K aren L. C ox . Goat Castle

Karen L. Cox’s Goat Castle is a gorgeous “Trojan horse” of a book—executing a “draw ’em in/teach ’em something they didn’t mean to learn” one-two punch that the field of southern studies seems particularly well placed to deliver. Although every inch a meticulously researched monograph, Goat Castle presents itself to the reader as offering up a stereotypically lurid, pleasurably consumable southern story. John Grisham provides true-crime cred with a cover blurb praising the “highly entertaining . . . terrific read,” while the jacket sports a black-and-white photo of a decaying Natchez mansion, with live oaks and Spanish moss in the foreground, as well as a group of mug shots that look like they belong to an “insane-folks-in-the-attic” edition of the board game Clue. Ultimately, though, Cox has marshaled this seemingly diversionary tale in service of delivering truths about the white supremacy permeating every facet of American life—which is, of course, not a usual topic for leisure reading.

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