Confederacy of Silence

When Richard Rubin, fresh out of the Ivy League, accepts a job at a daily newspaper in the old Delta town of Greenwood, Mississippi, he is thrust into a place as different from his hometown of New York as any in the country. Yet to his surprise, he is warmly welcomed by the townspeople and soon finds his first great scoop in Handy Campbell, a poor, black teen and gifted high school quarterback who goes on to win a spot on Mississippi State's team -- a training ground for the NFL.

Six years later, Rubin, back in New York, learns that Handy is locked up in Greenwood, accused of capital murder. Returning south to cover the trial, Rubin follows the trail that took Handy from football field to county jail. As the best and worst elements of Mississippi rise up to do battle over one man's fate, Rubin must confront his own unresolved feelings about the confederacy of silence that initially enabled him to thrive in Greenwood but ultimately forced him to leave it.

“More than a one-man memoir of a cub reporter learning the ropes, of an ‘Ivy League Yankee Jew’ making his way (and discovering fellow Jews along that way) in the Protestant South, of a Northern son earning the respect of some thorough sons of the South, of a single guy chasing a string of Southern belles (and dodging at least one vomiting buzzard), the book is a front-page football tale on the trail of a star quarterback’s rise from the projects and fall from college athletics, a murder mystery, police procedural, and courtroom drama, a record of common bigotry and uncommon courtesy, a small-town story, perhaps, but at its most far-reaching, a story with big-time implications for the ongoing issue of race in this country no matter what state we’re in…and it’s, finally, a fine lesson for us all.”

--The Memphis Flyer

“Confederacy of Silence certainly succeeds as a page-turner…Rubin seems to have gone to school on the fine writers in whom Mississippi abounds, [including] Eudora Welty and Willie Morris.”
--The Washington Post

“Rubin is a gifted writer with a keen eye for quirky details and telling nuances…Confederacy of Silence is an engrossing ‘true tale’ of a small-town tragedy and the trial that followed. It is also a moving rumination on the joys and sorrows of life in a region known to many as ‘the most Southern place on Earth.’”
--The New Orleans Times-Picayune

“[Rubin] brings Greenwood to life as a real place full of real people…Confederacy of Silence is a moving, even haunting account of how the ‘New South’ isn’t as new as we’d like to think.”
--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“A candid, often absorbing memoir that charts the arc of a young man’s coming of age in an alien universe…[Rubin] makes us feel what it is like to be 21 again and astonished by nearly everything.”
--The Chicago Tribune

“[Rubin’s] willingness to look honestly at the complexity of race in today’s South is invigorating, and the book’s conclusion…is shattering.”

--The New Yorker

This is a very fine book, one of the best I’ve ever read about my home state – clear-eyed and unsentimental and at the same time compassionate and loving. The authenticity of the voice and the first-hand grasp of the material are impressive. Besides that, it is beautifully written, and it tells a gripping story, with superbly drawn characters, in the way of good novels. I couldn’t put it down.”
--Lewis Nordan, author of Boy with Loaded Gun, The Sharpshooter Blues, and Music of the Swamp.

“In Confederacy of Silence, Richard Rubin takes a haunting journey through the new and not-so-new South. Part coming-of-age saga, part detective story, part football journal, Rubin’s compelling book is at its heart an examination of the never-ending agonies of race.”
--Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Run of His Life

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“Rubin is a truly talented writer, a gifted storyteller and a keen observer of the human condition. His description of an outsider’s first experience with the South is firstrate.”
--The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

“It has a gripping story, and brilliant pictures of singular characters. Greenwood did right by this visitor, and his book repays the favor handsomely.”
--The Commercial-Dispatch (Columbus, Mississippi)

“Only rarely do I come across a book as well-written and as disturbing as this one…a real joy to read…Little thumbnail vignettes of people, places and events are so vivid and lifelike that I felt I had shared the experience of living and working in rural Mississippi a decade and a half ago. If you’re a football fan, there’s plenty to entertain you; if you like suspense, you’ll get an adequate dose; if courtroom scenes are your thing, you won’t be disappointed either; and if you like to be challenged out of your own complacency, this is definitely a must-read for you.”
--The Shrewsbury (Massachusetts) Chronicle

“This book is in the tradition of In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer.”
--Alabama Public Radio

“A grittier depiction of the New Old South than Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil…Rubin’s memoir exposes the racial polarity of the Delta in clear, effective prose.”
--Publisher’s Weekly

“A compelling read…a colorful slice-of-life account of social dynamics in post-Civil Rights Mississippi.”
--Kirkus

“Powerful…this well-written debut will appeal to anyone interested in the South, racism, or true-crime stories.”
--Library Journal

“Riveting.”
--Booklist

“This book made me homesick.”
--Shelby Foote

“Richard Rubin is a skilled observer – wryly honest about his own naivete; discerning in his depiction of social dynamics in the ‘New Old South’; and grateful for his fish-out-of-water status and the freedom it gives him. With relentless curiosity and sometimes grim humor, Confederacy of Silence paints a portrait of an emblematic place at a pivotal time.”
--Cullen Murphy, editor, The Atlantic Monthly