A Killing in This Town

I have always hesitated to pen a review for one of Olympia Vernon's novels. What words can a mortal reader possibly conjure to lavish "praise" or dish "crticism" on an artist so clearly annointed by the angels? I have always finished Olympia's novels with the same feeling: a thoroughly awed and sometimes-frightened reverence. From her debut "Eden" and now with "A Killing in This Town," she has served fearless notice to the old vanguard of the letters that torches are meant to be passed and kept aflame, not hoarded until their blaze is snuffed out. I have finally mustered the strength to review this book; the time simply feels right for me. We have arrived at a point in America's history that has posited us at the doorstep of a new era of the oft-cited change, and a hope for equality. But stories like "A Killing" still transpire in modern-day cities and rural areas. This novel is almost a travel guide into the true hearts of men. Racism is still alive and well in this, the mightest-yet-now-weakened nation on Earth. Do yourself a favor whether you voted for our President-Elect or not, and read this novel. It is a vicarious exploration into the bloody founding of our united states, and an uncompromising indictment of apathy by one of the loudest literary voices of our generation. Kudos, Olympia Vernon. And continue.

This book was so beautiful and compelling--I did not want to see it end. Olympia takes us to a time when hatred and racial conflict are thick enough to cut with a knife. Adam, a boy born into a home full of Ku Klux Klan will have to uphold the ritual of calling a "nigger" from his home and leading the dragging of the black man through the woods until he is dead. Gill, the last young white boy that was initiated into the Klan, can't get the innocent black man out of his sytem. His self-hate can only be reversed if he rights that wrong that he commited over 13 years ago. Gill comes back to lead Adam on the path to redemption and help to bridge the racial divide in Bullock. Will Adam continue on with family tradition??? Is Bullock destined to stay ruled by the "free and automatic white men"?? You have to read this beautiful book to find out. This book is poetic and I promise you will not be disappointed if you are looking for a book with substance.

once again Olympia F. Vernon has upheld the literary standard of a GREAT writer and author. I look forward to her every move in the literary field and i hope she never forsakes a very aparent god given talent.

Olympia Vernon's words always sing, but never more powerfully than in this strong, brave, unflinching look at hate and love. The novel reads like a song, like something that wasn't made up by one immensely talented young novelist but was a truth always with us from a time long before: a psalm, a ballad, a folk song. Her characters rocket toward their fates with the tragic inevitability of opera. Vernon's language is poetry of such stark originality that it sometimes seems like a new tongue. In its fresh and alarming syntax, the sad old drama of racial hatred and intolerance cuts through contemporary complacency like a hacksaw through living bone. Truth never grows stale in the telling. Crucial, terrible truths--cruelty, racism, hatred, bigotry--are the dark shadows against which light, if any of us are capable of generating any light at all, must be seen. Vernon's Mississippi lightbringers shine out against their darknesses with courage and love and the need for redemption, alive to small beauties like hummingbirds, leafy forests, loving marriages and one good dog. A reader emerges from the time in their company like a listener after a hymn well sung, but one that packs a punch and isn't afraid to pull off a surprise or two. As a nation, we would do well to continue the honest racial dialogue Vernon's begun here, because she's not one to look away from hard facts and hide her head in the sand. Too many of us, black and white, talk at each other rather than TO each other. But this book, a product of the author's artless way with words, is a truth-teller and page-turner of the highest order. You know who the good guys are, and you love them and root for them not because they are abstracts of goodness, but because they live and breathe and sweat and fear. Olympia Vernon is a national treasure. The common ground she provides us with here is something that can support the weight of mighty, mighty beauty.