Ann had recently read this genre-defying book and had been unable to put it down, and very much wanted to discuss it with us all. Taking its title from the Lewis Allan/Billy Holiday song, 'Strange Fruit', it is based on a startling idea. In the small racist town of Money, Mississippi, brutal and mystifying murders are taking place. Beside each mutilated (White) victim is found what seems to be the corpse of a young Black man, Emmett Till, lynched sixty-five years earlier by the white racists of the town. Each time, the Black corpse somehow disappears into thin air from the grip of the local law enforcement, only to appear again at the next murder. Two Black detectives are sent from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation to uncover the mystery, and what ensues is a pell-mell tale of knockabout verbal comedy and aching tragedy, as the seams of prejudice and brutal racism still existing to this day are revealed.
Like Ann, we all found it a breathless, gripping read. Part subverted detective story, part comedy, part supernatural thriller, it had us all in thrall as we read it. I said Everett's ability to deal with such searingly painful material with such a light touch was breathtaking, and everyone agreed. In a politically dynamic move, Everett, a Black writer, begins the novel with the racist family who will turn out to be at the heart of the history involved, and with a light, comic touch conveys not only their brutality but their humanity - in particular that of the women - which contributes to the poignancy of the underlying tragedy of racism. In short, snappy sections, the novel bats between the different parties involved as the murders go on: the family, the local law enforcement, the cynical bantering detectives from the MBI (who constitute a kind of send-up of the familiar tropes of the detective novel), and others who get involved - the local Klu Klux Klan, a local Black woman who is seen as a witch, her mixed-race waitressing granddaughter and the young White professor the granddaughter calls in to help, and the higher investigation officers who are eventually put on the case. Everett has a superb ear for dialogue, and all the characters are vivid and relatably human - apart perhaps from Mama Z, the so-called witch, who remains inscrutable to both the characters and the readers, and will be central to the outcome.
It is not really possible to report our detailed discussion, as it centred on points that would reveal the plot. Suffice to say that Doug was perhaps the most picky about the book. He said he found the depiction of the White racists a bit stereotyped, and when I said how great, and funny, I had found the meeting of the local Klu Klux Klan in which they try to pick up their lapsed game in the light of the murders, only to fall apart in incompetence and stupidity, he commented that he had found its stress on incompetent bureaucracy a bit cliched. I don't think any of the rest of us at all felt the same. I have to say that I was disappointed in the ending (though no one else said they were ), but won't say why as I don't want to spoil. It is true that once we got into a deep discussion we felt there were things about the plot that didn't make sense - or at least, that we didn't get - but in the end it didn't really matter, as this was a book intended to crash open the genres and blow traditional expectations into the air, and was so very engaging.
Our archive discussions can be found here and a list of the books we have discussed, with links to the discussions, here
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