The Twelve-Mile Straight

The Twelve-Mile Straight is not an easy book to read. It is not one that you read in one sitting or one that you read whilst sipping a cocktail, transported to a feeling of bliss. There is no happiness to be found in these pages, only anger and frustration and annoyance at the fact that you can’t step into them and save the characters from the cruel world in which they inhabit. I had to keep taking a step back from this book, to rant and rave to my grandma (who is the only one willing, although her actual willingness is debatable, to listen to my bookish opinions) about the repeated injustices that the characters faced.
People in this book suck - they are mean, and selfish, and cruel, and ring human in a way that makes them even more so. They repeatedly act in a despicable way simply because that is how the world is, but no one ever seems to question whether that should be the case. Truly, the only one of them I did not feel an ounce of contempt for was Nan, who was subjected to the most injustices of all. For, even the protagonists, the nice characters who you were supposed to root for, had a habit of weaving their goodness with wickedness. This is particularly evident in the male characters, most of which I was starting to wish for their penises to be removed, brutally and without anaesthetic. For no matter how nice they may have seemed, their inner monologues were still filled with harems with them as their sole centre, or horrifyingly, visions of sexual assault.
The Twelve-Mile Straight does not shy away from violence in all of its forms, whether that be verbal, sexual, or even in the sickening form of lynch-mobs. The sheer volume of slurs is difficult to read and each one of them feels like a violent blow against both the reader and the characters they are aimed at. That these words were a normal part of people’s vocabulary is a horrifying thing to confront.
To put it bluntly, the world of this book (and certainly, our own world) would be better if everyone just minded their own business. So much of the horrors of The Twelve-Mile Straight come from the lengths people go to not be seen as immoral or sinful in their neighbours’ eyes, people offering their opinions on things that don’t concern them, or them righting perceived-injustices but instead just continuously causing them. This book shows how the brutal court of public opinion can behave as judge, jury and execution and makes you question whether times have truly changed that much since the decade in which this book is set.

This was fantastic! A completely absorbing and deeply moving portrait of the South, populated with a wonderfully vivid cast of characters.

Set in rural Georgia during the years of the Depression and Prohibition. Cotton County, Georgia, 1930: in a house full of secrets, two babies, one light skinned, the other dark, are born to Ella Jesup, a white sharecroppers daughter. Field hand Genus Jackson is accused of her rape. He is lynched and dragged behind a truck and drawn down The-Twelve-Mile-Straight. In the aftermath, the farms inhabitants are forced to contend with their complicity in a series of events that left a man dead and a family irrevocably fractured. Elam begins to raise her babies as best she can. As startling revelations mount, a web of lies begins to collapse around the family.

This is a family saga set in a time of historical shame. The story goes back and forth giving the back stories of the characters. This book is beautifully written and the reader gets a feeling of the time and place. Fans of historical fiction will love this book.

I would like to thank NetGalley, HarperCollins UK 4th Estate and the author Elanor Henderson for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Set in the depression in Georgia 1930 this is a hard to enjoy book with characters you only either pity or despise.
The research has certainly been thorough but unfortunately for me the sipubject matter gave me little entertainment.
Nevertheless it is fair to say that it is very well written and if this era is of interest to you then it is a worthy book to buy.

The book is written in a distinctive narrative style which conjures up the period and location in which it is set. From its immensely powerful opening chapter, the book tells a story of poverty, cruelty, prejudice and secrets. ‘There were things no one wanted known by the outside, and no one knew that better than Elma.’

Although it would be unfair to describe it as a ‘misery-fest’, it’s certainly the case that for the characters in The Twelve-Mile Straight happiness is rare and, where it exists, it is often fleeting.

The book depicts a situation in which power over livelihoods, housing, even life and death, is concentrated in the hands of a few individuals. It’s a world in which corruption or the complicity of officialdom allows a blind eye to be turned to their misdeeds. And, notably, it’s a patriarchal society where women are viewed as domestic slaves and sexual objects to be used and abused. For too many of the people who live in the environs of the Twelve-Mile Straight their experience of life is one of grinding poverty, backbreaking labour, disease, alcohol abuse and early death.

The storyline weaves back and forth in time giving the reader the back stories of characters and their different perspectives on events. I enjoyed The Twelve-Mile Straight (if ‘enjoyed’ is quite the right word given the experiences of most of its characters) but think I would have appreciated it just as much had it been around 150 pages shorter.

I received a review copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers Harper Collins UK/4th Estate in return for an honest and unbiased review.

Eleanor Henderson reminds us in this excellent novel just how far America has travelled since the 1930's as regards reducing racism and abject poverty. Her novel, set in Georgia in the 1930's is a thoroughly enjoyable, if somewhat grim, read. It follows the entangled lives of a white tenant farmer, his black farmhands and the family of the wealthy landowner. The murder of one farmhand, numerous rapes and desperate grinding poverty shape the lives and actions of the characters. Unfortunately wrongly directed accusations and assumptions only serve to compound misery and violence in this tight little community. Twelve Mile Straight is a taughtly written saga of families, of vastly different social status, which gradually reveals the ties and common threads that bind them together. Truly absorbing in its depiction of life in the poor farmlands of Georgia this book nonetheless offers the comfort that never mind how grim the circumstances, love, especially of family, can win through. Hope and love survive this bleak and harrowing tale.

This historical Southern Gothic novel set in the depression era and prohibition is a hard read with its relentless depiction of the Jim Crow time. It is 1930 in Florence, Cotton County, Georgia, when a sharecropper's daughter, Elma Jesup, a white single woman, gives birth to the Gemini twins, one baby is white, and the other is 'coloured', an exceedingly strange event. Elma's father, Juke, who sells moonshine, is instrumental in pointing the finger at the good, kind and sweet Genus Jackson as the perpetrator of rape, and the stirred up townsfolk murder Genus by lynching him and dragging his body down the Twelve-Mile Straight, the road to town. Journalists are bribed to ensure the 'right' story is told to the town. This sickening injustice is not to end there, the narrative goes back and forth in time, as the repercussions of these events leaves no-one untouched as the parts they contribute to them are revealed. Nan is the black housekeeper, who like her mother before her becomes a midwife, she and Elma have been as close as sisters, knowing each other from childhood. The story of the two women with secrets is the central tenet of the novel which moves relentlessly to the violent and tragic conclusion as the the painful truths are not to be denied.

In a town where rumours continue to circulate, the babies grow up. George Wilson, owns the mill and 200 acres of the Twelve-Mile Straight. His grandson, Freddie, and his part as a person of privilege is seen by the reader. This is a brutal, unforgiving, intertwined and twisted family drama that focuses on race, hatred, incest, white privilege, poverty, class, lies, secrets and the desperate positions that women found themselves in. In this intense harrowing, and moving tale, Henderson paints a picture of some of the worst sides to humanity with her beautiful and vivid prose. This is a compelling and tension ridden read which exposes a particular time with its downright deplorable brutality, prejudices and attitudes. What makes this particularly hard to bear is that many of the painful issues raised in the book continue to play out in our contemporary world. I highly recommend this novel with the proviso that you will need a strong stomach to read it. Many thanks to HarperCollins 4th Estate for an ARC.

I liked this book but was hoping I was going to love it. I struggled to get in to it initially, and at times found the style of writing hard going, but by the end I was hooked.

I found the main characters to be well developed and the book is very descriptive. I felt there was a good twist

Twelve Mile Straight

It's unlikely that many will find this an easy or comforting read. It explores deeply divisive issues around racism, abuse, family deception and lies and in parts, it's unremittingly bleak.

It's a book I thought I'd enjoy; not because of the subject matter or era. Racism and Georgia in the 1930s Depression aren't, essentially, happy issues or times, but I expected insight and compassion. Eleanor Henderson's writing is evocative. some of her descriptive passages setting the location are haunting. The central characters are well drawn but too often I felt distanced their plight. Unlike, for example, the Joel's in Grapes of Wrath, where every character comes across as a person and it's easy to feel empathy, some of the people in The Twelve Mile Straight feel two dimensional. There to explore the issue, rather than allow them to come to the forefront and the issues evolve as their story.

It is well written, but I struggled to remain engaged right the way through. My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

The Twelve Mile Straight

The blurb from this completely drew me in. This may have been a work of fiction but things like this did actually happen unfortunately. As a mother of two beautiful mixed race children, I am so grateful that on the whole, attitudes have changed in comparison to those found in the book.

Cotton County, Georgia during the great Depression and Prohibition, a young white woman, gives birth to twins. One twin is white and one twin is black...and there the story begins.

This is a harrowing family saga, full of secrets, lies, hatred and love. This powerful story is not a comfortable read but it’s beautifully written. I absolutely loved this book and can not recommend it enough!! Five well deserved stars from purplebookstand.

Set in 1930's Georgia, a time of deep depression and prejudice, two babies are born to Ella Jesop; one light skinned the other dark.
This is a vividly drawn description of a family haunted by secrets living in an era of poverty and cruelty. Not an easy book to read because of the subject matter but one which remains with you and should be talked about.

The Twelve Mile Straight by Eleanor Henderson is an epic historical novel set in Georgia in 1930. It was reminiscent of John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men in both the style and atmosphere.
Back in the 1930's the deep South continued to be a divide between the white and black Americans. There were lies and lynchings, rapes and violence, and people turning a blind eye everywhere. It is not a comfortable read. It is deeply disturbing.
In contrast there was love and loyalty between two girls... one black and one white.
The reader gets a glimpse of life in rural, dusty Georgia. The atmosphere of cruelty and distrust has been perfectly captured by Eleanor Henderson.
The Twelve Mile Straight is a snapshot in time. I hope we have all learnt from the lessons of the past. Eleanor Henderson has opened eyes to the horrors suffered by the black Americans in the South. It is a brutal story combined with awful elements of truth.
A powerful but disturbing read.
I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

This is a brilliant read. It is gruesome and hard to read in places but worth sticking with. There is a lot of pain in this book. I learnt so much about that period in history that I did not know. This book is a must read which will stay with me for a long time.

This telling of inter racial life in a dangerous time in America's history was twisted, cruel and happy. A journey through time for 2 girls who were connected by more than they knew or understood.

Really enjoyed and got engrossed in this story. Found it fascinating. Recommended.

Twelve-Mile Straight by Eleanor Henderson reminded me of To Kill A Mockingbird because it was less about the crime that occurred and more about race and relationships in a small Southern town.

Florence is a small town in rural Georgia much like any other town and wholly unremarkable until the ‘Gemini twins’ are born - to Elma Jessop is a white sharecroppers daughter.

The birth of the twins causes a scandal in town because one twin is light skinned and one is dark but also because her father, Juke, claims Elma was raped. This claim leads to the lynching of a field hand by the name of Genus Jackson and the unravelling of a whole load of secrets in the house in which the babies were born.

“Genus Jackson was killed in Cotton County, Georgia, on a summer midnight in 1930, when the newborn twins were fast asleep…like two halves of the single eggshell from which they’d hatched. Only if you looked closely – and people did – could you see that the girl was pink as a piglet, and the boy was brown.”

Elma’s fiancé Freddie Wilson, grandson to their landlord George Wilson, is suspicious of Elma’s original claim that it is probably some Indian blood somewhere in her family tree that is showing through. He takes his worries to Elma’s father.

Juke claims that Elma was raped by Genus and Freddie, Juke and three other trucks full of men set out to confront Genus who denies it adamantly to no avail.

“Freddie looped another rope over one of the crossbeams and the noose around Genus’ neck…Genus dropped, his neck snapping like a chicken’s.”

Juke cut the body down but Freddie then decided to parade it through down dragging down the Twelve-Mile Straight behind his truck. He was accompanied by many men that night each of whom swore to be asleep in bed when questioned later.

After the lynching reporters descend on the small mill town interested in both the lynching and in the Gemini Twins. Elma has to learn to struggle with her feelings over her part in the lynching and also to raise the twins without the help of her mother who had herself died in childbirth.

Elma’s one consolation is the presence of her friend Nan. Nan is the daughter of former field hand Sterling and his wife Ketty who was a midwife before he death.

Ketty cut Nan’s tongue out when she was still a small child but despite this Elma and Nan have developed a strong friendship. Part of this friendship developed from Juke allowing Nan to live in ‘the big house’ with them, an action that has lead some in town to label him a ‘nigger lover.’

For Elma, Nan is part of her family. Now that Nan slept in the in the big house – well, if they weren’t sisters, what were they?

How Nan feels about Elma is often a bit more ambiguous, it is clear to the reader that she is comforted by her presence, but she also feels as if she doesn’t really know her and because of her inability to talk there is often cause for the reader to wonder if other characters are projecting thoughts onto her.

“Too often her silence is mistaken for objection. Too often her silence is mistaken for assent.”

I found it difficult to read some of the examples of casual racism in the book let alone the more overt examples. I think that is part of the what makes the book interesting though – it challenges the reader.

I initially found it hard to see why so many people believed that the ‘Gemini twins’ were just that but a passage in the book explains why this was the case.

“They believed that the babies were twins. Because if they didn’t believe, then they didn’t believe Genus Jackson was one of the daddies. They’d have to believe that the daddy was someone else. They’d have to believe that a mob of white men killed a black man for no reason. And they couldn’t believe that.”

This wilful denial was something that occurs continuously in the book and across a variety of topics.

This book took me a fair amount of time to read and was definitely slow going but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it. It was nice to read a book that I could take my time with.

This book was situated in Georgia . And it was very sad that the white man did what he wanted . One of day the girl did have twins a black one and white one . A memory of what did happen .

Really well-written, atmospheric novel about Cotton County during the Depression.
Not all of the characters were likeable, but what a truthful exposition this was. Interesting and thought-provoking and poignant. I have to say though, not an easy read. I had to put it down quite a few times before I was able to finish it.

This was a delightful story with several threads running through, which all joined together seamlessly. Enjoyable characters all of which made the story come to life. One of those books that make you feel light-hearted and happy. Great read.