Plot in a nutshell: When Sessums' mentor recommended the Woody Allen film Love and Death to his 19-year-old protege in 1975, he responded bitterly, lamenting that he had had enough of those two things to last a lifetime. Sessums' plaint provides a telling guide to his memoir, which presents a roster of tragedies and passions set against a rural southern background.

Before he had turned 13, Sessums had lost both of his parents - his father in a car accident and his mother to cancer. Before the author had turned 18, he had been molested twice - once by a trusted preacher and once by a stranger in a movie theater. Mere weeks before moving to New York to attend Juliard at the age of 19, he found his best friend brutally murdered in his own home.

The constant thematic companion to these tragic anecdotes is Sessums' developing self-awareness as a homosexual, as an outsider in an environment hostile, sometimes violently so, to any deviation from the social norm. As an effeminate toddler interested in wearing dresses, Sessums earns the scorn of his family and the hostility of his community.

These sentiments only grow as Sessums takes halting steps into his adult identity, struggling to find a balance between tradition and identity, social obligation and personal freedom - and eventually finding a haven in a select community of intellectuals and artists.

Best tidbit: "Let them whisper as I walked through them all. 'Shame.' 'Shame.' I would really give them something to fret about, to fight against. I might never be a woman. 'Shame.' I might never be a man. But I would always be a witch. The world could kill my parents, I reasoned, but I could kill it right back by being otherworldly. I would show them that a sissy could be just as sinister as they all were. I had had enough."

Pros: Sessums' intimate and meditative writing style suffuses his struggles with pathos and insight.

Cons: The text tends to veer too heavily into mundane details and satellite stories that detract from the narrative. Plus, Sessums' more graphic sexual descriptions may turn some readers away.

Final word: An affirming memoir for those who've struggled with tragedy and identity.

Mississippi Sissy:

•: Nonfiction.

•: By Kevin Sessums. St.Martin's Press, $24.95.

•: Grade: B-