The Mississippi Delta

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Leslie Jordan opens Chapter 9 by introducing the Mississippi Delta, an alluvial plain with rich soil deposited by the Mississippi River, centered on the town of Greenwood—home to the Viking Range company and the Alluvian Hotel. Though not raised in the Delta, he confesses the region has grabbed hold of him over the years. His literary curiosity about the area leads him through the works of Mississippi-born writers: William Faulkner, whose novel The Sound and the Fury initially frustrated him so thoroughly he threw the book across the room, and Eudora Welty, whose stream-of-consciousness style in Delta Wedding he eventually came to adore after learning to appreciate the narrative technique. He also recalls the late essayist Julia Reed and the serendipitous timing of his own feature in Garden & Gun magazine shortly after her death.

The chapter then pivots to Jordan's experience filming The Help in Greenwood in 2010. He recounts his small role as a newspaper editor, an unplanned cartwheel that improbably survived the final cut, and his initial underestimation of Emma Stone's talent. An extended anecdote describes rescuing an abandoned puppy on a roadside with Allison Janney and fellow cast members—a chaotic episode involving a passed donation bucket, a traumatized dog named Skeeter, and Bryce Dallas Howard's take-charge leadership. Jordan also shares a memorable Oscar-night phone call with Octavia Spencer after her Best Supporting Actress win. The chapter closes with his role in Lee Daniels's The United States vs. Billie Holiday, where he drew inspiration from the eccentric gossip columnist Skip E. Lowe, who, fittingly, hailed from Greenville, Mississippi.

Key Events

Leslie Jordan describes the geography and cultural character of the Mississippi Delta, emphasizing Greenwood and Greenville.
He recounts his early, frustrated attempt to read Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and his eventual appreciation of As I Lay Dying.
He explains how understanding stream of consciousness as a literary device unlocked his enjoyment of Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding and her short story "Why I Live at the P.O."
He shares memories of Julia Reed and the coincidence of being contacted by Garden & Gun for a feature the same week she died.
Jordan arrives in Mississippi to film The Help and struggles to understand his character until director Tate Taylor suggests he is playing the "town sissy."
During filming, he impulsively performs a cartwheel that the director initially cuts but later includes at a studio executive's insistence.
He underestimates Emma Stone's acting ability during their scenes together, only to recognize her brilliance while watching the finished film.
On the drive from Jackson to Greenwood, he and Allison Janney rescue an abandoned puppy from a highway and rally the cast and crew to raise money and find it a home.
On Oscar night, he calls Octavia Spencer immediately after her win and shares a candid, funny exchange about her Spanx.
He plays a gossip columnist in Lee Daniels's The United States vs. Billie Holiday, modeling the character on Skip E. Lowe, who was originally from Greenville, Mississippi.

Character Development

This chapter reveals Jordan as a culturally curious autodidact who refuses to be intimidated by difficult literature. His initial disdain for Faulkner gives way to measured admiration once he develops the vocabulary to understand modernist narrative techniques. This intellectual humility—admitting he needed to learn before he could appreciate—contrasts with his show-business confidence on set.

The Help anecdotes expose two sides of his personality. On one hand, he can be, by his own admission, a self-centered presence who worries about his character's arc when the scene actually belongs to Emma Stone's Skeeter. On the other hand, the puppy rescue demonstrates genuine compassion and a gift for community organizing, as he instinctively turns a church-plate-passing skill into a fundraising mechanism. His willingness to include the cartwheel story—and his pouting over its initial rejection—shows he is comfortable laughing at his own vanity and childishness.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Southern Literary Identity and Belonging. Jordan uses Mississippi writers as a lens through which to understand regional identity. Faulkner and Welty represent a literary tradition that feels impenetrable at first but rewards persistence. His eventual embrace of their work mirrors his broader acceptance of Southern complexity.

Serendipity and Cosmic Connection. The Garden & Gun feature that arrives just after Julia Reed's death, the cartwheel that survives the final cut, and the fact that Skip E. Lowe—the model for his Billie Holiday interviewer—hails from Greenville all suggest a world in which coincidences carry meaning. Jordan frames these moments as evidence that unseen forces, perhaps Southern solidarity itself, are at work.

The Town Sissy as Archetype. When Tate Taylor identifies Jordan's unnamed newspaper editor as "that man who is married with five children, but everybody 'knows,'" Jordan immediately grasps the shorthand. This moment connects his performance to a recognizable Southern social type, one he has inhabited and observed his entire life.

Community Care for the Vulnerable. The puppy Skeeter functions as a symbol of what collective goodwill can accomplish. A frightened, abandoned creature is transformed through veterinary care, training, and a bucket of cash into a beloved pet. The anecdote embodies the Southern principle of sticking together that Jordan invokes throughout.

Why This Chapter Matters

"The Mississippi Delta" bridges Jordan's intellectual life and his professional Hollywood career in a way no previous chapter has attempted. It establishes him not merely as a comic raconteur but as a serious, if self-taught, reader who uses local literature to ground himself in place. His reading journey—from throwing Faulkner across the room to loving Welty—parallels the emotional arc of the book itself, which consistently rewards persistence and vulnerability.

The chapter also functions as a love letter to the collaborative chaos of filmmaking. Jordan demystifies celebrity by showing movie stars as people who drive minivans, rescue puppies, and double-Spanx themselves on Oscar night. By closing with the Skip E. Lowe connection to Greenville, he brings the chapter full circle, reinforcing the idea that the Delta exerts a gravitational pull he cannot escape.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Leslie Jordan initially struggle with William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, and what changes his perspective on Faulkner's work? Jordan is frustrated by the novel's first narrator, Benjy, whose intellectual disability shapes a narrative voice that Jordan finds nearly incomprehensible. He only returns to Faulkner years later after learning about modernist techniques like stream of consciousness. Reading As I Lay Dying with this new understanding allows him to recognize Faulkner's brilliance.

2. How does the puppy rescue episode reflect broader themes in Jordan's memoir? The rescue demonstrates the Southern ethic of mutual aid that Jordan references throughout the chapter. He passes a donation bucket using skills from his Baptist upbringing, Bryce Dallas Howard takes decisive action, and the entire production community contributes to saving one vulnerable creature. The episode embodies the idea that people, when they rally together, can create outcomes that no individual could achieve alone.

3. What is the significance of Greenville, Mississippi, in this chapter, and why does Jordan return to it at the end? Greenville represents an unexpected through-line in Jordan's life. It is the hometown of Eudora Welty, Julia Reed, and, as he discovers during research for his Billie Holiday film role, the eccentric gossip columnist Skip E. Lowe. Jordan presents Greenville as a locus of creative and eccentric Southern identity that keeps reappearing in his personal and professional experiences, as though the Delta itself keeps drawing him back.