''Truevine: Two Brothers, a Kidnapping, and a Mother's Quest: A True Story of the Jim Crow South'' is a 2016 non-fiction book by American author

Beth Macy Beth Macy (born ) is an American journalist and non-fiction writer. She is the author of four published books, including national bestsellers ''Factory Man'' (2014) and ''Dopesick'' (2018). Early life The daughter of a factory worker, Sarah Macy ...

. The book tells the story of George and Willie Muse, two African-American brothers who were kidnapped and forced to perform as

sideshow In North America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, traveling carnival, carnival, fair, or other such attraction. They historically featured human oddity exhibits (so-called “Freak show, freak shows”), pr ...

attractions because they were

albinos Albinism is the congenital absence of melanin in an animal or plant resulting in white hair, feathers, scales and skin and reddish pink or blue eyes. Individuals with the condition are referred to as albinos. Varied use and interpretation of ...

. ''Truevine'' was released on October 18, 2016 through

Little, Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries, it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emil ...

. Film rights for the book are currently being negotiated by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

and

Appian Way Productions Appian Way Productions is an American film and television production company founded in 2001 by actor and producer Leonardo DiCaprio. Since its launch, Appian Way has released a diverse slate of films, including Academy Award–winning films ' ...

Synopsis

George and Willie Muse were two brothers who grew up in Truevine, part of a

sharecropping Sharecropping is a legal arrangement in which a landowner allows a tenant (sharecropper) to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping is not to be conflated with tenant farming, providing the tenant a ...

family that lived in a

tobacco farming The cultivation of tobacco usually takes place annually. The tobacco is germinated in cold frames or hotbeds and then transplanted to the field until it matures. It is grown in warm climates with rich, well-drained soil. About 4.2 million ...

community near

Roanoke, Virginia Roanoke ( ) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia, United States. It lies in Southwest Virginia, along the Roanoke River, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Blue Ridge range of the greater Appalachian Mountains. Roanok ...

. The two brothers were both

, a feature that Willie claimed prompted a circus man to abduct the two children in 1899 while they worked in a field. In the book, Macy notes that it was possible that the children were sent to the circus by their mother, as their albino skin made it unlikely that they would survive long as sharecroppers, but that "if you ask me in my heart, I'm gonna go with illie Muse'sstory". They performed for years as

attractions where they were cruelly exploited and frequently portrayed as savages from another country or

Martian Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. Trends in the planet's portrayal have largely been influenced by advances in planetary science. It became the most popular celes ...

s. George and Willie were prevented from contacting their family by their manager, who kept them as modern day slaves, since they were unpaid. The two boys were told that their mother Harriet was dead – a lie, as their mother was still alive and was constantly searching for them. She eventually found the two boys working for the

Ringling Brothers Circus Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows is a circus founded in Baraboo, Wisconsin, United States in 1884 by five of the seven Ringling brothers: Albert, August, Otto, Alfred T., Charles, John, and Henry. The Ringling brothers were sons of a Germ ...

and their family was reunited. Harriet successfully sued Ringling Brothers for the treatment of George and Willie. George and Willie resumed performing for the circus in the late 1920s, when they finally received pay for their work. George died in 1972 and Willie died in 2001. The book also details Macy's work at finding information about the two brothers and gaining the trust of their niece Nancy Saunders, who cared for Willie until his death.

Development

Macy learned about the Muses in the 1980s, when she began working for ''

The Roanoke Times ''The Roanoke Times'' is the primary newspaper in Southwestern Virginia and is based in Roanoke, Virginia, United States. It is published by Lee Enterprises. In addition to its headquarters in Roanoke, it maintains a bureau in Christiansburg, ...

.'' She was told that it was "the best story in town" but that no one had been able to get the complete story due to the protectiveness of the Muse family. Macy approached Saunders but was initially rebuffed due to the number of people that tried to invade the men's privacy with "rude" questions. She was given permission to write a series of news articles about Willie and George after the latter of the two brothers died in 2001 and Saunders approved of Macy's plans to write a book about the brothers in late 2013. Macy searched through news clippings and trade presses and also gained information from the Muse family. She also approached older members of the African-American community in Roanoke, where she discovered that some of them assumed that the story of the Muses was a hoax and that "Some of them thought it was true; some of them lived near George and Willie in their later years and were scared of them like a

Boo Radley Harper Lee's ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' was published in 1960. Instantly successful, widely read in middle and high schools in the United States, it has become a classic of modern American literature, winning the Pulitzer Prize. She wrote the novel ' ...

figure."

Reception

Critical reception has been positive. ''Truevine'' received reviews from

Edward E. Baptist Edward E. Baptist (born 1970) is an American academic and writer. He is a professor of history at Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York, where he specializes in the history of the 19th-century United States, particularly the South. The ...

and

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, who served as a film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1977 to 1999, serving as chief critic for the last six years, and then a literary critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000, M ...

, the former of which wrote that "Macy is a gifted storyteller and a dogged researcher, and readers will be riveted by her account of Harriet Muse's struggle to find her sons." ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

'' gave the work four and a half stars, as they felt that "Macy's conscientious reporting (affirming the story's accuracy) and her vigorous storytelling make the saga of George and Willie Muse even more enthralling than fiction."

References

External links

* {{official website, https://intrepidpapergirl.com/truevine-3/
Presentation by Macy on ''Truevine'', October 15, 2016

Interview with Macy on ''Truevine'', March 19, 2017
2016 non-fiction books Circus books Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Albinism in popular culture Little, Brown and Company books