MWP: Mississippi Books & Writers for December 2000

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They call themselves The Brethren: three disgraced former judges doing time in a Florida federal prison. One was sent up for tax evasion. Another, for skimming bingo profits. And the third, for a career-ending drunken joyride. Meeting daily in the prison law library, taking exercise walks in their boxer shorts, these judges-turned-felons can reminisce about old court cases, dispense a little jailhouse justice, and contemplate where their lives went wrong.

Or they can use their time in prison to get very rich—very fast. And so they sit, sprawled in the prison library, furiously writing letters, fine-tuning a wickedly brilliant extortion scam … while events outside their prison walls begin to erupt. A bizarre presidential election is holding the nation in its grips—and a powerful government figure is pulling some very hidden strings. For The Brethren, the timing couldn’t be better. Because they’ve just found the perfect victim….

Though 1993’s The Cassandra Prophecy featured mere murder and drug smuggling, ever-brilliant Wilson’s more recent thrillers have given their action sequences a titillating grounding in future science, as in Donor (nerve regenerating) and Embryo (Gestation outside the womb). The main gimmick this time out anticipates a recent New York Times article about future nannocomputers that can be reduced to the size of a blood cell and introduced into the human body. Wilson’s ever-active intelligence community has invented a tiny computer chip that can be implanted directly into the brain, allowing various recipients (whose new mental powers and funds of information have been increased exponentially) to be fully aware of what their fellow chippees are doing and thinking—creating a Monad, a minor mind of a God.

When five poorly chosen volunteer chippees (four men and one woman, all criminals) pool their resources, they come up with a game plan to take over the world powers and run things their way. The intelligence community, naturally, rises up in righteous indignation to fight these superpredators. The battle seems hopeless, with mere human researchers fighting the products of their best efforts. But as luck would have it, one chippee riding a motorcycle is hit by a truck, and he keeps waking and dying on his way to the morgue, alerting the medical pathologist who examines him to find a chip one quarter the width of a pencil in the dead man’s brain—which means, by thriller standards, the examiner must be murdered. These two deaths eventually involve young Dr. Spence Stevens, still another visionary who is working on an artificial retina for the blind. One wonders: Will the good Doctor Spence himself have to be implanted and engeniused to fight the villains? If so, what a wonderful battle. Smart, fast, and full of enough slaps on the cheek to keep you awake half the night. —Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gilchrist’s celebrated writing life began with a book of short stories, In the Land of the Dreamy Dreams (1984), and her second collection, Victory over Japan, won the 1985 National Book Award. She has switched back and forth between novels and short stories ever since, and her dulcet yet tensile voice has become an integral part of American literature.

Gilchrist has now selected 34 of her favorite stories from seven collections to create a potent and pleasingly cohesive volume that showcases her deep sense of place and, the most salient feature of her work, her lusty, unpredictable, and unapologetic heroines. Gilchrist’s women have refused to be contained within single stories. No matter how often she finds someone new to write about, and how far away she moves from the settings she knows best, and which she so affectionately yet critically portrays, such as Fayetteville, Arkansas, and New Orleans, her feisty and outspoken heroines track her down and insist on continuing their lives.

Here, readers first meet the fearless and competitive Rhoda Katherine Manning as an ambitious third-grader and follow her through an elegant adulthood of extravagant gestures and determined independence. Nora Jane Whittington, a self-declared anarchist, leaves New Orleans for San Francisco, where she wins the adoration of the heroic Freddy Harwood, learns all about earthquakes, and becomes the mother of twin girls. And then there’s Miss Crystal and her sharp-eyed maid, Traceleen. In each intriguing tale, Gilchrist brilliantly illuminates some quirky aspect of human nature, whether it’s the territorial instinct at work in a snooty tennis club, the need for poetry and music, marital friction, the complexities of race, or the mysteries of love, all the while granting readers the boon of her humor, wisdom, and beautifully crafted prose. —Donna Seaman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

For Love of the Game: The Holy Wars of Millsaps College & Mississippi College Football

How do we fortify them with a sense of obligation, hope, faith, trust, and a burning desire to achieve?

In this wise and important book, you will discover unlimited answers that are yours for the taking—the keys to raising children with strong values and a positive sense of purpose and identity.

Today’s children—many of them blessed with more material wealth and education than any generation before—greet the world with a sense of uneasiness at best, and, at worst, a sense of despair. In The Ties That Bind, Dr. Joyce Ladner, an eminent sociologist, shows how we can empower more children with the self-confidence that will sustain them throughout their lives.

Keeping the promise of her own tradition-rich Mississippi upbringing, Dr. Ladner passes on the timeless treasure of African American values. A leading scholar and activist, she reveals how each generation taught the next a vital set of lessons in values. Drawing insight from everyday heroes, family stories, and personal experiences as a mother of a growing son, she brings those lessons to life and shapes them for our times.

Step by step, she teaches the authentic principles of the historic black value system. Finally, she demonstrates how you can pass on this legacy in a way that children will absorb through dozens of simple, everyday activities for home, church, school, and community life.

The Ties That Bind will help you give your children the foundation they need through their growing years and beyond. Let this enriching book with its healing lessons guide and nourish your family.

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Mississippi Books and Writers

December 2000