Real Southerners don't gossip--they just tell it like it is.
So when this performance artist pens a collection of freestyle poems and prose exposing the multitextured personalities of her fictional family members, bless her heart, she's doing what any other respectable Southerner would do.
Desperate Ransom reads like a diary, recording opinions and observations virtually all of us think about relatives yet rarely say aloud. Minton Sparks addresses varied topics, some stereotypical, others little known to those outside the South, yet all inevitably tied to regional rites and rhythms.
Accompanying the book is a DVD of the Tennessee poet performing her pieces, so readers can hear the author's inflections and witness her body language as she gossips--oops, talks about loved ones and situations. --Allison Barnes
