When the cover quote reads, "Reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird", I must admit I am instantly skeptical. Lay That Trumpet in our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy was one of two books (the other was The Demon in the Freezer) that was required reading for the high school my daughter was going to attend before we made the move back to North Carolina. It probably would have laid around the house unopened, but my friend Sheree whose daughter was going to that school e-mailed to say that it was excellent and that as a self-proclaimed "Florida cracker" it really made her think about what that means and the "sad and frustrating" history of the KKK in Florida and throughout the South.
Reesa McMahon is no Scout, but in so many other ways, I think that the comparison to To Kill a Mockingbird is not hyperbole. Reesa grows up in a home that fosters respect for all people regardless of race, but in a Florida citrus-growing town where the town leaders are also members of the KKK. The horror of the Klan hits home when her friend and a worker in the McMahon orange grove is murdered by the Klan in what turns out to be a case of mistaken identity...as if somehow it would have been warranted if they had killed the person they were really after!
Like Scout, Reesa is fortunate to have a father who is a strong, quiet believer in justice and can't sit by and allow the terror of the Klan to tear their community to shreds. The characters throughout the novel are drawn with complexity, clarity and realism rather than as caricatures that one might expect. There are clearly "good guys"...including Reesa's parents, her grandmother "Doto" and her blue Cadillac DeSoto and the FBI agents who become involved. There are "bad guys"...the KKK and the people who stand idly by and allow them to perpetuate a reign of terror on the very people who work in their groves, giving them their livelihood.
What keeps this novel from simply being a didactic rant against racism are the characters, their heroic actions and the historically accurate description of the world of the "Florida cracker" community in the 1950's.
Comments