And Other Dangers of Southern Living
by Bailey White
ages: adult
First sentence: “The other day Mama made up her mind she wanted some smoked mullet.”
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This one, generally speaking, has everything I want in a book: short, personal essays with Southern flavor. But, perhaps for the same problem I have with David Sedaris, I didn’t find it funny.
I wanted to: Bailey White, first grade teacher and unmarried woman living with her eccentric mother, is a good writer, and the stories she tells were pretty outrageous. The sort of rural crazy that you really only see down South. But, while I enjoyed some of the stories the — the bit about the wildflower garden was my favorite, as was her stories about cleaning out her mother’s house — I never really laughed.
Maybe I was expecting too much, hoping for hilarious when all I got was amusing. I’m not sorry I read it, but it’s also not something I’d want to read again.
The Book Nut 