Carl Ott
Ina Jean Ott
Alice Jones
Wallace Stringfellow
Cindy Walker
Other characters
Constellations
3.5 Themes
Memory, the past and secrets
Guilt, responsibility and betrayal
Power
Race: Identity and taboos
Horror and monsters – outsiders
Redemption
3.6 Style and Language
Vivid similes and symbolic imagery
Symbols: The mask and the cabin
Irony
3.7 Interpretations
Agatha Christie and the whodunit
Raymond Chandler and noir
How Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter fits in
4. CRITICAL RECEPTION
5. MATERIALS
6. SAMPLE EXAM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Task 2**
Task 3***
Edition used for this study guide
About the author
Reviews
Useful Links by Wikipedia
| 1. | FOREWORD – AT A GLANCE |
This study guide to Tom Franklin’s Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is designed to provide an easy-to-use overview of the structure, context, themes and characters of the novel. Here is a quick rundown of the most important points.
Part 2 takes a brief look at Tom Franklin and his career.
Franklin was born in Alabama in 1963. His career as a writer has been defined by the region of the country in which he was born and has always lived.
Crooked Letter is a crime thriller about two boyhood friends who are in fact half-brothers. Franklin ist closely associated with the American South.
Part 3 offers analyses and interpretations of the novel.
Crooked Letter – Origins and sources
Franklin is a Southern writer: all his published works have been concerned with the history and culture of the American South. Crooked Letter was published in 2010 and was his third and to date most successful novel.
Summaries
Two young boys, Larry and Silas, become friends despite social and family pressure (Larry is white, Silas black) in rural Mississippi in the late 1970s. A girl they are both connected to, Cindy Walker, disappears, feared dead, and suspicion falls on Larry.
Twenty-five years later, Larry is an outcast in the area, and Silas is now a police officer, investigating the disappearance of a local girl, Tina Rutherford. Larry is again a suspect, even after he is found shot and badly wounded in his own home. Silas investigates the crime and is forced to re-examine his own history, and to acknowledge the secrets he has been keeping about Cindy. He had been with her on the night she disappeared and he could have saved Larry from the suspicion which destroyed his family and his life. While investigating the past, Silas also discovers that he and Larry are half-brothers. Silas is badly injured in a showdown with the man who shot Larry and killed Tina. After Silas has confessed about the events of 1982, he and Larry can begin to mend their friendship.
Structure
The novel is concerned with events from the past and their effect on, and reflection in, events occurring in the present day. The narrative takes place in the two time periods, with some chapters taking place entirely in the past, and characters often slipping into long memories which reveal the secrets and events of 25 years ago.
Characters
The arrangement of the characters in Crooked Letter is a little more complex than in a less chronologically complex novel.
Larry Ott
Larry is an outcast and a loner who comes from a local family.
Silas Jones
Silas investigates the crimes in the novel and has to acknowledge his guilt for having ruined Larry’s life.
Carl Ott
Larry’s father had an affair with Alice Jones, and Silas is his son.
Ina Ott
Larry’s mother is the last of the earlier generation still alive.
Alice Jones
Silas mother, a beautiful, strong-willed and hard woman.
Wallace Strongfellow
Wallace kills Tina Rutherford and shoots Larry.
Cindy Walker
Silas’ girlfriend at the time she disappears.
There are many other characters in the novel.
Themes
The themes in this novel are deeply interconnected: Memory, the past and secrets – Guilt, responsibility and betrayal – Power –
Belonging – Horror and monsters – Redemption.
Style and language
The dialogue in the novel reflects the strong local accent of rural Mississippi, providing a real sense of place and identity. The prose is rich with poetic similes and symbolic passages.
Interpretations
The novel is primarily a crime thriller, and this chapter will look at where the novel fits in with the literary genre and traditions of crime fiction.
| 2. | Tom Franklin: Life & Works |
Thomas Gerald Franklin (* 1963)
© Ulf ANDERSEN/GAMMA-RAPHO/laif
| 2.1 | Biography |
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