Mississippi Sissy | 
| Author: Kevin Sessums
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $7.91
You Save: $6.09 (44%)
New (36) Used (16) from $6.41
Avg. Customer Rating:  44 reviews
Sales Rank: 43665
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.5 x 1
ISBN: 0312341024
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780312341022
ASIN: 0312341024
Publication Date: March 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20080725212931T
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 39 more reviews...
 "...enough sassy sissy smarts..." July 13, 2008
I really wanted to like this book - and around page 200 - I think I finally started to.
From the offset the story travels in a bee's flight start to finish approach: but wait let's pause - and then resume - but never quite get back to the original point that a chapter or paragraph launched with. The story is frustrating (as if not edited or re-read subjectively by the author) - and often puts on airs of self-importance and name dropping to tie this autobiography onto some larger world or into the world's important events and happenings. A pattern Sessums seems to have been leaning into since his early life as the story tells it. He also seems to have an incredibly detailed memory from about 3.5 to 6 years of age... which at times seems a little filled in by a creative and self-flattering imagination.
Sessums is fascinated by his own "natural grace", "heightened sensitivities" and "exotic"-ness. He mentions these alluring attributes several times throughout the story - typically writing that these traits have been realized by other persons who he's encountered.
Sessums weaves back and forth interestingly for a while with an interesting imaginary friend crossing into real life as real people seem to fade out of the real world. He lays out tons of great references to "American classics" and other authors as well as to musicians, singers and musicals - some I am familiar with - others I've scratched down a list to look into.
He gives up an entire chapter of his own story to his brother's account of his time with Reverend Graham - which is so bizarrely out of step with the story in a forced fairytale tone - that by the end I thoroughly imagined bird's landing on ladies' outstretched fingers and a choir of angels bursting from the clouds.
In disclaimer, I will add: There is no way for me to imagine the losses Sessums encountered at a young age, matched up with being a sissy in southern culture, as well as with molestation. The book sloppily attempts to string itself into the issue of racism in the south through 1) an imaginary playmate, 2) a nanny/housekeeper type figure and 3) finally the man who takes his virginity.
Still wanting to have really liked this book, I dug into his website a bit before sitting down to type - trying to get a better feel for him as a person since the books gives so little (or what it gives seems incredibly far-fetched and not terribly likeable) - and found it interesting that an early negative review of his book dents his ego and he then makes a point of blogging that the critic gave no credit to the sensitive issues of race in the book (!) - that the critic isn't his "target audience" - that this mean critic is known to have no taste for "Southern gothic literature" - and that this is one more time in his life that the sissy is getting beat up on by a bully (and a lesbian at that).
His list actually makes her the perfect critic.
While Sessums blog is more current... it follows the same patterns as the book - it never lets the story tell itself - at least not until about page 203.
Mississippi and it's best June 28, 2008
In reading Mississippi Sissy, on my recent annual vacation to Seaside, FL; I was very moved by Kevin's descriptions of Mississippi, it's pride and it's prejudices, it's famous people and not so famous ones.
I, too, am from Mississippi, and in the same age bracket. I worked at the Clarion-Ledger / Jackson Daily News in the early 70's, 80's, into the 90's; so I know of some of the brilliant characters he wrote about.
Quite a book you wrote, Kevin. Great work and very much enjoyed by me. I will pass it along to others, insist they buy it and read it as I am sure my friends and some family members will enjoy it as much as I did. It captured the hot, sticky, small thinking South as it was and is.
S. K. Pepper
 Moving masterwork June 28, 2008
This is a truly remarkable piece of literature. Kevin Sessums writes with the blatantly refreshing honesty that is so true to his southern roots. He delves deeply inside his feelings; enabling the reader to feel as if he is present. The book is quite entertaining but it goes beyond sheer entertainment. There are lessons to be learned, yet it's not at all preachy. The insights into Eudora Welty also make you appreciate her all the more.
I'm so glad to have picked this up. Bravo Mr. Sessums!!
 just couldn't get into it June 19, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Due to some good reviews and awards, I decided to give this one a read and to be honest I just couldn't finish it. I'm not sure what exactly to pinpoint about it that bothered me--maybe it was the language, the turn of phrase, the overabundance of words you will need a dictionary to look up, or just the flow of the stories, something just kept me from really connecting with Mr. Sessums and his life story. Being from my own not so delightful Southern upbringing I thought at first I could relate to his bio but alas I couldn't. Sadly, I can not personally recommend this, but reading biographies really is a personal taste thing anyway. If you are thinking of buying this I would at least suggest you pick it up in the store and read 2 or 3 of the chapters first to see if it's for you or not.
Brilliant evocation of our not so distant past May 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Kevin Sessums and I grew up in the same South at almost the same time. His memoir of those times touched me profoundly. It brought those strange transitory times back to my memory like Proust's Madeleines. I laughed and cried. I loved it. Can't wait for his next book!
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