Moonrise Over New Jessup by Jamila Minnicks

MOONRISE OVER NEW JESSUP by Jamila Minnicks is a debut novel and Winner of the 2021 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction which is exciting, but I felt that the preview I saw needed further edits. Minnicks sets the story in the late 1950s in a small Alabama town whose residents are all Black. That means they have more flexibility, independence and freedom (e. g., no “Colored” back entrances) than Black citizens who live elsewhere, particularly in the rural South. That absence of fear is initially a shock to Alice Young who ends up in New Jessup after having to flee an abusive landlord in another small Alabama town. Over time and through the kindness of New Jessup residents like the Pastor and local dressmaker, Alice comes to value the quiet certitude which of her new life, even falling in love and getting engaged. There is tension, though, when her boyfriend, Raymond, and his friends impatiently embrace National Negro Advancement Society (NNAS) principles and advocate for municipality rights for New Jessup. Agitators want to push for full integration and town elders prefer to preserve the status quo. The text felt repetitive and slow in places, but Minnicks ably illustrates the courage which was needed to face opposition from multiple sides and to risk the loss of current rights while fighting for equal privilege. Readers may appreciate a warning due to use some offensive racial epithets.

The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop

THE WONDER BOY OF WHISTLE STOP by Fannie Flagg is a LibraryReads choice for October.  If you love Flagg’s homespun writing, especially Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, pick up this new equally folksy novel. It charmingly reprises many of the characters and events from that 1987 classic while offering comfort in these uncertain times. For example, title character Bud Threadgoode (now retired and looking to visit his Alabama hometown) observes, “Life can be hard sometimes. And I sort of think animals are little gifts the good Lord sends to help us get through it.” Or when Flagg writes, “that’s what you get when you love something that much. Joy and heartbreak.” My difficulty with this novel was the way it jumped around in time over several decades and across state lines, often making reference or assuming some knowledge the reader did not necessarily have. My advice is to treat yourself: (re)read Fried Green Tomatoes first and then settle in to enjoy more feel good wisdom in THE WONDER BOY OF WHISTLE STOP.