MISSISSIPPI SISSY

Sessums writes and reads his memoir with a passion for words, an active imagination, a life full of material, and the deep, full voice of a storyteller. He has the courage to tell the honest truth whether he's relating incidents of his father's rejection, the experience of being orphaned at age 8, or the inner conflict of growing up homosexual in an eccentric, prejudiced family in the Deep South of the 1950s. Sessums covers his first homosexual experiences graphically, but far more explicit is his confusing mix of emotions. His story is more about Southern culture than coming out; more witty than whiny; and his portraits of Eudora Welty, Frank Hains, and his loving mother are far more memorable than the issues that surround him. S.W. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/ JUL 07]