In Tall Cotton

In Tall Cotton tells the story of the Woods family, who are forced from their home in the Midwest by the Great Depression. Unlike the downtrodden characters in The Grapes of Wrath, this family is comprised of a school-teacher mother, a gifted mechanic father and two bright sons. Their odyssey and alienation however is no less poignant. The story is told through the eyes of the younger son, Totsy, a sexually precocious fifteen-year-old. He vividly describes the family’s long trek West in their old Model-A Ford; the stops along the way to visit relatives on Route 66; the jobs taken and refused; the sordid and unfamiliar living conditions; and the strange characters that the family befriends along the way. As a subplot we have Totsy’s growing curiosity about sex. His experimentation begins with harmless games with his 6 year old classmates, but when he is confronted with the dark desires of adults his life is thrown into confusion and violence. In his efforts to literally save his life, the boy uncovers the secret flaws hidden in those he loves: his brother’s physical frailty; his mother’s fatal blind spot; his father’s destructive cruelty; his beautiful cousin’s shocking secret life; and his uncle’s frightening demands. But what would his flaw be? And would it be worth growing up to find out? In Tall Cotton is a moving story of growing up and growing wise—two very different things. It merits comparison with Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory and John Knowles’s A Separate Peace.