THE LAST WORD
MIRIAM R. KRAMER
A
s Christmas and Hanukkah approach, we are looking at a different way of celebrating. We will probably have holiday Zoom parties this year to satisfy social distancing requirements, since we are heading into another wave of the pandemic. Reading is one of the best ways to escape and cheer us up during this uncertain but hopeful time transitioning to a new presidency and the happy possibility of effective vaccines arriving soon. Please stop doomscrolling on Twitter or diving into Facebook. Take the opportunity to find stories to satisfy yourself and give to others in the spirit of the season. The Deepest South of All, by British author and outsider Richard Grant, tells a fascinating tale about his Old Town Crier
visits to Natchez, Mississippi, an insular city that celebrates its many eccentricities and internal historical contradictions. On the one hand, Natchez often promotes a whitewashed image of its Confederate heritage, with grand parties at which women still wear hoopskirts, belong to warring “garden clubs,” and celebrate Natchez’s array of wellkept antebellum mansions. Simultaneously it struggles to reconcile itself with its African-American heritage of oppression. Those descended from slavery attempt to bring
Natchez into the twentyfirst century, with their own set of peculiar, colorful histories brought to the forefront. Inextricably intertwined, the histories of Whites and Blacks make for a complicated and compelling tale of life in contemporary Natchez. If you enjoyed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the absorbing nonfiction story of Savannah THE LAST WORD > PAGE 13
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