“Mississippi Sissy”
by Kevin Sessums
Published: March 2007
ISBN: 0312341016

(Updated: December 9, 2007.)

From the Publisher…

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 Liars Club, Kevin Sessums brings to life the pungent American south of the 1960s and the world of the strange little boy who grew there.

I always sigh deeply when sitting down to review an autobiography. I think it takes great courage and much strength to tell one’s own story. I never want to even come close to seeming to critique the result of that. That written, this story is told clearly, frankly and is very physically “present”. It is written with an open heart and an innocence, neither of which seemingly and remarkably changing with time.

From where I am, the little boy is very much a little boy. It is his world that is strange. And that is what is the hardest to read.

I appreciated reading Kevin Sessum’s story. I appreciated reading about the people who kept his heart and spirit full and who expanded his mind and possibilities. I don’t but do appreciate reading about those who make us all emptier and smaller.

The book, not the story nor the person nor my wishes for both, is a 4 out of 5 hearts. The front cover is perfect and if ever you want to get to know a picture, do read this book.