Dallas author Ben Mitchell chronicles being gay and Christian in the South with his novel ‘Without One Plea’
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| HARD BALANCE | Mitchell’s characters wrestle between what they think is right and wrong in his new novel which is part legal thriller and part chri-fi. (ARNOLD WAYNE JONES/ Dallas Voice) |
The Southern drawl dripping from Ben Mitchell’s mouth is a natural comfort. Speak with him for a few minutes and it’s easy to expect mint juleps to follow.
But don’t reduce Mitchell to a cliché. While he may be a classic Southern gentleman, he could also be the gay John Grisham.
"That is so funny, because one of my very first reviews on Amazon said ‘Look out John Grisham!’ I know John and if you want to compare me to that, it’s a high compliment," he says.
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The comparisons are easy. Mitchell is also a former lawyer from Mississippi whose debut novel, Without One Plea, is set amid the halls of justice in the South. He’s a little less mystery than Grisham, with more intense drama — Mitchell’s characters don’t run around big cities, navigating crime bosses and shady lawyers to pull off grandstanding heroics. Instead, his characters just want to come home and live a trouble-free gay life.
"I want Plea to be more about relationships and how people relate to each other," he says.
The book centers on Chet, the golden boy ex-pat of Mission Springs, Miss. He’s called back home after being offered a job too good to refuse — a professorship at a nearby university — and brings his partner, Drew. They plan to re-enter the closet to integrate into the community and work on coming out as they’ve established themselves.
"Chet’s a changed man, so the question is, will his people accept him back? They loved him when he was 18 but will they accept him now," Mitchell says.
Sound familiar, anyone?
Mitchell began writing Plea 14 years ago while he was still practicing law. With his 80-hour workweeks, he crammed in chapters in what little free time he had. It took five years to finish the first draft and another four to fine tune, edit and eventually publish it.
Although he preferred studying law to practicing it in Mississippi, merely falling into the career didn’t satisfy Mitchell. He made his way to Dallas working in human resources after quitting law practice and ultimately, began working with his partner designing jewelry. But he wasn’t giving up on all the collective time he’d spent writing the novel.
And despite the similarities between Chet and Mitchell, the author insists the story isn’t autobiographical, nor was this a cathartic experience exorcising demons from Mitchell’s religious past. But it is familiar territory to him.
"You can only write what you know but I personally don’t think of Chet as me. Nor was I setting out to expose or get back at people. I didn’t set out to vilify the Baptist church. I kept a journal of scenarios I imagined and thought it could make a great book," he says.
Mitchell is adamant about his novel not being against the church. Religion becomes a character as Brother Gene, the Baptist minister plots to out the couple and leads accusations against Chet’s friendship with a local youngster. Mitchell wants to show that some churches may sing hymnal praises but perhaps don’t practice what they sing. (The title is a line in the traditional Baptist hymn "Just As I Am.")
"I wanted to show that you reap what you sow. I do think religion has been criticized because of their own actions and the way they treated people. But also, not all people in church are that way. You have your good, bad and ugly but you find the good ones and surround yourself with them," he says.
Now, Mitchell finds himself a published author doing the usual book signings and appearances. He also debuts with a novel that defies classification: Without One Plea is fiction, but will people find it in the general fiction section of the bookstore or the LGBT shelf?
"I’d love it in Christian fiction because people would stumble across and read it thinking they are justified because it’s in religion. But gay fiction is a must. So many people want to about read positive gay role models. I just hope it has wide appeal," he says.
John Grisham probably said the same thing once. ]
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition November 06, 2009.