This book brought back so many memories of my childhood in Mississippi. While it was set in the 1950s, the rural areas of the South didn't change all that much for a long time and so many mannerisms and phrases that are used in this book were also used when I was young. I was literally having flashbacks while reading this excellently descriptive book.

Paul does a wonderful job of making the characters, down to the littlest tics, come to life. You feel like you truly know them.

The story is set around 3 weeks in late summer when Jake goes to stay at his cousin's house and help bring in the cotton crop. After an exciting bus ride thru Mississippi, he arrives at their door only to already know the news that a dead man with bullet wounds was caught up on a fishing line just the day before. No one knows who he is.

So starts a great little story of Jake, his cousins, his summer - all wonderfully fleshed out and brought to life - along with the exciting mystery of a small town murder. Nothing brings an entire town together like death. Paul also manages to write from the viewpoint of a 10 year old boy very well.

Jake's description of his bus ride to his cousins, and the very interesting people he gets to sit with as a young-in on his own, was my favorite part of the book. I love when "Yeah boy" sits up like a bloodhound on a scent when "Yellow Teeth" pulls the dark bottle of liquor out of her purse!

Really sweet book that I quite enjoyed.

This review first appeared at Dew on the Kudzu, and is republished with permission

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Review #2
Review of Paul H. Yarbrough's Novel Mississippi Cotton
by Karen Jones Gowen

It's not often I read a perfect book. The last one was Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. Mississippi Cotton is perfect. Narrated by Jake Connor, it is set in 1951 in the Mississippi Delta region. Jake is a kid, and he tells about his summer with his Delta cousins, Taylor and Casey, but it's not really a kid's book. It is one adults would enjoy as well as kids. I was transported to the cotton farms of the Delta region, I could hear the characters talk, and my head is still ringing with their Southern ways. Even the side characters have depth and interest. I delighted in all the characters in this book. And while Jake, Taylor and Casey, hoe cotton, go fishing for cats and breams, go skinny-dipping in a private pond, underneath it all is the mystery of the dead man found in the Mississippi River under the Greenville Bridge. There is so much packed into this little book that I feel inadequate to review it.

But here's a sample paragraph that shows you what I'm talking about:

"Earl put his brown hat in the chair next to him. In his work clothes, he looked tanned and strong—a real cotton farmer. His blue cotton shirt sleeves rolled up revealed big hairy forearms, with hard-looking muscle that came from farm work. He had a gentle way about him, but a mannerism that made you know he was definitely no softy. One of his big hands swept around the cup, not using the crook, and took a big swallow. Black. No sissy coffee for Earl Hightower."