THE REVOLT OF BRUD BASCOMB

The Revolt of Brud Bascomb is a trip down memory-lane, narrated by Napoleon - Brud Bascomb’s younger son. The story follows Napoleon and The Gang in a quest to prove to adults of Potts Gap the nefarious character of a rogue preacher‭, ‬Jefferson Davis Snodback (Snotbag, as the boys call him). The Gang gradually uncover his ill-intentions and hatch a plan to drive him out of town‭.‬ The backdrop is Mississippi in the 30's, during the Great Depression, in a "one-horse", mixed town. More than a generation since the civil rights struggle the author revives the constant dread and outrage‭ experienced by African Americans in Jim Crow‭ South. ‬Brud embodies the burgeoning rebellion that will eventually lead to the civil rights movement. His flamboyant and rebellious personality appeals to The Gang, and through them to the reader‭, ‬by shocking conservative black folk and infuriating Whites‬.‭ Brud’s rage is directed at a world that has been systematically buried from mainstream American collective memory‭.‬