Jack Butler

I read this book on a recommendation from the Deep South group. And boy am I glad I picked this book up.
Weighing in at just over 200 pages it's not a daunting read at all. And the characters and place descriptions grab you from the get go, or gitgo as Jack Butler may have penned it.
The story takes place in Missippi back in the race-focused 1960's. It centers around a young white man doing his own thing in a colored part of town. His thing happens to Jujitsu and he starts a club that uses show more Jujitsu to help one come closer to Jesus.
The language throughout the whole book is spot on! Some folks are filled with the "Holy Spurt" and those that aren't may just get called "werfless".
There are a few sex scenes that were a bit graphic for me. I see how they were needed for the characters to develop, but some of the descriptions were a bit distracting and could have been handled differently. But I also know this has more to do with personal taste than Butler's ability as a story teller.
And that's exactly what this is, southern story telling at its best.
There are parts that will have laughing outloud, parts that'll have you so mad you could spit and a part that paints the hottest summer I've ever experienced!
This book is highly recommended. show less

Roger Wing, an adolescent martial arts expert, has pledged his talent to the service of Jesus Christ. Setting up shop in an abandoned laundromat on the "wrong" side of town, Roger speads the Word to a few select, enthusiastic pupils. At the same time, he develops a close relatinship with the black family living down the street. As bushiness dies down and the temperature-and tempers-soar during Mississippi's civil rights conflict, Roger finds a greater demand for his own brand of preaching. show more Fighting the temptations that threaten his faith-boredom, depression, and ever-present lust-and caught in the middle of an unholy racial war, Roger struggles to deliver his message and to be heard.

"This is a strong book, a compelling book...There is ugliness in this book and there is shimmering beauty...There are lies in this book and there are strong truths...In short, it is a protrayal of life as it really is. I loved it!"-Ferrol Sams

"What a wonderful music, what a genius underneath it all. Ranks among the best of all time."-Barry Hannah show less

This reads as a very deeply-felt, intensely personal memoir of a white boy, innocent of hatred, living in a black neighborhood in 1960s Jackson, MIssissippi. When I say innocent of hatred, I don't mean to say that anything is clear-cut. As the author describes, bad deeds draw everybody down and no one is innocent.

But its also a comic tale and the comedy dissociates and dispels the intensity. Everything in the book is all at once completely improbable and absolutely believable (well, almost show more everything). Its manner of describing the South and its people is almost uncannily true and wide-ranging.

I recommend it. show less

Connoisseurs of the distinctly Southern sentence outta check this thing out.