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Reviewed by Alice DiNizo for Readers' Favorite
Folsom, Mississippi, in the spring of 1890, was not the place it had been before the Civil War. Back in those long ago days, peanuts, wheat, sugar cane and sweet potatoes had been raised by hundreds of African-American slaves. Now, as the author writes on page 5, "Confederate soldiers were long gone, dead, dying or fading into the history of what could have been. "On the west side of town, Mason Christianson had built his mansion and on the northeast side of town, Simeon Monclair had built an even larger home. But the Monclair mansion was burned by Union troops in that war between the states and Christianson's and Monclair's sons had joined the Confederacy and never returned. Part white former slave Enda Sully scares the local populace as she is deemed a witch for she can see into the future. And Enda sees Folsom as on fire as whites begin lynching blacks, reacting now that reconstruction of the south has failed and blacks are no longer in Congress. Enda's beautiful daughter Maggie May works for Roman Meadows and his unfaithful wife Lucinta and comes to love northern activist Nicholas Barrons who does not like how blacks are being treated despite their emancipation. Laurence "Lar" Cole is the peaceful, intelligent local preacher for former slaves who now work for a pittance. His tough, outspoken wife Mary is pregnant with the child they have always wanted but still works for the Monclair family and shelters Paul, the Monclair son, who is gay. How will they all fare in these troubled times?
"Folsom on Fire" is a well-written and totally absorbing tale of life in a small town in the deep South after Reconstruction. The plot-line and action are strong and consistent right to the story's end The characters Lar, Mary, Enda, Paul, Maggie May and every other of the characters both major and minor are believable and historically accurate. The reader will long to hate bigoted store workers Delilah and Martin Ford, but that is how many poor Southern whites were back in those times. "Folsom on Fire" by Orlando Smart-Powell is an intense, highly readable story that readers everywhere will love and put at the top of their "must-read" book list.
