[Clemenza]

The book is WAY less "anti-southern" than the STUPID movie.

READ THE BOOK! READ THE BOOK! READ THE BOOK! SKIP THE MOVIE!

[firebrand]

Right! There are nuances in the book that I'm sure must be missing in the movie. There are gradations among the characters, as I'm sure there must have been in real life.

By the way, isn't the boy who visits during the summer supposed to be Truman Capote? The early part of the book was the most fascinating to me--more about life in the South, before the plot got all diagrammatic and melodramatic.