The Oxygen Man Book

"Just take 'Dixie" for instance," he said and set his glass down.

"Take it where?"

"What I'm saying is just look at what that song represents to us as opposed to them. I'm a Mississippi State man, same as you are, Fordy, and let's face it, "Dixie" is an Ole Miss song. But to me it's more than that. Man, I can't hardly hear it without getting a big old lump in my throat.

So, after reading that you're sitting there thinking this is just another grit lit drive through the Delta in a rusty old truck drinking whisky on the way to see some sordid girlfriend who can't quite lift herself out of the rut in life she was born into. Well, yes, and no.

Steve Yarbrough, a Mississippi educated writer who after leaving the south went to Cali only to later turn coat and move to Yankee land (humor intended folks.....not meant to express rejection- only using it here to point out this guy isn't your typical firmly planted in my roots kind of author) has combined all the elements present in the works of other southern authors in this genre (Larry Brown, William Gay, Tom Franklin, etc.) and still find the deep reaching themes I'd surmise he had in mind before he wrote the first word.

How fitting to finish this book on MLK day; Yarbrough points out that Southern tiered society still has some growing to do towards the equality of "I have a dream". Slavery is a pre-modern notion, but the hierarchy related to that way of thinking is still alive and well. Not completely revolving around race, there are tones of societal pressures that one group can put on another. The landowners on the poor (of all races), male upon female, brother upon sister, parent upon child, and banker upon all. Well done, and loose enough at the end to keep me thinking.