The Boys from Biloxi Literary Elements

Legal Thriller/Historical Fiction

Biloxi, Mississippi circa mid-twentieth century when organized criminal activity and political corruption was at the peak of its power.

Omniscient, objective third-person narrative point-of-view.

The tone of the novel is journalistic in its direct reportage of events without handing down judgments upon some very seedy and unpleasant characters. The mood is optimistic as a result of a perspective looking back upon an actual dark historical period which actually was ultimately overcome through committed reform.

Rather than a single individual, the protagonist of the story is political reform running on an anti-corruption agenda. The antagonists are the criminals and corrupt individuals and institutions which facilitated their grasp on power.

The conflict arrives from the embodiment of the opposing forces of corrupt status quo and reform movements primarily within multiple generations of the Malco and Rudy families.

The novel reaches a climax when Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco, who grew up together as best friends, square off against each other as adults in a courtroom where Keith is the prosecutor and Hugh is the defendant facing charges that could send him to the gas chamber.

Midway through the book, Sheriff Albert “Fats” Bowman arrogantly and confidently says, “Need I remind you that the graveyard is full of politicians who promised to clean up the Coast?” which ironically foreshadows the inevitable fulfillment of that long-delayed promise.

“Hello Cleveland, got a minute?” is Nevin Noll’s conspicuously retrained greeting just before he proceeds to break Cleveland’s jaw, knock out some teeth, and create lacerations across the man’s head using nothing but his bare firsts.

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The imagery used to describe the aftermath of the actual historical event of Hurricane Camille’s landfall in Biloxi conveys the extent of the devastation the storm left behind: “People emerged from the rubble and moved about like zombies, shell-shocked by the terror of the night and the devastation in front of them. Screams were heard as they found friends, neighbors, and loved ones who didn’t make it.”

“When Prohibition swept the country in 1920 Biloxi hardly noticed. Its bars, dives, honky-tonks, neighborhood pubs, and upscale clubs not only remained open but thrived” demonstrates the paradoxical consequence of the only amendment to the Constitution to later be repealed.

The entire dramatic structure of the book is based upon Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco starting out as best friends before diverging along separate but parallel lifestyle choices in which each makes lifestyle choices that directly parallel their respective fathers’ lifestyle and moral philosophy.,

“Almost thirty years on the bench and I’ve never seen this before” in which “bench” is a metonym describing all the broad responsibilities of judges and justices in the judicial system.

“Nature intervened in an unimaginable way and stopped the killings. The storm blew away the nightclubs on the Strip, as well as most of Biloxi. It dealt a crippling blow not only to the nightlife but every other industry along the Coast.”