Until you’ve sidled about a wonderful old house, appreciating shadows caused by high ceilings and low light, rubbing elbows with poets and novelists, listening to a strolling 9-year-old fiddler playing “Faded Love,” you cannot fully appreciate Mississippi.

Aiden Dunkelberg was the young fiddler; the party was at his parents’ Columbus home. I wonder if years from now he’ll slap his forehead and think, “I was serenading Hillary Jordan, whose debut novel was the classic ‘Mudbound.”’

Now I’m reasonably sure there’s ample talent in Connecticut and California, Michigan and Mo...

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