Customer Reviews

Eat, Drink, and Be From Mississippi: A Novel

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Nanci Kincaid has created a beautiful, delightful, sweet story in Eat, Drink and Be From Mississippi. The title alone told me that I would be in for a wonderful reading experience from a Southern writer.

This is the story of Truely Noonan and his older sister Courtney. They were born and raised in Mississippi by caring parents, but both left early in life and sought their fortunes in California. Now both are successful, have more money than they know what to do with and live in fine homes. Unfortunately, both have marriages that have crumbled or are crumbling. Into this picture comes Arnold, a young African American male, who is one of the most engaging characters I've read about in a long time. I couldn't help but smile almost every time Arnold spoke.

This is a story of family, perhaps not the traditional family of mom, dad and some children, but family nonetheless. Truely and Courtney are both genuinely good people who take Arnold in and offer him a life he could never hope to achieve on his own.

This is an excellent story told with true Southern charm. It's the kind of story you hate to see end and the characters stay with you long after you read the last page. I highly recommend this book to those who love Southern literature or just a kind, sweet story.

Nanci Kincaid's fifth novel, "Eat ,Drink , and be from Mississippi" (emphasis on "from") is a departure from her earlier works in both the setting and the gender of the narrator. Previously, Kincaid has told her stories from a female perspective and has set them almost exclusively in the deep south. In her latest novel, the protagonist is male (Truely Noonan), and by page 39 the mis en scene has moved from Hinds County, Mississippi, to the Bay Area of California. What remains constant, however, is Kincaid's sure and distinctive voice and her persistent themes: the depth and complication of family ties, what it means to be from the South, and the complex issue of race relations. A powerful sense of place always imbues all of Kincaid's works, even when the place is as far away from Mississippi as California.

Rooted in Mississippi but played out in California and projected against the backdrop of the war in Iraq while dancing delicately on the shifting carpet of race, "Eat Drink and Be From Mississippi" is another gem of a novel from a gifted story teller. Entertainment Weekly says Nanci Kincaid's prose "hooks you good and pulls you in." And The Washington Post writes "This novel isn't, in the end, so much about Mississippi as it is about our American future, and on that subject it is decidedly and sweetly optimistic."
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I really enjoyed this book and did not want it to end. Like another reviewer, I felt that the story really picked up when Arnold came on the scene. I think it calls out for a sequel to see where all of the characters end up. Also, as well as being a good story, it is really well written - not mind candy at all. This would be a great book for a book club.

In little towns, like Hinds County, Mississippi, where everyone knew everyone, nothing could be hidden. When Courtney Noonan headed for California, her parents were against it, but her brother, Truely, tried to be supportive. On a visit, Truely realized he too wanted to live in California, believing it was where he needed and wanted to be. Going from Mississippi to California changed the siblings. In Eat, Drink, and Be from Mississippi by Nanci Kincaid, Truely and Courtney learned true joy comes from within, but sometimes secrets can take up all the space where happiness should be.

When their life of contentment started falling apart, neither Truely nor Courtney expected the whirlwind that would enter their lives in the form of a black teenager named Arnold Carter. Arnold had plenty in common with the Noonans; Mississippian background, the love of good-tasting, home cooked food, and secrets. Now that these three have come together, who will offer who the most valuable lessons?

Eat, Drink, and Be from Mississippi by Nanci Kincaid warms the heart. There is a realization that people from different walks of life; whether it is spiritually, financially, or culturally, can benefit from each other, as long as they are willing to be respectful. Even though I enjoyed the characters, it took a long time for me to fully engage with them. Once Arnold entered into Truely and Courtney's life, that is when the story came alive and I wanted to know more about what was going on with each one of them that they were not telling others, or most importantly admitting to themselves. I recommend Eat, Drink, and Be from Mississippi to literary readers.

Jennifer Coissiere
APOOO BookClub

Although the title of the book leads one to believe that the book is about life in Mississippi, the first one third of the book is about the lives of a family, mostly a brother and sister, who come from a small southern town in Mississippi. The remainder of the book is about the lives and loves of the brother and sister after they move to California.

I was hoping for a good southern read but that is not what you get when reading Eat, Drink and Be from Mississippi. What you do get is a fairly slow moving story about what happens to them after they leave Mississippi. I felt there was not enough explanation as to why the marriages of the brother and sister fell apart. There was tons of information about how Truely and his sister, Courtney, met and fell in love with their respective partners but not enough on what ended their relationships.

The last part of the book deals with Truely and Courtney meeting and becoming involved in the life of a young black man named Arnold. The last part of the book is how they become a family with Arnold.

This book left me with a nagging sense of not being fulfilled because I wanted a book about the lives of people living in Mississippi- not a story about the lost loves of siblings who relocate to California.

Having lived in the South for a time, I have a weakness for Southern fiction.

Courtney and Truely, siblings from Mississippi, end up settled in the Bay area after leaving their parents behind in Mississippi. They both find success and affluence. Although each of them marries, neither of their marriages gives them that happily ever after they thought they'd found.

When Truely's soon-to-be ex girlfriend's brother is injured in Iraq, Truely meets Arnold, a friend of the soldier. Little does he know that Arnold is about to become a major part of his life!

After the demise of their marriages, Truely and Courtney end up spending more and more time together. Throw Arnold into the mix, and you get something that's starting to look like a family.

Although I predicted a happy ending, there was a plot twist that came into play making me wonder if I was going to get that happy ending after all!

A great read. A pleasant amount of humor. Lots of warm fuzzies, with some tension and intrigue for good measure.

This is a delightful and honest story about growing into oneself and the way that we become who we are through our relationships with other people. Well written and filled with quirky and believable characters, we are reminded of the destructive nature of secrets and the healing that comes from simply being human. The front end of the book was a bit slow but not distractingly so and did a good job of setting the stage for the core story.

Read it in 3 days. It caught my attention right away. The ending was great.

The Hachette Book Group has a fantastic line-up of book releases this year. I just finished Eat, Drink, and Be From Mississippi by Nanci Kincaid. I wanted a book that would lift me up and make me feel more hopeful, and that's exactly what Nanci Kincaid delivers.

We are presented with a family in Mississippi that is very typical of what we might think of as a traditional small town, southern family. By the end of the book, we are witness to the formation of a new family, mostly self-chosen, 3000 miles from Mississippi that personifies the "resurgence of collective possibility".

Family is a funny thing: in the traditional sense, it's an entity created by luck of the draw, people who are tied together by biology, and sometimes grow together and sometimes grow apart. Kincaid explores a new kind of family - one that people choose, either consciously or subconsciously. They fight as much as traditional families, and they also love fiercely. They believe in one another, even in the darkest hours. They are drawn to one another.

Through the whole book, I thought about this idea of having a calling, of being drawn to someone, or something, without any true justification. Could be a career, or a certain city, particular people, or a cause you care about. It overtakes you -- no one tells you that you must dedicate yourself to this person, place, or ideal. You are just compelled to.

This is cause for great hope for all of us. Some of the characters in the book took a good long time to find their calling, others found it very quickly, and others thought they found it and then realized that they actually belonged some place else. It's never too late, or too early, to find our place in the world. And sometimes that place shifts, and the best we can do is know that the Universe knows better than we do. One things is for certain: if you are open to your calling finding you at every turn, then eventually it will.

Truely Noonan and his older sister, Courtney, were born and raised in Hinds County, Mississippi. They both ended up going to college and settling in California. Courtney marries a very successful real estate developer and Truely marries a teacher who is out to save the world. They are both happy, and while they maintain a relationship, they're not what you would consider close.

Several years pass, their parents pass away and both of their marriages disintegrate. Courtney turns to plastic surgery and Truely maintains a relationship of convenience with Shauna. Shauna's brother is injured in Iraq and Truely realizes that she means more to him than he thought. He rushes to be with her, but he's too late - her old boyfriend is there to be supportive.

Through his contact with Shauna's family, a young, street-wise black boy named Arnold is thrust upon Truely. Courtney starts coming to help Truely with Arnold and the three of them become a family. They all discover that they must let go of some secrets in their past and move on to the future.

I found Eat, Drink, and Be from Mississippi by Nanci Kincaid to be thoroughly enchanting. Nanci Kincaid does a marvelous job of creating flawed, but lovable characters. This is a book that will stay with you long after you've finished reading it.