Rating: 
Summary: Laughable conclusions disguised as journalism
Review: There are two distinct stories going on here: Richard Rubin's coming of age as a NY Jew who travels South to report on Greenwood, Mississippi; Handy Campbell's descent from an African Amercian high school football star to defendant in a gruesome murder trial. Neither of the story is probably worthy of a book, and mashing them together doesn't work either. Rubin has some great observations on what he calls the New Old South, and writes about high school sports compellingly. But not nearly as well as in Friday Night Lights. The two stories just never jell; Milan Kundera can get away with this sort of trick; Rubin can't. The supposed climax of the book is the murder trial, but it in fact reads like a trial transcript interspersed with Rubin's somewhat obvious observations about race, criminal justice, and black-on-black crime. Nice try, no pigskin.
Rating:
Summary: Confederacy of conclusory assertions
Review: With the subject matter available to Rubin, this could have been a fantastic book. The first half of the book details Rubin's move to the Mississippi Delta from NYC shortly after graduating from college. Rubin works as the sports editor for a small daily paper for almost a year. The second half of the book details Rubin's return to MS several years later to witness the murder trial of a former high school football star (Handy Campbell) whose exploits Rubin chronicled during his days at the paper. Throughout the book, Rubin uses Campbell, who is african american, to contrast the disparate treatment afforded to individuals in Mississippi based upon the color of their skin. Unfortunately, the author's righteousness gets in the way of his story. Rubin takes every opportunity to contrast his enlightened stance on the subject of race relations with the overt racism displayed in the small MS community. While it is easy to accept the prevalence of such racism in the Delta, Rubin's narration grinds to a halt while he repeatedly conveys his disgust at the attitudes displayed by the white folks in Mississippi. He would have done much better to let the story speak for itself. Another gaping flaw is that everything Rubin observes that does not make sense to his "Ivy League" sensibilities he chalks up to racism, usually based upon flimsy (or no) evidence. Campbell does not make the football squad at Ole Miss or MSU after graduating from high school. Why? Racism. The white prosecutors in Campbell's murder trial do not crucify and badger defense witnesses on cross examination. Rubin's conclusion? It is because they don't care about the life or death of the accused (or victim, who is african american): again, racism. Rubin's depiction of the trial is particularly egregious -- as an attorney, I found it offensive that Rubin characterized many of the prosecutor's tactics as racist, simply because Rubin does not understand a thing about evidentiary rules and trials (which is clear from his narrative). In short, if you are interested in this subject matter, I suggest you find another book.
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