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Overview
Mississippi Sissy is destined to become an American classic
In a book that echoes the time-honored fiction of Harper Lee and Flannery O'Connor and memoirs by Mary Karr and Augusten Burroughs, Kevin Sessums brings the American South and the experiences of a strange little Mississippi boy to life.
Synopsis
The celebrity interviewer finally turns the camera on himself
Publishers Weekly
This lovely, engaging memoir by acclaimed entertainment writer Sessums is not so much a gay coming-out story (although its author does discover and act upon his homosexuality) as an investigation of the effects of popular culture on a young, white boy growing up in the racist South in the 1950s. Sessums, who has written for Vanity Fair, Interview and Allure, was born in 1956 and raised outside of Jackson, Miss., by loving parents (although his father wished him to be less effeminate) both of whom died before his 10th birthday. But the heart of Sessums's memoir is how Hollywood and Broadway stars were obsessions and guide posts to a different life, and how female icons (such as Dusty Springfield and Audrey Hepburn) were important role models as he became part of a gay community. At times the prose can be preeningly literary as when Sessums describes his mother and her friends as "they carefully rubbed Coppertone suntan lotion on their smooth and lovely backs, their jutting shoulder blades like the nubs of de-winged angels grubbing around down here on earth." But at other times he can be emotionally shocking and precise as when recalling how, at 16, he hears his older friend Frank Hains tell a delighted Eudora Welty about his affairs with "young African-Americans." A marked detour from the often repetitive coming-out memoir, Sessums's story offers wit and incisive observation. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
A skilled interviewer who has coaxed secrets from the most close-mouthed celebrities, Kevin Sessums now dishes on his own profoundly strange southern boyhood in a novelistic memoir steeped in magnolias, mockingbirds, and pure southern gothic. Growing up in 1960s Mississippi (a hotbed of racism and homophobia), orphaned at an early age, and victimized by bullies and molesters, the "sissified" Sessums lived the life of a lonely outsider until he was befriended by arts journalist Frank Hains, a cultured white homosexual who became his mentor and role model. It was Hains's tragic murder at the hands of gay-bashing home invaders that gave Sessums the courage and confidence to confront his sexual identity, head north, and pursue his journalistic career. Alternately heartbreaking and hilarious, Mississippi Sissy opens a window onto a very particular time and place.From the Publisher
"Sessums re-creates a colorful cast of characters. . . . [His] unique sensibility shines through . . . in his wonderful ear for language, and his eye for Southern foibles."—Elle
"A charming but bracingly unsentimental work . . . Utterly compelling."—People
"Heroic and heartfelt . . . [Sessums] describes situations with clarity and humility. . . . With no small amount of wit and grace, he captures life then as he saw and heard it."—Christina Eng, San Francisco Chronicle
"With a patiently observant and chillingly sensual voice, Sessums has written an important memoir."—Matt Saldana, Jackson Free Press
"Mississippi Sissy is a book I've been waiting for most of my life. . . . Kevin Sessums is some sort of cockeyed national treasure."—Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours
Publishers Weekly
This lovely, engaging memoir by acclaimed entertainment writer Sessums is not so much a gay coming-out story (although its author does discover and act upon his homosexuality) as an investigation of the effects of popular culture on a young, white boy growing up in the racist South in the 1950s. Sessums, who has written for Vanity Fair, Interview and Allure, was born in 1956 and raised outside of Jackson, Miss., by loving parents (although his father wished him to be less effeminate) both of whom died before his 10th birthday. But the heart of Sessums's memoir is how Hollywood and Broadway stars were obsessions and guide posts to a different life, and how female icons (such as Dusty Springfield and Audrey Hepburn) were important role models as he became part of a gay community. At times the prose can be preeningly literary as when Sessums describes his mother and her friends as "they carefully rubbed Coppertone suntan lotion on their smooth and lovely backs, their jutting shoulder blades like the nubs of de-winged angels grubbing around down here on earth." But at other times he can be emotionally shocking and precise as when recalling how, at 16, he hears his older friend Frank Hains tell a delighted Eudora Welty about his affairs with "young African-Americans." A marked detour from the often repetitive coming-out memoir, Sessums's story offers wit and incisive observation. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.Publishers Weekly
As an eight-year-old boy coping with the horrific loss of his parents and a nagging sense of being "different" from his peers in the Mississippi town of Forest, Sessums assumes the persona of What's My Linepanelist Arlene Francis. "Call me Arlene!" he insists, and his grandparents—despite their rather reactionary stances in the realms of politics, religion and sexuality—manage to lovingly comply. In performing his electrifying coming-of-age memoir, Sessums adroitly introduces the cast of characters who shaped his journey. The vocal renderings of such memorable figures as the family's loving and devoted—as well as self-confident and determined—maid Matty May, who repeatedly recites "Poitier" as a mantra in the days and weeks following Sidney Poitier's 1963 Oscar win, resonate with remarkable clarity. Listeners accustomed to contemporary autobiographical titles should be forewarned that they are entering unapologetic gothic territory akin to that of Eudora Welty (a friend and mentor to Sessums) or even Flannery O'Connor. Raw human emotions of love and hate play starring roles, refusing to remain mere stage props. Simultaneous release with the St. Martin's hardcover (Reviews, Nov. 6). (Mar.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationLibrary Journal
Sessums, a contributing editor at Alluremagazine, understood instinctively that he was somehow different, somehow not the child his father wanted. One of his earliest memories is of requesting that his mother, grandmother, and aunts make him a skirt from the fabrics his mother was using to make herself maternity clothes. Sessums's father, a regional sports figure, wasn't thrilled by having "a sissy" for a son but did nonetheless love his child in a stern and a distant way. By the age of eight, Sessums had lost both of his parents. In many ways, his grandparents indulged his love of pop culture; they also understood that he was both homosexual and liberal long before either word became acceptable in polite society in Forest, MS. As a young man Sessums had the good fortune of being taken under the wing of Frank Hains and Eudora Welty-both of whom encouraged his love of the arts and literature. Finding himself accepted by a larger world, Sessums was able to turn his grief into writing and find the inner strength to build a life for himself outside of the region. Recommended for libraries with large collections of gay literature and Southern memoir.
—Pam Kingsbury