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Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman (view source)
Revision as of 09:48, 4 September 2020
, 09:48, 4 September 2020no edit summary
The language is superb. I cannot pinpoint how it works. What is it in the way her southerners speak that differentiates them from the New Yorkers? And how does she split the New Yorkers into Jews and Gentiles? Some of the sentence structure 'is' obvious, but not enough of it to fully account for the slow, southern, feel of the Alabama sections, or the abruptness of New York. Somehow it lurks just below the surface of her words.
Whittier is our the main narrator. With her access to the media-makers, the lawyers on both sides, to the prisoners, to one of the accusers, even to the wife of the president of the United States, she has a rounded view of everything that happens. Whilst she lays the clues openly all the way through, it is only towards the end of the story that we get the clear admission of her own culpability.
At times the voice switches to Ruby, written as a poor white girl might speak, in comparison to Whittier's journalistic script.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.
For more tales from the deep south, try [[Redbirds by Rick Bragg]]. You might also find [[Injustice: Life and Death in the Courtrooms of America by Clive Stafford-Smith]] an informative read.
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