Audio Book Report - Mississippi Sissy

Picked up this Audio Book, an abridged version of Mississippi Sissy by Kevin Sessums at the local discount store.  The story is a memoir of a sissy boy growing up in a small town in the Deep South during the 1960's.  Sessums' mastery of language and the fact that he reads the story with full dramatic effect easily makes a movie in your mind as you listen.

Kevin was one of three children.  His father, an athlete and a coach was frightened by his boy's "in-your-face" and unabashed sissy behavior, while his mother always encouraged him to be himself and nourished him with literature and the arts.  Both parents died within a short time when he was just a child.

His recollections draw vivid pictures of life in the South, with colorful, interesting, and sometimes frightening characters taking the stage.  Sessums skillfully weaves intriguing details into the narrative and returns to those very details when their significance is fully revealed and they will have the greatest impact on the reader/listener.

Kevin Sessums, in Mississippi Sissy, lays it all out for everyone to see.  It is a life revealed with brutal honesty and told with an underlying compassion and love that makes even the most horrific events palatable.

I listened to this on the car's CD player over the course of a few days while doing short errands and often sat in the parking lot or driveway because I hated to "put the book down" so to speak.  Highly recommended.

The subject of this book dovetails nicely with my last post about the website "Born This Way", see below.