Review of "Those We Thought We Knew: A Novel" by David Joy

 

This book explores race relations in a modern southern town, and the rising animus that leads to tragedy.

*****

The town of Sylva, North Carolina is relatively serene until African-American college student Toya Gardner, who lives in Atlanta, arrives to spend the summer with her grandmother Vess Jones.



Toya is a visual artist working on her senior project, which involves making casts of the faces of her female ancestors.



Toya takes umbrage at the fact that a local university relocated a Black church and cemetery, actually digging up and moving coffins, to build a student dormitory.....but left all the 'White' structures intact. So Toya organizes an 'art installation' which involves digging 'graves' on the campus and decorating them with white stones.



As it happens Sylva Sheriff John Coggins, who's White, is a longtime friend of the Jones family.



Coggins and Toya's (now deceased) grandfather were best pals since childhood, and fished and hunted together all their lives. Coggins has no choice but to arrest Toya, but the university doesn't press charges because of the bad optics.

Toya isn't finished with her protests however, and goes on to pour red paint, symbolizing blood, on a statue commemorating a Confederate officer. Coggins has to arrest Toya again, but a local sympathizer raises money to bail her out.



Many of the Sylva townsfolk, however, are furious, and Coggins is disturbed as well. The majority of White people in the area - including the sheriff - claim the Confederate statue represents the proud history of the South, and has nothing to do with slavery.

Coggins attempts to explain his point of view to Tyra and her grandmother Vess - with whom Coggins is very close - but Tyra isn't having it.



Coincidentally with the Tyra brouhaha, a drunk vagrant named William Dean Cawthorn, who drove to Sylva from Mississippi, is rousted by the local police.



When Deputy Sheriff Ernie Allison and Police Officer Tim McMahan search Cawthorn's dirty cluttered car.....





.....they find a gun, Ku Klux Klan robes, Swastika symbols, and a little black book.



The black journal contains the names of Sylva residents - including the Police Chief, politicians, judges, business leaders and other pillars of the community - who (secretly) belong to the Klan.

Ernie takes Cawthorn to the clink to sleep it off, then goes back to Cawthorn's auto to get the little black book, so he can show it to Sheriff Coggins. But the book is gone. Moreover, Officer Tim McMahan, who searched the car with Ernie, claims he never even saw the book.

The turmoil stirred up by Tyra's actions result in demonstrations, with pro-Confederacy demonstrators on one side......



.....and anti-Confederacy protestors on the other side.



In addition, KKK member Cawthorn purposely stirs up extra trouble, which adds to the mayhem.

All this results in an assault as well as a murder. It falls to Sheriff Coggins to look into the assault and to Detective Leah Green to investigate the murder. Green thinks the two crimes may be related, and investigates from that point of view.



Meanwhile, Cawthorn - who has an arrest warrant in Mississippi - tries to get help from a businessman in Sylva, whose name was in the little black book. However the businessman gives Cawthorn short shrift.



The business executive/clandestine Klansman says the tactics of the KKK have changed. Instead of burning crosses and the like, the KKK will achieve its goals by infiltrating politics, entering law enforcement, becoming judges, and so on. Then they'll get their way using legislative maneuvers. (To me, this brought to mind Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.)



The criminal perpetrators in Sylva come to light in the end, and it's a sad commentary all around.

The author does a fine job combining a social treatise with a mystery thriller. This is a very good book, highly recommended.

Rating: 4 stars