The Sum of His Worth
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This Southern gothic novel takes us into the heart of the tumultuous 1960s in an Alabama town embedded in the old South tradition where Jim Crow is the law of the land. Here, the KKK is judge, jury and executioner.
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Sonny Poe is a defiant, white sixteen-year-old who's generally heedless to the suppressive dominance of blacks—until he witnesses a Klan lynching in the midnight woods. Then everything in his life changes.
Sonny takes up with a progressive doctor who's determined to help local blacks fight against the savage oppression that's haunted their town for generations. The headstrong teenager commits himself to "Doctor Joe" and his cause even as both of them suffer betrayals, beatings, arrest and finally exile in a story that can only end in tragedy.
This edgy thriller pulsates with violence, love, betrayal and humor on a narrative rushing us through the forebodingness of one of America's most pressing historical moments toward its shocking climax.
The Civil Rights Movement forms the backbone of The Sum of His Worth, but its strength comes from the voice of its young narrator and its strongest theme lies in the caveats of moral reckoning in a "free" society.
Liked The Sum of His Worth? Here’s where I’d start.
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