Phyllis Dooney

Award-winning photographer Phyllis Dooney and critically acclaimed novelist Jardine Libaire introduce you to the Browns, an archetypal American family in Mississippi. Led by their openly gay daughter Halea, they dream out loud while fighting the silent undertow of poverty and recurring domestic narratives. Greenville represents the American boom town left in the wake of a changing global economy. Intoxicated by the Delta air, Southerners say »gravity is stronger here«, binding them to this city of contradictions, where love for a gay daughter and love of God can exist in one mother. Violence and tenderness can exist in one marriage. Drugs and toys can exist in one house. This book is less a story than a consciousness. It is a buzz of intimacy, the way you feel when you hang out with folks. You can smell their musk, cigarette smoke, McDonald’s fries, a magnolia blooming by the door. The project is a nearness, a grazing of shoulders with another’s humanity, an experience close to love.