CottonCotton

African-American albino Lee Cotton struggles with his identity as a black person capable of gaining entry into white society, experiencing a romance with a Klansman's daughter, a freight train attack, and the women's liberation movement.
Born with white skin in segregated Eureka, Mississippi, in 1950, African-American albino Lee Cotton struggles with his identity as a black person capable of gaining entry into white society and experiences in the early years of his life a romance with a Klansman's daughter, a freight train attack, and the women's liberation movement. By the author of Mischief.
Meet the unforgettable Leifur Nils Kristjansson Saint Marie du Cotton (you can call him Lee). From his Icelandic father come his porcelain skin, flaxen hair, and azure eyes; from his mixed-race mother comes his black identity; from his Mambo grandmother comes his gift of hearing Les Voix - the spirits, living and dead. Lee begins life as a black boy born white-skinned in segregated Eureka, Mississippi, in 1950. Over the course of Lee's first twenty years, he will fall in love with the daughter of a local Klansman, get kicked senseless and left for dead on a freight train headed north, end up in St. Louis as a white man, and be drafted into the psychops corps in Nevada. There, a drunken accident will separate Lee from another part of his identity and change his fate yet again.
Lee Cotton's voice - guileless, charming, equal parts Delta Blues and Motown - takes us on a hilarious, exhilarating freedom ride through America's preoccupation with identity politics. Lee travels widely in a variety of skin colors and genders, transforming others as he has transformed himself.
This very American novel was written by a British citizen, though Lee Cotton wouldn't want us to hold that against him. Indeed, perhaps only an outside witness could so ingeniously create a character who experiences the tragic absurdities of our cultural exclusions while at the same time represents the better angels of our nature.
Lee Cotton is a black boy born white-skinned in segregated Eureka, Mississippi, in 1950. Over the course of Lee's first twenty years, he will fall in love with the daughter of a local Klansman, get kicked senseless and left for dead on a freight train headed north, end up in St. Louis as a white man, and be drafted into the psych-ops corps in Nevada. There, a drunken accident will separate Lee from another part of his identity and change his fate yet again. Before he returns to Mississippi, he will experience up close and personal the women's liberation movement and the dawn of the Lesbian Nation.

Lee Cotton's voice-equal parts Delta Blues and Motown-takes us on an exhilarating freedom ride through America's preoccupation with identity politics. His funny, forgiving charm ultimately embodies a serious message: The freaks and oddities of this world may well be divine.




Lee Cotton is a black boy born white-skinned in segregated Eureka, Mississippi, in 1950. Over the course of Lee's first twenty years, he will fall in love with the daughter of a local Klansman, get kicked senseless and left for dead on a freight train headed north, end up in St. Louis as a white man, and be drafted into the psych-ops corps in Nevada. There, a drunken accident will separate Lee from another part of his identity and change his fate yet again. Before he returns to Mississippi, he will experience up close and personal the women's liberation movement and the dawn of the Lesbian Nation.

Lee Cotton's voice-equal parts Delta Blues and Motown-takes us on an exhilarating freedom ride through America's preoccupation with identity politics. His funny, forgiving charm ultimately embodies a serious message: The freaks and oddities of this world may well be divine.