THE SACRED PLACE

In 1955, Emmett Till visited his family in rural Mississippi. The Chicago teenager failed to obey the racist mores of the South and was brutally murdered--an event that helped galvanize the Civil Rights Movement. In Daniel Black's retelling, the facts replay as 14-year-old Clement, an "uppity" kid from up North, smart-mouths a white woman. Though read with youthful enthusiasm, ingenuousness, and appropriate teenaged insouciance by Kevin R. Free, the novel is weakened by Black's heavy-handed use of stereotypes. The intent of the novel is to depict multidimensional characters in desperate racial conflict. Free handles the various accents well. But in spite of his best efforts, the characters are little more than poor, good-hearted black folks and evil, stupid rednecks. The novel misses its mark, but Free gives a valiant reading. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/ MAY 08]