I started "Mississippi Sissy" by Kevin Sessums right after the Memorial Day weekend when my friend Larry lent me his copy. Setting it aside briefly to read Armistead Maupin's much anticipated "Michael Tolliver Lives," I picked Sessums' memoir back up and devoured it within a week and am just now sitting down to post this review.
With observation that is humorous and philosophical Kevin Sessums' "Mississippi Sissy" is an incredible memoir that grabs you from the word go and doesn't disappoint. In this book Sessums (who has written articles for Vanity Fair and Interview magazines - and had a small role in Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" mini-series in 1994) tells the story of his childhood, growing up in rural Mississippi in the 1960s.
So obviously a gay boy from an early age - he'd rather swish around dressed as the Wicked Witch from "The Wizard of Oz" than join the other boys in a game of basketball - Sessums managed to hit some nerves with brief tales of distant relatives who simply didn't understand him and, in response to his rather feminine ways, would say really stupid things. (His more immediate family loved him beyond measure.)
But "Sissy" isn't about homophobia. Not by any stretch. Rather, it is about how the pop icons and pop culture of his youth led Sessums to a life that most who grew up in Mississippi would never see or understand. As a young boy he insisted on being called Arlene (after Arlene Francis of TV's "What's My Line") and read "Valley of the Dolls" by Jacqueline Sussann for his sixth grade reading project.
Along the way we are told of Sessums' circle of literary friends in Jackson, two sexual assaults (one by a stranger, the other by a trusted preacher), and race relations in the South. The latter is told through the relationship Sessums had with his family's maid and is one of the highlights of the memoir.
"Mississippi Sissy" is an absorbing story. You'll easily get lost in Kevin Sessums' wonderfully written prose. As summer fades, it's the perfect book for one of those crisp fall weekends in which you curl up with a cup of tea and settle in for a great read.
