Mississippi Sissy
by: Kevin Sessums
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Product Description:
Mississippi Sissy is the stunning memoir from Kevin Sessums, a celebrity journalist who grew up scaring other children, hiding terrible secrets, pretending to be Arlene Frances and running wild in the South. As he grew up in Forest, Mississippi, befriended by the family maid, Mattie May, he became a young man who turned the word "sissy" on its head, just as his mother taught him. In Jackson, he is befriended by Eudora Welty and journalist Frank Hains, but when Hains is brutally murdered in his antebellum mansion, Kevin's long road north towards celebrity begins. In a memoir that echoes bestsellers like The Liar's Club, Kevin Sessums brings to life the pungent American south of the 1960s and the world of the strange little boy who grew there.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Moving
This is the most moving book I have read in a very very long time.It took me through the full range of emotions--laughter to tears. It had such a hold on me I finished it in one day.It made me feel like being 11 years old again reading "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" for the first time.
Rating: 
- Foolish choices
Being in therapy is an excellent idea.Sharing therapy is a foolish idea.Dull-usions of writing like Faulkner make for especially bad editorial choices. I hope little Kevin feels better real soon because . . . well, poor thing.
Rating: - Colorful and Candid
Mississippi Sissy is the story of the openly-gay Kevin Sessum's childhood spent in Mississippi. The writing is never dull and features a cast of colorful southern personalities (most notably Eudora Welty).
Mississippi Sissy didn't reduce me to tears. It didn't connect with me on a basic level, like I think Mr. Sessums was going for. I very much enjoyed reading his story, but did not find myself identifying with it on a personal level.
The tale of growing up gay in Mississippi ... Read More
Rating: 
- THIS Mississippi Sissy was not impressed
I finished the book and said to myself..."eh".I was underwhelmed as I ended up feeling that I was an outsider when I was expecting to be able to relate as one who is gay and Mississippi born.The story seemed more about impressing those who wrote the glowing forwards for the book with never ending references to authors, plays, and insider thespian references that the vast majority of the reading audience could/would not relate to.I could not relate to Mr. Sessum's plight as he shows nothing of himself ... Read More
Rating: 
- Good...not great
I read this book at the urging of a friend, and I have to say that I enjoyed it. However, I would not say that it imparted to me any new insights, or startling revelations about gay life, life in the South, child molestation, death, racism, and evangelical religion. Since these things seem to be the main topics of the text, I can't say that it was a truly unique attempt.
Two elements of the text that I as a reader could not reconcile was the ever changing timeline and jumping from point to point. This ... Read More
- MovingThis is the most moving book I have read in a very very long time.It took me through the full range of emotions--laughter to tears. It had such a hold on me I finished it in one day.It made me feel like being 11 years old again reading "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" for the first time.
- Foolish choicesBeing in therapy is an excellent idea.Sharing therapy is a foolish idea.Dull-usions of writing like Faulkner make for especially bad editorial choices. I hope little Kevin feels better real soon because . . . well, poor thing.
- Colorful and CandidMississippi Sissy is the story of the openly-gay Kevin Sessum's childhood spent in Mississippi. The writing is never dull and features a cast of colorful southern personalities (most notably Eudora Welty).
Mississippi Sissy didn't reduce me to tears. It didn't connect with me on a basic level, like I think Mr. Sessums was going for. I very much enjoyed reading his story, but did not find myself identifying with it on a personal level.
The tale of growing up gay in Mississippi ... Read More
- THIS Mississippi Sissy was not impressedI finished the book and said to myself..."eh".I was underwhelmed as I ended up feeling that I was an outsider when I was expecting to be able to relate as one who is gay and Mississippi born.The story seemed more about impressing those who wrote the glowing forwards for the book with never ending references to authors, plays, and insider thespian references that the vast majority of the reading audience could/would not relate to.I could not relate to Mr. Sessum's plight as he shows nothing of himself ... Read More
- Good...not greatI read this book at the urging of a friend, and I have to say that I enjoyed it. However, I would not say that it imparted to me any new insights, or startling revelations about gay life, life in the South, child molestation, death, racism, and evangelical religion. Since these things seem to be the main topics of the text, I can't say that it was a truly unique attempt.
Two elements of the text that I as a reader could not reconcile was the ever changing timeline and jumping from point to point. This ... Read More
