Things are changing in Revere, Mississippi. Federally
ordered school integration is on the horizon, although not
everyone likes that idea. Two doctors, one white and one
black, care for the people of Revere, the first via Doctor's
Hospital, privately owned by Dr. Cooper Connelly and his
daddy, while the second, respected black physician Dr. Reese
Jackson, treats patients at his clinic next door and uses
the hospital's basement for surgeries. Life is seemingly
well-ordered, but both sides of town, the white and the
black, hold secrets.
When Billy Ray Puckett, a poor white man, is brought into
the hospital by Willie Tate, Jr., a 10-year-old black boy,
and Billy Ray dies, the skirmish over the social changes
bubbling around the edges of Revere heats up as an
investigation into Billy Ray's death gets juxtaposed with
the impending school integration.
THE AIR BETWEEN US is full of mystery. Did poor white Billy
Ray die from an accidental gun shot or something more
sinister? Why does Dr. Connelly, son of one of the state's
staunchest segregationists, support school integration? Why
doesn't Dr. Jackson, educated up North at Johns Hopkins
University and "god" to the black residents of Revere, get
involved in the fight for integration? Is Madame Melba, a
fortune-teller and keeper of so many of the town's secrets,
herself white or black?
Deborah Johnson does a fantastic job in this, her debut
novel, of developing characters which leap off the page,
casting a spell such that the reader has to know what
happens to each and every one of them. Of course, that
means the reader must read to the very end. However, in
doing so, the reader will not only get the answers sought
but will also enjoy a well-told tale about a pivotal time in
U.S. history.
I wasn't sure how to categorize this book, and I'm still
not, should a book category be necessary. THE AIR BETWEEN
US is a look at the underpinnings of racial desegregation,
the sensitivities and emotions that buoyed both sides of
this explosive issue at a time when integration was a
runaway train unable to be stopped, and an immensely
satisfying read.
Revere, Mississippi, with its population of "20,000 and
sinking" is not unlike most Southern towns in the sixties.
Black people live on one side of town and whites live on
the other. The two rarely mix, or so everyone believes. But
the truth is brought to the forefront when Billy Ray
Puckett, a white man wounded while hunting, shows up at the
segregated Doctors Hospital. No one thinks much of his
death—just a typical hunting accident—until the sheriff
orders an investigation.
Suddenly the connections
between whites and blacks are revealed to be deeper than
anyone expected, which makes the town's struggle with
integration that much more complicated. Dr. Cooper
Connelly, who hails from a prominent white family, takes an
unexpectedly progressive view toward school integration;
while the esteemed Dr. Reese Jackson, so prominent he has
garnered an Ebony profile, tries to stay above the
fray. With fully realized characters and a mystery that
will keep readers turning pages until the end, The Air
Between Us is a heart-filled, endearing tale.
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