Tupelo [B1712]

2016 PB in nice clean condition. From Mississippi-born and Olympia-retired artist, author, and activist, Alec Clayton. A tale told from beyond the grave by Kevin Lumpkin, the youngest of a set of identical twins, Tupelo is the story of a small town in an era of reluctant change. as seen through the eyes of a white boy born to privilege who comes of age in the time of Freedom Riders, lunch counter sit-ins, civil rights marches and demonstrations. Born in 1943 on the night when their father's hardware store burns to the ground, Kevin and his brother grow up in idyllic times, the boom years of the 1950s-football, fast cars, rock and roll, and dates with the cutest girls in school. But gradually he discovers that he and his family live in a protected bubble while less than a block away in an area known as The Alley, a handful of black families live in poverty, almost invisible to Kevin and his family. He develops a crush on Maddie Jean, a young girl from The Alley, but they both know they can never be friends. He watches in confusion as his white friends react to the growing civil rights movement, in horror as they riot on campus at nearby Ole Miss when James Meredith breaks the color barrier at the university, and he witnesses the trial of another child of The Alley who is falsely accused of rape and murder.

From Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Tupelo is the story of a young man and his family navigating through an evolving cultural landscape, and it is told with a hell of a lot more honesty than other books in the same genre. Oh, and the overall quality of his storytelling is on point, too."; "Complex, colorful characters. I was pulled in from the beginning. Clayton does a masterful job creating a colorful cast of characters in this tale of growing up in the deep South in the 1950's. The protagonist, Kevin, encounters a wide array of memorable and complex friends and frenemies as he navigates friendship, family, a dawning sexual awareness and a growing discomfort with racial prejudice. Tupelo is engaging and vibrant; its story and characters will stay with you."; "I have read all of Alec Clayton's books. This ranks tops with me. I had the advantage of knowing 'identical twins', so I was able to picture them throughout the book at their different ages. I highly recommend this book as well as the rest that he has written."