Search - Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg

I would easily say that Rick Bragg's trilogy of his hardscrabble life was some of the best non-fiction I've ever read ("All Over but the Shoutin", "Ava's Man" and "The Prince of Frogtown")

This compilation of his newspaper articles-- not so much. I think Bragg writes best when he writes about those things closest to his heart. There were some notable exceptions, of course. I cried buckets over his article regarding Florida State troopers doing double duty as suicide counselors as they try and coax jumpers on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to choose life and hope over despair and the finality of death. Likewise, his story of Oseola McCarty, (an 87 year old black washerwoman who amassed over $150,000 in savings and donated it to the University of Southern Mississippi to fund scholarships for young blacks), was a testiment to the greatness of people who too often go unnoticed and unvalued in our materialistic and self-centered society.

However, his bleeding-heart articles over the plight of geriatric death row inmates left me cold. Sorry, but I can't drum up a nickle's worth of sympathy over 70+ year old murderers who will die in prison. I imagine their victims would have liked to have lived so long themselves.

A decent read, but it doesn't have the heart and soul of his trilogy, IMO.