Southern Gal Tells All
Written: May 04 '01 (Updated May 04 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: White's style is a quick and fitting summer read with poignant anecdotes.
Cons: Not as strong prose as her previous work
The Bottom Line: Fine novel if not compared with any of her previous works.
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| martyfig's Full Review: Sleeping At the Starlite Motel & Other Books |
"Your great-uncle Melville," said Aunt Eleanor wistfully, "came through the the ceiling from a second-floor bathroom, right over the dining-room table when Pamela was having her garden club luncheon." She reflected bitterly. "And we have sunk to this" ("Family Values").
You don't necessarily have to be from the south to enjoy Bailey White's family anecdotes. In fact, all you need to be able to "identify" with are her anecdotes illustrating a proud family with a long tradition of story-telling.
Essentially, one of the best anecdotes of the novel is within the first fifty pages. You can almost swear that you, too, have an Aunt Eleanor who complains of the family going to "hell in a hand-basket."
Bailey’s aunt complains of the old days. And whose aunt wouldn’t? The bigger the age differences sometimes, the bigger the grouching. Aunt Eleanor laments a simpler time, when women wore white gloves, hosted garden parties, wore hats and acted like ladies (at least in front of company). On one hand it may seem to be rather sexist to lament such days, but isn’t that wistful element essential to the very nature of story telling--good memories or bad? Your uncle laments the good old days of 1960’s protests; another great aunt remembers the good-ole-days when zoot suits were the rage along with ankle strap platforms and heavy eyebrow pencil.
It can’t be claimed that all of Bailey’s memories are universal. Who but a southerner could identify with dilapidated plantations or mansions? On the other hand, anyone who has lost a family farm be it outside of Cleveland, Ohio or just south of Milan, Illinois, could identify with the pangs of dreams lost, disappearing acts and deceased elders like lost leaves in a fall wind.
Her book is full of these lost memories, things vanished, things forgotten. That has to be her biggest difference between this novel and Mamma Makes up Her Mind and Other Things, a funnier, lighter tale of southern living full of guffaws and grins.
“Hot Night in ‘31” is especially full of the longing for what once was, for what could have been. Bailey recounts visiting an elderly woman who at first appears only forgetful. As the night progresses, it sadly becomes quite evident that it is much more than that.
Perhaps the best sketch of the book appears in “Folk Art,” a tale that resonates in perfect rhythm and mood to “Hot Night in ’31.” These tales make the reader yearn to know what could have been with his own family. They pry at the lid of secrecy in even the most remote group of relatives. What makes this a worthy read isn’t what tales Bailey alone uncovers about her great aunts and uncles, but what you as the reader can take with you about your own family and memories long forgotten.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
martyfig
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Location: The High Plains
Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 9 members
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