The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly
Ingersoll and Ham are two federal revenue
agents sent to Hobnob, Mississippi to find out what happened to the other two
“prohis” who were sent there weeks ago and close down the local still. To complicate matters the Mississippi River
is rising. And rising. And rising some more. It is 1927, and for those who aren’t familiar
with their Mississippi River history, the worst river flood in United States
history is about to occur. To further
complicate things Ham and Ingersoll find an orphaned baby on their way to
Hobnob. Ingersoll is tasked with
bringing the baby to the local orphanage but he can’t seem to leave the little
guy there. Instead he asks around and is
steered to Dixie Clay, a local Hobnob woman who had lost a very young son. Little does Ingersoll know he has just given
the babe to the very person he is looking for.
Yes, this still is run by a woman.
Dixie Clay is an interesting woman, and despite her illegal profession,
you can’t help but like her and be impressed with the business she has grown
and how she has kept going despite all the hardships life has thrown at
her.
I did an informal poll and I was
glad to discover that I wasn’t the only one ignorant of the events of 1927. I had no idea that the Mississippi flooded so
badly! The river was 60 miles wide at
Memphis. Sixty miles! I was there a few years ago and I can’t even
image the devastation that would have caused.
An eye opening account of life around the Mississippi at the time and
how the river’s rising was handled before, during and immediately after things
went terribly wrong.
