Confederacy of Silence : A True Tale of the New Old South

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Summary: Let the story speak
Review: ...I am an Alabamian, the scion of many settler families, both planter and yeoman stock. I consider Confederacy of Silence, A True Tale of the New Old South one of the three best books that I have ever read about my native country, this one by an outsider and the other two by an insider. Rubin's powers of observation, curiosity, attention to detail, sensitivity to nuances, empathy with people, fairness, and honesty are extraordinary. He has the literary talent to express all that he observed and learned - and he was always learning. The book held me like a mystery thriller.

By the time that I reached the section on the trial, I had two strong reactions. First, I thought: "Oh my, he is already entangled in the same dichotomy as many thoughtful Southerners: love/hate, or better, love/anguish." I also felt that I was reading another To Kill a Mockingbird and hoping that the ending would be better.

I have added Confederacy of Silence to my list of the now three best books for understanding the South. The other two are Viola Goode Liddell's With a Southern Accent (1948) and A Place of Springs (1979). She too wrote with honesty giving everybody their due whether good, bad, or somewhere in between. She was born in 1901 and lived in or near Camden and the Alabama River in central Alabama. She wrote about the life of her families and community in the 19th century and during her lifetime including the turmoil of the 1950s and 1960s. The truth for both Liddell and Rubin is in the details.

The dichotomy of love/anguish expressed by both Rubin and Liddell also reminded me of Florence King whose hyperbolic humor and perceptions of the South I have always enjoyed. In her first chapter of Southern Ladies and Gentlemen she explained how Southerners are all rendered mad from dealing with the contradictions in their culture. Miss King, a Virginian, went to graduate school at Ole Miss where she encountered Mississippi women (Confessions of a Failed Southern Belle), a special breed for whose understanding Mr. Rubin has added lore.

Mr. Rubin perceived both the light and dark sides of the separate communities in Greenwood, Mississippi, and all the shades in between, i.e. real life and people. He sensed a concern for the future when he speculated that Mr. Myrick might become a public official in LeFlore County someday. Many of us are living the reality of that anguish.

The Jewish population in rural areas has declined in many places. It is happening even in cities such as Meridian, Mississippi. Mr. Rubin's description of Jewish society is especially poignant and informative...

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Summary: Reader - NYC Area
Review: A mangled and missed opportunity. Richard Rubin is as dishonest in his recollections and story-telling, in order to publish a book, as he was on the telephone during his initial job interview with Greenwood's newspaper's owner and editor.

His bias clearly impaired his vision of reality. How can one believe anything other than all the characters were viewed with the same "filtered" glasses Mr. Rubin used to view Handy Campbell and his family.

He is right about one thing, his literary career may surely mirror that of the 17-old high school football player.

His story as it relates to NCAA athletic rules is inaccurate. A quick review of NCAA transfer and redshirt rules would have corrected a few errors in the book and allowed Mr. Rubin to challenge some of the passages with a more critical eye.

As for athletics, Mr. Rubin would have you believe the following: a quarterback who has played just one year of organized football through high school, quit his first college team in less than two weeks, immediately transfers to another school where he is drunk on weekends, doesn't go to class as required, continually breaks team rules and twice injures his rotator cuff and the conclusion is his collegiate career was not successful because of racism from one offensive line coach. How many great athletes do we know with fatal flaws of character ... of course, this truth would not coincide with the pre-planned premise of the book......


Rating:
Summary: The South in all its glory and its darkness
Review: Confederacy of Silence is a young New Yorker's attempt at coming to grips with his personal Southern experience: A beautifully told ode to this most mysterious, enigmatic, and lovable of all American soils; at the same time an indictment of its pervasive and never-ending faults and idiosyncracies.
Fresh out of the Ivy-League, with a sharp mind but few marketable skills, Richard Rubin accepts a job at a small-town newspaper in Greenwood, Mississippi. His friends and family try to dissuade him from going; but he insists. His vivid description of him being overcome by doubts as to the wisdom of his decision when taking the Greyhound bus from Memphis to Greenwood is one of the book's most wonderful moments; not being a Southerner myself but having made Memphis my home, I could deeply empathize with Rubin.
His doubts turn out to be unwarranted, though. What he encounters in Mississippi are for the most part friendly and hospitable people, who soon consider him one of their own. It does not take long for Rubin to feel at home; and after a while he even considers staying in Greenwood indefinitely.
What finally makes him leave is the everyday contradiction of the Southern way of life; people lavishing warmth and welcome on a newcomer, at the same time fervently upholding the old racial barriers.
Six years later Rubin returns to Greenwood, not to visit old friends, though, but to cover the trial of a highly talented former Greenwood high school football player, Handy Campbell, who is charged with capital murder. This is where the quality of the book starts to slip a little. After investigating the reasons why Campbell did not make it as a quarterback at Mississippi State University, Rubin comes to the conclusion that race was the determining factor of Campbell's athletic downfall. He never really considers the possibility that Campbell, who by the way had played football for only one year before signing on with MSU, simply didn't have the skills and/or experience to go beyond the role of a benchwarmer. Moreover, when assessing the personality and the actions of the persons involved in the unfolding events, his judgment is not always very profound. He is surprised that Henry's mother fights like a lioness to save her son from spending the rest of his life at Parchman, Mississippi's infamous state penitentiary (wouldn't about every mother do that?). Also, he is shocked by the murder victim's wife's seemingly unconcern about her gay husband's death (could it be that she stayed with him for his money?).
Another thing struck me as rather odd: For writing a book a major share of which concerns itself with race, the author has had surprisingly little contact with Greenwood's black community.
I believe that some of Rubin's conclusions are at least debatable. However, both as an exciting court room thriller and especially as a beautiful story about the South in all its glory and in all its darkness it is absolutely recommendable.

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Summary: the Land of Lott
Review: Frankly, my dear, I wish there were pictures of the cast of this darkly true tale in the Land of Trent Lott. It is a tale of Big Time High School and College Football, the prioritization of prejudice, and the banality of bigotry and bigoted evil in what the self-described "New York Yankee Jew" author calls the "The New Old South." That oxymoronic sounding term is "an unofficial but popular movement dedicated to stanching integration and federalism and progressiveness in general and returning to such old-fashioned values as de facto segregation, economic feudalism, laissez-faire government, and a defiant Southern pride tinged with a sense of defiant persecution. The New Old South had transformed Mississippi into a Republican stronghold for the first time since Reconstruction, it had kept labor unions out, wages and public benefits and literacy rates low, and the clientele of the Crystal Club white. It had diminished the power of the old civil rights organizations, held the line on the proportion of black students attending formerly all-white state colleges, and swelled enrollments at unaccredited private academies that were all white."

And here's some Wonder Bread food for thought: 'Parchman (Penitentiary) was home to sixty-eight hundred prisoners, meaning that roughly one Mississippian in thirty was imprisoned there. ' 85 percent of [the] inmates are black. Only 45 percent of Mississippi�s entire population was black.' how could [anyone] possibly justify those stats?'

The racial bigotry and injustice is chronicled way back to the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek with the Choctaw and 'the Great White Father.'

Rubin's racoutment of 'The Game,'the Championship High School Season-ender of 1988, is spellbinding as is his coverage of the Life and Times of Handy Tyrone Campbell and their intersecting trajectories. It is a journey and indictment of "amateur" football, "justice" run amuck, and the New Old South. And, Boy Howdy, I bet it ain't gonna be the Book of the Month for a Daughters of the Confederacy Book Club.
Reviewed by TundraVision

Rating:
Summary: Southern Discomfort
Review: Having spent my formative years in Mississippi, I approached Mr. Rubin's book with some trepidation. I do love Mississippi-warts and all. I am all too familiar with books written about the South that berate the people based upon their history and the stereotypical depiction of their actions. Refreshingly, Mr. Rubin does not fall into this trap. Yes, there are sections of the book that are difficult to read due to the hateful, racist language referenced. Thankfully, Confederacy of Silence doesn't stop there. The beauty of the place and the generosity and graciousness of the people are crucial aspects of the Mississippi experience that the author astutely depicts for the reader.

I found the section of the book devoted to the writer's experience in the Delta truly fascinating. I found the second half of the book to be a genuine 'page turner.' While I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book, I wanted to finish it quickly to find out what happened to Handy Campbell. I did approach the ending with some hesitancy-would Campbell be found guilty even though he was innocent or was he actually guilty? I must admit that the final outcome of the trial was something I never even considered.

I highly recommend this book. As a native of Mississippi, I strongly urge those unfamiliar with the state to experience second-hand the good in the people that Mr. Rubin encounters-it is easy to see the bad. The author uses a clear voice from which the reader can draw his or her own opinion.

Rating:
Summary: Let the story speak
Review: I agree whole heartedly with an earlier review, that Rubin gets in his own way with too many judgments, and too many conclusory statements not backed by anything more than his hunch.

Story would have been much better had he laid it out and let us conclude things(just as his Greenwood editor suggested he do). One of the better chapters involved his visit to the country store where Till's killer worked. While Rubin injected some opinion, we the reader were able to envision the scene ourselves and feel the discomfort.

But other areas were trealchy.

There was racism in Mississippi in the 80's? Stunning.
There was athlete exploitation at SEC level schools? Stunning. Volumes have been written on that subject such that it made Rubin's comments seem amateurish.

And too many quick conclusions that the obvious answer to any problem had to be racism. Just because Handy outplayed Jordan in a high school game does not mean Jordan would not be a better college player. It was not automatic, that just because the Greenwood people all felt Handy should play, that the fact he did not was based on his race. I know in the late 90's Romario Miller, a black student-athlete was Ole Miss' QB.

We have all seen superior high school athletes, and I would venture to say we have all seen high school football games. Great job painting the Mississippi atmosphere, but childish almost in describing field action. Compare to Friday Night Lights and this one falls flat.

Nice story on the track team.

Some good, but the judgments, the way too quick to blame so much on race (even though a lot of it was), the way to quick to assume the judges and lawyers were idiots, distracted from story.
Trial way too long. Technique of run on sentences got distracting after awhile.

The above are criticisms. There was good. The overall idea nd book were good, but it was difficult to keep a good flow with the distractions of Rubin making conclusion after conclusion about many things, without the facts even as he presented them supporting the same.

Rating:
Summary: The best book I've read in a long time
Review: I didn't know what to expect when I started reading Confederacy of Silence, but I immediately found myself drawn into the world of Greenwood, Mississippi. I'd never been to the deep South, and never known well anyone who was from there. I was charmed, repelled, and amazed by Greenwood -- and shocked that within this country of ours there exists a place so different from any I've known. I felt like the author took me right to Greenwood in 1988 and left me there for a year!

One passage I liked in particular is the account of the author's trip from Memphis to Greenwood by bus. We all have times in our lives when we experience the trepidation of starting something new, be it college or a new job, but the courage involved in making a move like this, sight unseen, knowing no one -- truly amazing, and beautifully written as well.

I'm not a big football fan, but my attention never flagged. I found the trial so suspenseful that I couldn't take it -- I actually skipped to the end to read the verdict! (Note: I don't recommend doing this!)

I loved this book because it gave me a window on another part of the world, then drew me in and showed me how you can at once love people and hate their prejudices; it expanded my view of the world. Anyone who enjoys a well-written story will love this book.

Rating:
Summary: Small-town newspaper as mirror of society
Review: In "Confederacy of Silence," Richard Rubin has written an intensely personal book that also examines what may be the most inescapable undercurrent in American society. For me, his introduction to small-town newspapers was pretty intensely personal, too. I went directly out of college to a small southern town daily with a circulation about the same size as the Greenwood paper's.

Unlike Rubin, though, I was a southerner, and the impact of the rule of councils, boards of supervisors, and in general the folks who had always been on top of local society was what I felt most.

Perhaps the strongest scene in this very powerful and fascinating book is when Rubin goes to Handy's house for lunch, after his trial. He realizes that the young man was not in any way what he thought, and probably never had been -- and the writer is very, very frightened. I think white southerners of a somewhat earlier generation always knew that on some level, and hence the controls exerted by those who had always been on top. The book makes clear that racism is more complex than most people think, and therefore much harder to eradicate. Someday we may all be able to look clearly at this issue and deal with it, but as Rubin points out, we weren't there in the '80s, and we aren't there now.

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Summary: Yet one more New Yorker Writing about the South
Review: Mr. Rubin writes of his experiences working on a newspaper in the Mississippi Delta, the "most Southern Place on Earth" There are actually two unrelated books here, one about what interesting people the natives are and how they deal with the race problem, and the other about a crime in which a local high school footbal star is involved. The first book has it moments, and Rubin as an interested outsider does make perceptive observations. The second book about the crime just never gets going. It just sort of goes on and on. It might have been better treated as an article in the Atlantic.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did.

Rating:
Summary: Death and Disillusionment in the Deep South
Review: Okay, I don't live in Mississippi. But I live in Alabama, and I think that qualifies me to say that in 'Confederacy of Silence,' Richard Rubin -- who quotes someone calling him 'a Yankee Jew' as soon as the book gets going -- has drawn one of the most well-rounded and thoughtful portraits of this never-boring place we call The South. Most Northerners would come down here with their minds made up, ready to stereotype, ready to poke fun and use a whole bunch of dialect (when Rubin uses it, which isn't much, it's really effective and makes a character come to life). Not Rubin. He doesn't know what he's going to find, and while he has some preconceived ideas, he discards them along the way and shows himself doing it. He really *lives* in Mississippi--he gets into his community, he finds things he thinks are fascinating, and he shares them with all of us in a way that makes us think they're interesting too. So that's one part of the book. Another part of the book is about Handy Campbell, a high-school football star whose amazing senior season Rubin covers, and his trial for murder six or so years later. I won't give away the ending, but what makes it so compelling is not just whether Handy is guilty but how Rubin feels about Handy and how the trial affects that. I read a review somewhere that compared this to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. And it's kind of true, because Confederacy of Silence shows us an entire community and how the way various people live in the community can lead to a murder and how that affects the town. Anyone who liked 'Midnight' will like this. It's not just a memoir, it's not just reporting, it's not even just true crime. It's a really well-rounded view of a whole place, the Mississippi Delta, and its history and its culture and what they lead to. It's great reading.