Bill Cheng

I have no idea how this book has gotten the rave reviews that it has. The story doesn't ever seem to go anywhere. At no time did I care about any of the main characters in the book, and the book just dragged on and on. The author can write , he writes very poetic and lyrical, but it all seemed like it was an exercise assigned in a creative writing class. The author is an Asian American born and raised in Queens New York, why he felt compelled to write a book about African Americans in the south during the 1920's through 1941, I have no idea.… (mer)

An epic odyssey in which a young man must choose between the lure of the future and the claims of the past.

With clouds looming ominously on the horizon, a group of children play among the roots of the gnarled Bone Tree. Their games will be interrupted by a merciless storm - bringing with it the Great Flood of 1927 - but not before Robert Chatham shares his first kiss with the beautiful young Dora. The flood destroys their homes, disperses their families, and wrecks their innocence. But for Robert, a boy whose family has already survived unspeakable pain, that single kiss will sustain him for years to come.

Losing virtually everything in the storm's aftermath, Robert embarks on a journey through the Mississippi hinterland - from a desperate refugee camp to the fiery brothel Hotel Beau-Miel and into the state's fearsome swamp, meeting piano-playing hustlers, well-intentioned whores, and a family of fierce and wild fur trappers along the way. But trouble follows close on his heels, fueling Robert's conviction that he's marked by the devil and nearly destroying his will to survive. And just when he seems to shake off his demons, he's forced to make an impossible choice that will test him as never before.… (mer)

Southern Cross the Dog. Bill Cheng. 2013. A southern novel written by a non-southern author. It takes a while to realize that it is the Mississippi River that has flooded, and that the main character is Black, not that this matters but you much read a while to figure out where the story is taking place and who is who. We follow the main character who is a boy when the river floods to a camp for survivors, a house of ill repute, to a job working on clearing land for the Tennessee Valley Authority, and to an Indian family that will be displaced by the TVA. Didn’t see the point.… (mer)

I received this book for a review and it's probably not one I would normally choose.

However I did enjoy it although I found the jumping from one time period to another and different character perspectives confusing at times.

It tells the story of Robert who as a child is caught up in the Mississippi flood of 1927 and how his life develops from then and the situations he gets into. Knowing nothing about either the time or the area I found the narrative very moving and it felt realistic to me anyway. As a black man his life was made even more difficult by the attitudes of the time and this comes across well.

The sex scenes howver were unnecessarily excessive and added noting to the story.… (mer)