Tim Parrish (1)

This memoir addresses many difficult issues our society struggles with, including racism, the marginalization of blue collar families, fear of "the Other", the hypocrisy of fundamental Christianity, and more. As a teenager in the 1970's, Tim Parrish grappled individually with all of these, trying to reconcile what he heard in church with what he understood to be the teachings of Jesus Christ; trying to maintain friendships with black classmates while hanging out with white boys bent on violence, destruction and supremacy; observing his parents' growing fear that they were going to "lose" their home and neighborhood as African American families moved in and wanting to help them even while he had strong reservations about their attitudes. This is a powerful book, and it may cast some light on our current situation in the U.S, although it puts forth no suggested solutions. Parrish eventually worked for the election of Barack Obama, and he implies that while he has moved on from his "violent education", he is still not fully settled in his mind and heart.… (mehr)

Fear and What Follows, takes a chilling and at times difficult, even challenging look at America of the 1970’s, specifically the city of Baton Rouge and the school and neighborhood where Parrish grew up. It was the time of the Vietnam War and Watergate. Tim’s brother was a Vietnam vet suffering from PTSD before it even had a name. It was a time of integration of schools and neighborhoods, and of the white flight that resulted. And it was time of racial violence and unrest, in which young Tim is willfully engulfed. The book is an attempt to understand the choices that were made and the forces that drove him to make those choices. Yet it is not an apologia where we end up feeling sorry for and defending the main character. Instead, I think we are asked to put ourselves in his place, but also in the places of the even tougher kids whose violence goes unchecked and the Black kids who are both victims and violent themselves. We are asked to understand and confront the causes of violence and racism in ourselves. I don’t think I have read a more brutally honest account that is so beautifully written. It has the credibility of lived truth, yet the narrative is as engaging as any thriller.… (mehr)

More than just a good read, The Jumper broaches important themes for our day. The portrayal of the main character, Jimmy, is spot-on. His means of coping with being illiterate dovetail nicely with his biological father J. T.'s gambling addictions. If you're familiar with Tim Parrish's previous collection of short stories, Red Stick Men, or his memoir, Fear and What Follows, then you won't be surprised to find a troubled father-son relationship at the center of the novel. In fact, Jimmy, an orphan, has several surrogate parents in the novel and none are completely faultless, though Parrish also finds a way to get us to sympathize, at least at moments, with all of his characters. Race is an undercurrent of both the main narrative (J.T., on the run from his creditors, now lives in a shotgun shack in a poor Black neighborhood of Baton Rouge) and in the flashback scenes of J.T.'s life before Jimmy was born. While the suspenseful plot keeps you turning pages like a thriller, the book also contains deep insights into a cross-section of American life that we don't often encounter in fiction. Parrish's portrayal of this Southern industrial city is both loving and disturbing, and at every moment it feels absolutely real. This book ought to be required reading for any lover of Southern fiction or indeed any lover of twenty-first century realism.… (mehr)