Mississippi Sissy by Kevin Sessums is a sad story about a sad little boy. That's my one-sentence summary. It had some really lovely moments retelling his love of language and how his mother taught him the importance of being who he truly is, but the book suffered, ironically enough, from poor editing. I don't mean the grammatical/syntactial kind, I mean the content kind of editing that would have culled down some of the chapters into smaller, tighter, better written and more readable segments.
Sessums grows up in Mississippi, the son of a coach and "could have been" professional athlete. His father dies when he is 7 and his mother when he is 8. Most of the book is spent detailing his relationships with both and how they did and did not affect his being gay. Later in life, Sessums' mentor, Frank Haines, is murdered. I have to admit that this is the section I skimmed through because I thought it was entirely too long and detailed.
Overall I give them book 3/5 stars. Recommended if you like to read memoirs (which I don't and could be part of my resistance here).
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