Sugar-coating the Scottsboro Boys' trials

Lionel Shriver reviews Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman Although the notorious case of the "Scottsboro Boys" has been covered in more than one non-fiction chronicle - the author acknowledges her debt to two - the white American writer Ellen Feldman has shaped the 1931 trial into a taut, haunting legal thriller. Since the facts appear to be accurate, Scottsboro is sugar-coated edification for readers who have trouble taking their historical medicine straight. Ruby Bates and Victoria Price are two young mill workers down on their luck at the outset of the Depression. Whether they are, occasionally, prostitutes outright or merely willing to trade favours for a meal is not entirely clear. (Ruby later came down with an infection from advanced gonorrhoea that suggests she may at least have spread those favours generously.) In any event,... [read full story]