A Killing in This Town: A Novel

by Olympia Vernon, Maurice Girodias (Editor)

“In language reminiscent of Toni Morrison and William Faulkner, Vernon weaves a powerful yet dreamlike story of our not-too-distant past.”—BooklistThere is a menace in the woods of Bullock County, Mississippi, and not only for the black man destined to be lynched when a white boy comes of age. The white men who work at the plant are in danger, too, but they refuse to heed Earl Thomas’s urgent message that the factory is slowly killing them, turning a deaf ear to the black pastor. Thomas knows he should try to deliver the message again, but he hears the blood of his murdered friend calling to him from the ground, and fears that he will be the next black man to be dragged to his death. Adam Pickens, a white boy now on the eve of his thirteenth birthday, isn’t sure he wants to wear the garb being readied for him by the Klan seamstress, or participate in the town’s horrific ritual. It is only when Gill Mender—a man haunted by past sins—returns that redemption seems possible. A transfixing and pivotal work of fiction, A Killing in This Town exposes the fragile hierarchy of a society poisoned by hatred, and shows the power of an individual to stand up to the demons of history and bring the cycle of violence to an end.“At once emotionally wrenching and rewarding to read.”—The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, African American Literature, Historical

182 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 5, 2006

About the author

Olympia Vernon grew up in a small town on the border of Mississippi and Louisiana, the fourth of seven children. She has a degree in criminal justice and received her MFA from Louisiana State University in the spring of 2002. Olympia has twice been granted the Matt Clark Memorial Scholarship and was nominated for the Robert O. Butler Award in Fiction in 2000. She is the author of A Killing in this Town, Logic and Eden, for which she won the American Academy of Arts and Letters Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award in 2004. In 2005 she won the Governor’s Arts Award in the Professional Artist category in Louisiana. In 2008 A Killing in This Town won the first annual Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence award.

Reviews

[Ronnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The story was worth the read, but the writing style made it difficult for me to connect with the novel.
I tried reading it like an ordinary novel, that didn't work. I tried as if it were an epic poem, that almost worked.
I found that while I was reading A Killing in this Town, if I pictured a woman on a stage, not just reciting the story but performing it; with the body motions, the hand gestures, the emphasis on certain words or sentences- stressing this one, whispering that one- helped me get through the reading of the novel.
Also, the lack of quotation marks made it a bit difficult to tell when someone was talking. You could be half way through a sentence before you realized someone was saying something.
Overall a good story, but a difficult read. 3.5 stars

[Tamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unflinching look at race relations. Gut wrenching. You cannot read this and remain unmoved.

I had the pleasure of meeting this author when she spoke to our Southern Literature class last fall. She has a depth and spirituality that defies explaination.

[yali (｀・ω・´) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm so confused.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've finally finished this book. It's taken longer than I anticipated. It's an important story, and I wanted to finish, wanted to know the outcome. But the style of writing isn't for me. I feel like it was over descriptive. I'm not sure what you call this style of writing, but here's an excerpt:

The air grew complex around them, as if they'd all heard the syntax of the darkness creeping into their conversation and stirring, stirring within the creatures that surrounded them.
No one laughed now. They had become disturbed by something. Hoover Pickens noticed the quivering hand of Salem Bullock; the moon in its grand and stark position, had announced its discomfort.

I found it difficult to stay focused. But the story is worth it. It's agonizing look at race relations in the south, around the end of the 19th century or early 20th century.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a searing coming of age story in small town Mississippi of a boy who must fulfill his destiny in a bloody baptism as the son of a Ku Klux Klan member by violently dragging a black man behind his horse until he is dead. Told in a gorgeously poetic and apocalyptic Southern Gothic style, where the full weight of living and dying in a place tinged with the infection of racism is even in the air one breathes, the fever dream that is this book will linger with the reader.

[Hillary]

It was to ethereal for me-- I need concrete! I had a really hard time getting into it and it was due at the library. I made the decision to return it instead of push through. What can I say? I'm not deep enough for the style.

[Tawanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grippingly painful, beautifully written, boldly truthful. I was mesmerizes by this novel.

[Sarah Hannan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haunting.