Crooked

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
By Tom Franklin











I can't tell you much about this book without giving things away!  It takes place in Mississippi-m-i-crooked letter-crooked letter-i-crooked letter-crooked letter-i-humpback-humpback-i.  It follows the lives of two very different people with more in common than they know and a crime that changes a community.    I have mixed feelings about this book. It is definitely a worthwhile read. I am left with feelings of what this book COULD have been. The characters are splendid. Both boys made mistakes and did hurtful things to each other as teenagers. One boy lost one friend but was otherwise successful and the other lost all friends and was debilitated because of it. One was given every opportunity to succeed and became a man of average intelligence. The other had everything taken away from him and became a highly intelligent man (although his grammar is atrocious). Both changed from choices made years ago. I loved this about the book. I enjoyed feeling connected and appreciative of the underdog and feeling disenchanted with the hero. I did not really like the plot. It was very predictable. As soon as the tangent was introduced, I knew his fate. If Tom Franklin could have put those characters into a new and interesting story line, this could have been a classic.