| book review |
The Deepest South of All
TRUE STORIES FROM NATCHEZ , MISSISSIPPI
by Michael Pollan
by Samantha Hanchett , Marketing & Outreach Coordinator , Thomas County Public Library
The first I heard of Natchez , Mississippi , was within George R . R . Martin ’ s 1982 novel , Fevre Dream . Let us just say that Natchez-Under-the-Hill was definitely not portrayed in an enticing light . However , that did not stop me from glomming onto the accolades attributed to Richard Grant ’ s 2020 best-selling travelogue being “ Mississippi ’ s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil ”. Grant seamlessly interweaves the eccentric characters residing within Natchez ’ s city limits with the history of the life of Prince Abd al Rahman Ibrahim to begin to tell the contradictory story of life in the Deep South .
The South is a curious entity and one not many people fully understand . Grant highlights this fact with reference to a former essay pitch – quickly shot down - to various editors in New York and San Francisco . The essay was to cover the perplexing inner workings of the Natchez annual Pilgrimage - an antebellum pageant that still takes place every year . They couldn ’ t get past the Confederate uniforms and understand why anyone would care so deeply about a hokey old tradition . Who would want to read it ? Many people , apparently , given the book ’ s best-selling status and the glowing reviews of the novel .
But this is not all that Grant writes about . Upon his arrival to Natchez , he is faced with both gorgeously maintained antebellum homes and the Forks of the Road slave market historical marker , which rarely gets public mention . Thus , we are introduced to the oft contrary nature of The South that perplexes most of the population . The dismissal of slavery and continual glorification of the Southern heritage that permeates The South is on full display and examination within these stories . But what makes Natchez even more perplexing is its baffling history of co-existence and acceptance of things otherwise demonized in other areas of said South .
For example , in a town that once staged the nation ’ s largest Ku Klux Klan rally , in 2016 it elected a gay Black mayor with 91 % of the vote . Or the life and business of famous Nellie Jackson , the African
92 Spring 2023 | Thomasville Scene