Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands

by Susan Carol McCarthy

Description

Here is one of those rare and remarkable debuts that herald the appearance of a major new talent on the literary scene. Inspired by real events, Lay That Trumpet In Our Hands is a wise and luminous story about a northern family, a southern town, and the senseless murder that sparks an extraordinary act of courage.

To this day, my family is in disagreement as to precisely when the nightmare began. For me, it was the morning Daddy and Luther discovered Marvin, beaten, shot, and dying, in the Klan’s stomping grounds off Round Lake Road. My brother Ren disagrees. He points to the small cluster of scars that begin just outside his left eye and trail horizontally across his temple to the top of his ear. Ren claims it started when the men in white robes took the unprecedented step of shooting at two white children. Others say it was when Mr. Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP and Mr. Hoover’s FBI came to town. Mother and Daddy shake their heads. In their minds, the real beginning was much earlier....

Biography

Susan Carol McCarthy was born and raised in the rural grovelands of pre-Disney central Florida. After graduating University of South Florida, however, McCarthy wrote advertising for then-opened Walt Disney World in Orlando. Later, after successful stints at McCann Erickson Advertising in Atlanta and San Francisco, McCarthy married a Californian and settled in San Diego as a full-time freelancer.

In 1991, McCarthy's writing life took a dramatic turn. A batch of news clippings from the Orlando Sentinel and a startling letter from her father detailed a series of shocking race crimes that occurred throughout Florida in 1951-1952. (Records of an FBI investigation, a Grand Jury hearing, and KKK indictments had been sealed for 40 years.) Her father's account of his daring cooperation with the FBI became the basis for McCarthy's award-winning debut novel, LAY THAT TRUMPET IN OUR HANDS. 

My Perspective ~

Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands literally made my heart ache. Details of life in Florida in the early 1950s, and the activities of the Ku Klux Klan are vividly told in this heart wrenching novel. A debut novel, it is written with the polish and insight of a seasoned author. The story is told by a young girl named Reesa. Her tale of life as a preteen during a violent time in our nation's history is told with grit and clarity. Her young black friend, Marvin, was killed violently by members of the KKK, an unthinkable crime that brought to light atrocities that no one should have to experience.

I loved Reesa's family dynamics and the supportive relationships they shared. They set examples of tolerance and acceptance in a community of prejudice and suspicion, and stood firmly for righteousness in the wake of hate crimes. I loved this gritty, touching story of a girl's coming of age in a violent time in our nation. Descriptive, earthy and told with a bold honesty, I will be reading this impressive book again! I highly recommend it!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book. All expressed opinions are my own.