Does anyone else remember the book, Ode To Billy Joe?

Question

The song (Bobbie Gentry sang it) is playing on the radio right now. It was also a movie starring Robbie Benson. The song actually came first! Very rare!

The book came later, around the mid-70s and I read it when I was about 13. It was my first "exposure" to the concept of homosexuality and while my Mom was horrified that I was reading it, she let me and I remember loving the book.

Does anyone else remember it?

Answer 1

Yes I do. The heroine was great, very real and the scene when her family get their first flush toilet was funny. Not quite sure that one roll in the wool could turn someone "Gay," unless they were already wired for it. I was playing Trivial Pursuit on the weekend and got the question "who jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge?" It won me the game.

Answer 2

Yes great song and movie..must confess I didn't read the book. I remember it well I was about 2 or 3 when the song first came out.

Answer 3

I remember reading it too. My mother let me read pretty much whatever I wanted to so there was a lot that I read that my friends didn't read. That was one of the books my friends weren't allowed to read. So I read it and told them all about it. I remember the movie too. I was such a Robby Benson fan at the time. LOL

Answer 4

I remember the song and movie but did not know about the book. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I want to read it. Boy, Billy Jo and that weirdo carnival guy or whatever he was...nasty!

Answer 5

Not the book, but the song and movie are etched in my mind. Excellent memory. Thanks.

Answer 6

oh yeah...

good book