One Mississippi - The Book Review

I'm torn. On the one hand, I'd like to say that I loathed One Mississippi by Mark Childress so that I could get even with him for making me log onto iTunes first thing this morning to download the Carpenters' "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft."

That's not something I would typically do. "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" hasn't been on my mind for something like thirty years (it's not something the local oldies station plays), and I haven't missed it. But Mark Childress has planted the song into my head, as he planted "Rocket Man" by Elton John and countless songs by Sonny and Cher.

Come to think of it, that's what's really irritating me this morning. What seems to have happened is this: Mark Childress got himself several earworms and, in the process of passing them onto his faithful readers, he makes disparaging comments about them (such as saying, in as many words, that Sonny Bono is a dork). He then gets to put those songs out of his mind while his readers, on the other hand, must run over to their vinyl album collections or, in the worst-case scenario (that is, if they've thrown away their vinyl albums or found them destroyed because of a calamity), they must download those melodies and then actually listen to them. That's just wrong.

And here, in all my innocence, I thought that I'd heard the last of Sonny and Cher's Greatest Hits. Well, apparently I have not. Thanks a lot, Childress! So that's why I wanted to pan his new book, One Mississippi. I really, really wanted to pan it!

But, on the other hand, I must be honest. Childress's novel kept me awake last night until I'd finished it not only because the 1970's soundtrack that accompanied the plot was insistently throbbing away in my head when I should have been catching some zzzzzzz's but also because it was good.

Darn Childress, anyway. He shares my affinity for distressingly inane music, apparently. Plus, he can write! And, when he writes, you can't put his book down until you're through reading it.

So, okay, I concede. For a really good read, pick up a copy of One Mississippi. You'll end up staying awake too late, as I did last night. You'll also find yourself listening to a lot of bad music and visualizing Cher in those outrageous Bob Mackie costumes of (thank goodness) long ago, and you'll fixate on the image of a pre-political Sonny Bono flinching at his wife's insults while tiny Chastity, who was too young to know her parents' marriage was already in big trouble, looked on from atop the piano. And you'll worry about whether it's okay to laugh at Childress's depiction of everyone who either teaches or attends school in the deep South circa 1973 as a Redneck.

But, "dadgummit" (as the protagonist's father might say), you'll enjoy reading One Mississippi. You might not enjoy reading it quite as much as you enjoyed reading Crazy in Alabama (I'm sorry, but "The Sonny and Cher Show" will never put "The Beverly Hillbillies" out of business). But you'll enjoy it deeply, and you'll find yourself recommending it to others.

The only thing that would make this novel even better would be if a CD with all of the music you'll come away singing were included as part of the package. Next time, perhaps.

One Mississippi is a keeper. Two thumbs up (one on each hand).

One Mississippi
By Mark Childress
Back Bay Books (Little Brown and Company)
ISBN-10: 0-316-01212-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-316-01212-6
$13.99/$16.25 in Canada
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