Reflections

Chalktown by Melinda Haynes

Posted by on Jan 20, 2007 | One Comment

For those of you who like a slow paced, colorful book, Chalktown by Melinda Haynes is for you. Ms. Haynes is a master at description and lets you see in your mind’s eye the Mississippi area that she loves. In this novel sixteen-year-old Hezekiah Sheehand travels down a dirt road with his mentally challenged five-year-old brother, Yellababy, on his back. Ms Haynes uses Hezekiah to heip you visualize the hardships of life and how people could disappear in the backwoods of southern Mississippi.

Upon Hezekiah and Yellababy’s arrival in Chalktown, (so named because the inhabitants use chalk boards to communicate to each other) they become squators in an abandoned house. In so doing they also find a home in this small town whose inhabitants all have secrets of their own and are united in a conspiracy to keep the death of a young woman and her still born baby unsolved.

I personally think that this novel would be more suited for discussion in a college English class than for the average reader as I found it’s plot to be quite slow and unstimulating. The perfect book to read before bed.

[tags]book, review, Chalktown, Melinda, Haynes, discussion material, slow-paced[/tags]

  • natalie stevens

    Weill I picked this book up for a dollar and dived in. Throughout the book, I also felt I woud need to write a paper after I finished. Your description of feeling like it was a book you read in college is right on. While I was reading, I didn’t feel I could recommend it to a friend, but felt compelled to finish the story.

    I will give her more credit than most reviews. All of her characters were simple, But in their simplicity was intellegence, humanity and very simply put, an intelligent choice to make regarding what one is given.

    Melinda came full circle with Susan-Blair. She was not crazy, but her choices and consequences were very different than Hezekiah’s.

    Aaron and Marion’s characters were obvious.

    It is Cinco De Mayo and I have had a couple Maragaritas as I finished the book. I guess I’ll re-read this and hope for more enlightenment. I was very upset with the ending.

    Who did the preacher kill besides ‘himself’? Why was he still saving> Was Fairy truly saved and tortured? Or did the preacher need one more time to feel powerful and in control of someone elses life? Was Fairy paying for his sins for abandoning his family when he thought he would get off easy?

    Ok, time for bed. I’ll reread the ending tomorrow and hope to have more insight.