Back in the day, he’d been a hotshot pitcher in college at Ole Miss. Alice Jones had been his mother.
Angie Baker is an EMT and Silas’ girlfriend. Tab Johnson, an old hippie, is her driver. Voncille Bradford, the town clerk, is City Hall in Chabot. Chief Inspector Roy French, a Vietnam vet, had been a game warden. Skip Holliday is one of the deputies. Sheriff Jack Lolly didn’t need proof then and still doesn’t. Deputy Parvin is hauling the snakes around with him.
Jon Davidson is a volunteer at the information desk at the hospital. Marlon is another volunteer. Dr. Dan Milton performed the surgery. Dr. Israel works ER.
The “too-busy” Brenda works River Acres, the nursing home. Doris is but one of the many fellow patients who keep Ina company. Clyde is an orderly.
The Hub is a diner/convenience store run by the goodhearted Marla. Shaniqua works as a waitress. The Chabot Bus is a converted schoolbus where Chip works as a bartender. Shannon Knight is a police reporter. Morris Sheffield is the part-time mayor. Olivia is the postperson with a snake problem. Irina Mott lives with two other divorced ladies: Evelyn and Marsha. Sellars and Edward Reese are some of the neighbor kids. Wallace Stringfellow likes to drink and toke. John Wayne Gacy is his nasty pit bull. Evelyn is his on-again, off-again girlfriend. Wanda is another girl he visits. Jonas is his mama’s boyfriend. Charles Deacon is a suspect in M&M’s murder.
The Rutherford family owns the lumber mill and thousands of acres for timber farming. Tina Rutherford is their 19-year-old daughter headed back to college.
Twenty-five years ago
Cindy Walker was Larry’s nubile neighbor with a timid mother, Miss Sheila who works at the tie factory, and a hateful, supposedly disabled stepfather, Cecil. Tammy is Cindy's friend.
Morton “M&M” Morrisette was the brilliant second baseman to Silas’ pitching in high school. Devoid Chapman gave up his new-bought Mustang. Ken and David are a couple of white students in Larry’s class. Jackie “Monkey Lips” Simmons, her mean friend Carolyn, and Fred are more students. Mr. Robertson is the vocational agriculture teacher. Mrs. Tally and Mrs. Smith are more teachers.
Oliver was Alice Jones’ boyfriend in Chicago. Charles is the kind bus driver. Clara works at the bus station.
The Cover and Title
The cover is dark with a storm threatening in that dark, dark sky at the top that descends into a blue sea of clouds above a silhouetted landscape with two boys running between two trees. A testimonial is at the very top in white while the title is in a lime green centered in the top half of the cover. The author’s name is in a pale yellow at the bottom.
I haven’t a clue where the title came from, although I get the impression that Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is supposed to refer to the town???
In 2011, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter won the CWA Gold Dagger Award and the Alabama Author Award for Fiction and was nominated for three different awards for Best Novel: the Barry Award, the Anthony Award, and the Edgar Award. In 2010, it won the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award for Best Contemporary Mystery, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller, and the Willie Morris Award. It was nominated for the Hammett Prize.
My Take
It’s a “fascinating” look at Mississippi in the 1970s and the racism that flourishes. It could be thirty years back before Civil Rights with the attitudes people have. Sure, black and white kids go to the same school. I’m sure they use the same bathrooms and drink out of the same bubblers. But get out of a white man’s truck? Be seen with a black girl? Heck, walk next to one?? No.
And it’s a two-sided racism perpetuated by the adults.
There are two sides to this story…maybe that’s what led to the title being repeated?? We hear Larry’s thoughts as he lives from day to day, then Franklin switches to Silas as we hear his thoughts which provide the foreshadowing (and there is a LOT of foreshadowing!), his regrets, his angers.
Franklin’s story slips back and forth bet ween Larry and Silas, using a third-person dual point-of-view, but also between now and twenty-five years ago. No, it’s easy enough to follow. My only regret is how impatient I was to find out what really happened.
Larry only knows the one side of the controversy Silas and his mother’s presence causes, and it’s sad, especially as you read of their friendship. How much more it could have been for both boys.
That Franklin hints his little heart out, and there are truths you don’t want to hear but know to be true. A hateful tale of bigotry that knows not racial lines and leaps to judgment with a law that isn’t that concerned with the truth or true justice.
It won’t matter what he’s done, you can’t help but feel for Larry, the ostracism, the hate directed at him more than twenty years later. He’s such a lonely boy, despised by his peers, and yes, his later ostracism is simply a continuance of his youthful experience. Jeez, kids are cruel and so are those adults who ought to know better! That poor boy was so desperate to fit in, to be accepted.
It’s Wallace’s visits that make Larry realize how hungry he was for friendship, and Franklin uses his mother’s participation in religious fasting as a metaphor.
I get that Silas was destroyed by Larry’s comment, but he did help, unknowingly, set up the scenario. And when you see what Silas does to Larry over the years…geez…Larry did NOT deserve this. Nor what came later. And as much as I like Silas, he’s also a shit. About Larry, about letting those sleeping dogs lie, about how he treated his mother.
The dialect is amazing. You want a good example of how to write dialect without resorting to respelling words? Read Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter for Franklin's use of syntax.
That ending was unexpected, so much more hopeful than I had thought it would be. Thank god.
Something to consider “how time packs new years over the old ones, but how those old years are still in there, like the earliest, tightest rings centering a tree, the most hidden, enclosed in darkness and shielded from weather. But then a saw screams in and the tree topples and the circles are stricken by the sun and the sap glistens and the stump is laid open for the world to see.”
The Story
The fear is a repeat of the girl who went missing twenty-five years ago. Tina Rutherford has been missing for eight days now, and the whole county knows that it’s Scary Larry Ott.
Ostracized by all and faithful to his parents, Larry survives day by day through his books. Until one day he doesn’t.
The Characters
Larry Ott is the white book-loving son of Carl, an alcohol-swigging, lying mechanic with his own garage, Ottomotive Repair, and Ina Jean Ott, a stay-at-home mom and regular church volunteer. Ina raises chickens, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Barbara Bush, and Rosalynn Carter. Colin is Ina’s brother…a vegetarian.
Constable Silas “32” Jones is a black cop and the sole law enforcement of Chabot, Mississippi. Back in the day, he’d been a hotshot pitcher in college at Ole Miss. Alice Jones had been his mother.
Angie Baker is an EMT and Silas’ girlfriend. Tab Johnson, an old hippie, is her driver. Voncille Bradford, the town clerk, is City Hall in Chabot. Chief Inspector Roy French, a Vietnam vet, had been a game warden. Skip Holliday is one of the deputies. Sheriff Jack Lolly didn’t need proof then and still doesn’t. Deputy Parvin is hauling the snakes around with him.
Jon Davidson is a volunteer at the information desk at the hospital. Marlon is another volunteer. Dr. Dan Milton performed the surgery. Dr. Israel works ER.
The “too-busy” Brenda works River Acres, the nursing home. Doris is but one of the many fellow patients who keep Ina company. Clyde is an orderly.
The Hub is a diner/convenience store run by the goodhearted Marla. Shaniqua works as a waitress. The Chabot Bus is a converted schoolbus where Chip works as a bartender. Shannon Knight is a police reporter. Morris Sheffield is the part-time mayor. Olivia is the postperson with a snake problem. Irina Mott lives with two other divorced ladies: Evelyn and Marsha. Sellars and Edward Reese are some of the neighbor kids. Wallace Stringfellow likes to drink and toke. John Wayne Gacy is his nasty pit bull. Evelyn is his on-again, off-again girlfriend. Wanda is another girl he visits. Jonas is his mama’s boyfriend. Charles Deacon is a suspect in M&M’s murder.
The Rutherford family owns the lumber mill and thousands of acres for timber farming. Tina Rutherford is their 19-year-old daughter headed back to college.
Twenty-five years ago
Cindy Walker was Larry’s nubile neighbor with a timid mother, Miss Sheila who works at the tie factory, and a hateful, supposedly disabled stepfather, Cecil. Tammy is Cindy's friend.
Morton “M&M” Morrisette was the brilliant second baseman to Silas’ pitching in high school. Devoid Chapman gave up his new-bought Mustang. Ken and David are a couple of white students in Larry’s class. Jackie “Monkey Lips” Simmons, her mean friend Carolyn, and Fred are more students. Mr. Robertson is the vocational agriculture teacher. Mrs. Tally and Mrs. Smith are more teachers.
Oliver was Alice Jones’ boyfriend in Chicago. Charles is the kind bus driver. Clara works at the bus station.
The Cover and Title
The cover is dark with a storm threatening in that dark, dark sky at the top that descends into a blue sea of clouds above a silhouetted landscape with two boys running between two trees. A testimonial is at the very top in white while the title is in a lime green centered in the top half of the cover. The author’s name is in a pale yellow at the bottom.
I haven’t a clue where the title came from, although I get the impression that Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is supposed to refer to the town???
buttons_buttons's review against another edition
1.0
A few minor spoilers...
I feel a bit alone here with that opinion, but I didn't like this book at all. And the main reason for that is, that it made me feel sick.
efore I start explaining my feelings about this book, I gotta say, that I had to read this book for class. I would have never picked it up on my own, because I knew right from the beginning, that it just wasn't my kind of story. So parts of the bad rating is, because this book wasn't for me.
Now, I'm a reader who enjoys a very metaphoric language full of pictures, but for me that book started of completely boring anyways. The language indeed was very graphic and we spend a lot of time getting to know every part of Larrys farm and everyone of his chickens, which I have no problem with, but the whole thing was so slow that it took me a whole day to get over the first chapter. And while the actual plot started to get a bit faster after that, which made it easier for me to stay awake, the language stayed not only very graphic, which got annoying after some time, especially in scenes with more action who ought to be written a bick quicker and hastily I think, it also made it very had for me to relate to the characters, as we knew about there thoughts and feelings but the author stil managed to keep it all very distant.
My other problem with the character was that it felt from the first minute like their stories and developement was already fixed and everything was turning out exactly like it should. It didn't feel natural at all. I didn't like any of them, besides French maybe, but that's only because I've got a thing for chiefs, and part of the reason for that was, that the author made pretty sure right from the beginning that we knew they all had a disgusting secret before we could even start to like them and therefore later forgive them.
I guess we were suppossed to like Silas, as he didn't seem to have a secret first, but for that just made me feel like he was kinda flat, because without the dark secret he was lacking any peculiarity at all. He was the guy we were suppossed to like because he seemd decend and nice and then be even more shocked by the the revealing that he wasn't perfect too. His whole story also was very predictable from the start.
I feel like I really could have liked Larry just from the basic idea of him, but he got ruined for me in so many ways. First of all he seemd like a very clumsy descreption of a Nerd for me. Unsocial, bullied in school, loves reading and is a dissapointment to his father. I can't stand this stereotype anmyore. The other thing I didn't like was that artifical mystery atmosphere created around him. Most of the time he was portraied as the ultimate defition of a 'good guy'. He was outcastet by anyone and spend the whole day being completely alon most of his life and still there is no hate or anything that's more than mild frustration at all. He is completely okay with all of this and doesn't even try to explain himself. Also, he cares a lot about his chickens and is even nice to the kids who came one night to his house, threatend him and damaged his car. He doesn't care about anything and that is really frustrating and annoying.
But the reason I really couldn't stand reading this book in the end was its main topic. Discrimination of black people was used as a side story. The way it was described but also the way raping women or murdering them was described left me with a very strange, sick feeling. Because in the end what everyone cared about was the realtionship between Larry and Silas. We had sentences like "Women want to be raped" left there uncommented, and while I think the author really wanted to critize that kind of statements he didn't for me. Racism, hcildren abuse and rape don't work for me as a random side story and that's what made me feel sick about the story, that it just causally was there.
I may be a bit sensitive about those things and I admit that the book wasn't bad at all, but it als wasn't my book at all. The language didn't appeal to me, I couldn't find a connecting with the characters and most important, the plot wasn't something I would have every read on my own.
I feel a bit alone here with that opinion, but I didn't like this book at all. And the main reason for that is, that it made me feel sick.
efore I start explaining my feelings about this book, I gotta say, that I had to read this book for class. I would have never picked it up on my own, because I knew right from the beginning, that it just wasn't my kind of story. So parts of the bad rating is, because this book wasn't for me.
Now, I'm a reader who enjoys a very metaphoric language full of pictures, but for me that book started of completely boring anyways. The language indeed was very graphic and we spend a lot of time getting to know every part of Larrys farm and everyone of his chickens, which I have no problem with, but the whole thing was so slow that it took me a whole day to get over the first chapter. And while the actual plot started to get a bit faster after that, which made it easier for me to stay awake, the language stayed not only very graphic, which got annoying after some time, especially in scenes with more action who ought to be written a bick quicker and hastily I think, it also made it very had for me to relate to the characters, as we knew about there thoughts and feelings but the author stil managed to keep it all very distant.
My other problem with the character was that it felt from the first minute like their stories and developement was already fixed and everything was turning out exactly like it should. It didn't feel natural at all. I didn't like any of them, besides French maybe, but that's only because I've got a thing for chiefs, and part of the reason for that was, that the author made pretty sure right from the beginning that we knew they all had a disgusting secret before we could even start to like them and therefore later forgive them.
I guess we were suppossed to like Silas, as he didn't seem to have a secret first, but for that just made me feel like he was kinda flat, because without the dark secret he was lacking any peculiarity at all. He was the guy we were suppossed to like because he seemd decend and nice and then be even more shocked by the the revealing that he wasn't perfect too. His whole story also was very predictable from the start.
I feel like I really could have liked Larry just from the basic idea of him, but he got ruined for me in so many ways. First of all he seemd like a very clumsy descreption of a Nerd for me. Unsocial, bullied in school, loves reading and is a dissapointment to his father. I can't stand this stereotype anmyore. The other thing I didn't like was that artifical mystery atmosphere created around him. Most of the time he was portraied as the ultimate defition of a 'good guy'. He was outcastet by anyone and spend the whole day being completely alon most of his life and still there is no hate or anything that's more than mild frustration at all. He is completely okay with all of this and doesn't even try to explain himself. Also, he cares a lot about his chickens and is even nice to the kids who came one night to his house, threatend him and damaged his car. He doesn't care about anything and that is really frustrating and annoying.
But the reason I really couldn't stand reading this book in the end was its main topic. Discrimination of black people was used as a side story. The way it was described but also the way raping women or murdering them was described left me with a very strange, sick feeling. Because in the end what everyone cared about was the realtionship between Larry and Silas. We had sentences like "Women want to be raped" left there uncommented, and while I think the author really wanted to critize that kind of statements he didn't for me. Racism, hcildren abuse and rape don't work for me as a random side story and that's what made me feel sick about the story, that it just causally was there.
I may be a bit sensitive about those things and I admit that the book wasn't bad at all, but it als wasn't my book at all. The language didn't appeal to me, I couldn't find a connecting with the characters and most important, the plot wasn't something I would have every read on my own.
missyjohnson's review against another edition
3.0
I read this very quickly but when I think about the review............I am not certain how good it really is. Silas and his mother move from Chicago to small town Mississippi and live as squatters in a hunter's cabin on Ott land. Carl Ott is a mechanic, husband to Ina, Dad to Larry. Silas and Alice Jones show up with no money and live in the cabin with no water nor electricity. In a story that jumps back and forth from the boys at age 14 to a time 25 years later, we learn about their relationship and struggles as teenage boys and the difference that society puts on athletes and "book worms". It was a bit obvious as to who Silas, "32", dad was. the ignorance and cruelty that humans inflict upon each other was well depicted and uncomfortable. I am just not sure that I buy the rest of the story. Wallace Stringfellow showing up and doing all that he did in such a "short" period of time. The copycat idea just did not really work for me. I still am not sure why the title was chosen except for the fact that the story took place in MS. Not clearing up the issue with Cindy Walker was annoying
ykcrreading's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
lightlux's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.0
I finished this a few days ago but did not want to think about it so I didn't write a review. If I didn't have to read the book I wouldn't have. :/