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A Novel
by Eleanor Henderson
Book Reviewed by:From New York Times bestselling author Eleanor Henderson, an audacious American epic set in rural Georgia during the years of the Depression and Prohibition.
Named a Best Book of 2017 by The San Francisco Chronicle
An Entertainment Weekly "Must-Read" Book for Fall
Cotton County, Georgia, 1930: in a house full of secrets, two babies-one light-skinned, the other dark-are born to Elma Jesup, a white sharecropper's daughter. Accused of her rape, field hand Genus Jackson is lynched and dragged behind a truck down the Twelve-Mile Straight, the road to the nearby town. In the aftermath, the farm's inhabitants are forced to contend with their complicity in a series of events that left a man dead and a family irrevocably fractured.
Despite the prying eyes and curious whispers of the townspeople, Elma begins to raise her babies as best as she can, under the roof of her mercurial father, Juke, and with the help of Nan, the young black housekeeper who is as close to Elma as a sister. But soon it becomes clear that the ties that bind all of them together are more intricate than any could have ever imagined. As startling revelations mount, a web of lies begins to collapse around the family, destabilizing their precarious world and forcing all to reckon with the painful truth.
Acclaimed author Eleanor Henderson has returned with a novel that combines the intimacy of a family drama with the staggering presence of a great Southern saga. Tackling themes of racialized violence, social division, and financial crisis, The Twelve-Mile Straight is a startlingly timely, emotionally resonant, and magnificent tour de force.
ONE
Genus Jackson was killed in Cotton County, Georgia, on a summer midnight in 1930, when the newborn twins were fast asleep. They lay head to toe in a cradle meant for one, Winnafred on one side and Wilson on the other. In their overstuffed nest, with the delicate claws of their fingers intertwined and their eyelids trembling with blue veins, they looked like a pair of baby chicks, their white skullcaps like two halves of the single eggshell from which they'd hatched. Only if you looked closely—and people did—could you see that the girl was pink as a piglet, and the boy was brown.
"He's just complected dark," Elma had told her fiancé, Freddie Wilson, that afternoon, when he'd peeked into the cradle for the first time. "It's my great-great- granddaddy's Indian blood."
"He don't look like no Indian," said Freddie, who was as freckled as Elma, with hair as pale and straight as straw.
It was Elma's father, Juke—who'd nearly ...
Here are some of the comments posted about The Twelve-Mile Straight in our legacy forum.
You can see the full discussion here.
And what about Oliver?
I liked Oliver in this novel. He made life easier for Elma and also for Nan. He enlightened everyone of Wilsons paternity. - taking.mytime
Did you suspect who Nan and the twins' fathers were before the truth was revealed?
I was suspect to the parentage of both Winnie and Wilson. However, I was also suspect of the parentage of Nan. I was sure I had figured it out just before it was revealed. - taking.mytime
Do you think any of the three men Ketty was involved with cared about her?
I agree with the others - Sterling loved her, the rest just used her. - taking.mytime
eating clay
Although I have never researched this action, I know that I have read about this in other various historical fiction novels. It seems it is always a female living under a poor economic standard. I related it to the lack of food and the lack of ... - taking.mytime
Elma and Nan "knew how easy it was to fashion a sibling, even when the sibling slept under another roof, with a family of its own." Do you agree? Do you have friends who are as close (or closer) than a sibling would be?
Yes, I definitely do. I have five siblings, and we are close emotionally, but separated by distance. I have friends living in close proximity whom I consider to be my "siblings by choice." Both the family of origin and the family of choice are ... - juliaa
I don't know where to start, I loved this book SO MUCH! (Lee M). So far, this is my choice for best book of 2017- it's a page turner! (Rosemary K). I was blown away reading it; the prose and style were so captivating that I felt at times I was actually there in the moment as the events of the story unfolded (Janine S). I loved how the truths in the story were revealed slowly, in layers, reaching backward and forward in time (Kristine M). It will join other favorites on my bookshelf to be read again (Liz D)...continued
Full Review
(727 words)
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(Reviewed by First Impressions Reviewers).
Bill Cheng, author of Southern Cross the Dog
A family drama, a mystery, a Southern Gothic, and a searing study of the complexities of race in America...Cotton County is a dark place, tortured by its own secrets, and it’s in Henderson’s expert hand and penetrating eye that those secrets are carried into light. Christopher Tilghman, author of The Right-Hand Shore
An intricate and fascinating tale of maternity and paternity, of race and blood, of two young women doing what they must do to survive...This is brave material, confronted with unblinking honesty and woven with intelligence and grace. Cristina Henríquez, author of The Book of Unknown Americans
One of the deepest and most nuanced explorations of our shared humanity that I’ve read...The writing is so extraordinary it will make your teeth ache; the story is so compelling that you may gasp out loud...This is no ordinary novel. It is art of the highest order. Dana Spiotta, author of Innocents and Others
Lyrical...mesmerizing, disturbing, and wonderfully persuasive. The world is brutal even as the landscape is lush and seductive...Unstinting in showing us the everyday savagery of Jim Crow, of poverty, and of family abuse. A riveting, consequential story full of complex secrets and unexpected turns. Victor Lavalle, author of The Changeling
This engaging, expansive novel manages to feel historical and, sadly, up to the minute as it probes the sins at the heart of the American experience...This is the kind of novel you sink into, live inside. When you’re finished, it will live inside you. A bravura performance.The major characters in The Twelve-Mile Straight grew up as sharecroppers.
Merriam-Webster defines a sharecropper as "a tenant farmer…who is provided with credit for seed, tools, living quarters, and food, who works the land, and who receives an agreed share of the value of the crop minus charges." While farming methods similar to sharecropping have been used around the world for millennia, the concept of the tenant farmer became especially prevalent in the United States during the post-Civil War era known as Reconstruction (1863-1867) and through the first half of the 20th century.
During the last few months of the Civil War, Union General William T. Sherman issued what was known as "Field Order Number ...
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