Customer Reviews

Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Want to know what a Huggybear is? Or a Malkin? Or a Watery Mole? Or a Virago? You'll have to read Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady. Florence King (no relation to Stephen, I would add!) has a uniquely warm humor and a style that she can truly call her own. I roared with laughter in places, I choked back a shiver or two in places, I gurgled with contentment in places, and I reveled in the amazing writing that has become Florence King's trademark. What a remarkable lady. From a Southern family, raised in the racially segregated Washington, D.C. of old, King follows her own life through college, graduation and into adulthood, where she finds she is considerably more attracted to her own sex than the other. Though written in a style that is hilariously funny and relatively light-hearted, Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady also deals with deeper issues, like the definition of femininity. This added dimension makes the book all the more interesting, even for a non-female person (maybe ESPECIALLY for a non-female person!), and for those of us who enjoy something a little more cerebral than 'Noddy meets Goldilocks', Florence King's wonderful insights into growing up (and dealing with her sexuality) is a perfect companion to a blazing fire and a glass of good wine.

While this book didn't leave me laughing till my ribs ache ~~ it sure did give me an interesting perspective on southern humor. Florence King is an excellent writer who takes you down memory lane ~~ you cannot help but relate to her descriptions of people in her life. However, I am a pure Yankee ~~ so a lot of the humor about gleaming silver and dusty houses just flew over my head. (Up here in Ohio, we're neat and clean ~~ a Malkin society that Florence describes so wonderfully!) However, I enjoyed reading about Florence's outlook on life and how she handled her disappointments and her realization that family does matter ~~ all done with humor and dry wit.

This is a quick read for me ~~ King keeps me riveted to each page with her descriptions of daily life in the south and with her love affairs. It was nice to read about someone else struggling with the society's mores ~~ and how she dealt with it. Though I may not have come up with the same conclusions as she did ~~ she handles her with lots of grace and laughter. A rare gift anymore in this staid society.

Pick this book up and you'll enjoy it. Be sure to kick off your shoes, drink a glass of lemonade and swing on the porch. Enjoy the sultry summer heat of the southern humor. It's a great book to while away a lazy afternoon.

5-28-02

Having grown up in Chicago with a Southern mother and a Yankee father, I always wondered why my family and its "rearing" techniques seemed so different from those of my peers. Then I read "Confessions," and everything became wonderfully, wickedly, and deliciously clear. I laughed out loud and exclaimed in recognition throughout the book as I saw my Mamaw in Granny, my mother in Mama, my father in Herb, and myself in Florence. Ms. King is a brilliant writer whose observations are at once devastatingly, uproariously accurate yet lovingly conveyed. Her ability to break your heart and make you guffaw through the tears is unique. I have read this book over and over and have lent it to friends all over the country (sometimes it never comes back). Today I am ordering my third copy. I recommend "Confessions" to every reader with wit, intelligence, and a touch of lunacy. It will bring out the Southern in your soul.

A bisexual, gun-toting, fiercely southern woman who left the Republican party because they had turned into a bunch of liberal pansies? What's not to love?

This is a hilarious memoir with a lot of insights into both southern culture and the human condition in general.

I live north of the Mason-Dixon line, and everyone I've recommended read this book has looked dubious at the prospect that it would be worth reading. Everyone I actually talked into reading it loved it. Don't doubt it, this book is a real treasure!

As a feminist and a believer in the individual, I loved this book. Florence King is an intellectual in the best sense of the world, funny and erudite, never shying away from either the very coarse or the very fine. My favorite passage describes her first day in kindergarten, her first time in the company of other children her age (she was an only child). "I was miserable.... Worse, it appeared that I was a child too. I hadn't known this before; I thought I was just short."

If you can read this book without gasping in shock and then holding onto the furniture as you stagger around the room trying to catch your breath from laughing, you are made from sterner stuff than I.

I can't even think the word "digitalis" anymore without breaking into snorting giggles.

One of the funniest, most entertaining, eyebrow-raising books I have ever read.

I am a Northen Oregon girl (31 years old *lol*) transplanted in the buckle of the bible belt and boy has it been one heck of a two year trip with two years still to go!

I haven't read anything depicting life in the Southern states nearly as funny as this since reading Daisey Fay and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flagg. This is one book that I share with everyone (while I firmly hold onto my own copy!!) The characters come alive with such wit that you cannot help but reread parts that you just read but could not believe. Florence King has a knack for making you see the lighter funnier side of what is still an obsession er "tradition". Rest assured, here in the South the southern "lady" or modern day "belles" are alive and well.

Another great read in this genre is "Hells Belles" which will equally make you laugh till you cry or send you running for the bathroom. Enjoy!

When I first picked up this undeniably hilarious novel, it was the original edition with the Confederate garter on an extended female leg. Needless to say, I was intrigued. It is a fabulous book. King is not only an amazing writer, but a true intellectual. Though the book is funny and relativly light-hearted, King also deals with the deep, confusing topic of the definition of femininity. This added layer makes the book all the more three dementional, and for those who enjoy deep thought, even more enjoyable. "Confessions" is not for the faint-hearted, however. There is plenty of blantanly sexual talk and rather explict scenes involving heterosexual and homosexual encounters. Potential readers be warned. All in all, a wonderful book on all levels. The memiors of an early feminist.

I am truly a southerner, and Ms. King's irreverant approach to the traditions and ways of the south in the mid-twentieth century are so on target that it will startle the reader who is not from the south, and will sound all to familiar to the southern reader.

I found her covert feminism during this time in her life very interesting and educational. It almost seemed like the fact that she was a feminist during this time in her life was unknown to even herself.

Her honest talk about her sexual life I found startling.

The way she challenged the cultural norms of that time is educational for anyone who is living under a cloud of opression, real or just real to you.

it's a great read!

This story is absolutely delicious...I laughed myself into hysterics, doubled over...tears rolling down...I am Arkansas born-and-bred, living in California among the "sophisticates" for eight years now...I kept recommending this book to EVERYONE I knew, and noone responded with quite the same enthusism I had, which disappointed me so, until I realized that these people didn't grow up in the South, and just didn't get the jokes or appreciate the absurd truth of this story...I mean who would actually belive that people like this exist?! Once in San Francisco, as I commuted on the sardine-packed public transit through the financial district, I could hear, emerging from the masses in the rear, a periodic cackle, then a howl, another cackle, a rolling roar....By the time I made my way to the rear as the suits exited, I came upon a 40 year-old-ish flaming San Francisco Queen who sat clutching the beloved pink treasure, tears rolling down his face...Well, as you can ! imagine, I was so excited...I asked him where he was from..."Mississippi!!!" he responded ..."Arkansas!!!" I cried and we clutched hands and jumped up and down with a devilish shared knowing....one failed Southern Lady to another...I just couldn't help but smile to myself as I got off the bus...only in San Francisco....