Customer Reviews

Fatal Flowers: On Sin, Sex and Suicide in the Deep South

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was working in a bookstore in the late 1980s when a dear friend thirty years older than myself put a copy of FATAL FLOWERS in my hand and told me to read it; that it had changed her life and might mine, or at least open my eyes to a new way of seeing and understanding women. How right she was. It did more than open my young male eyes, suddenly I started noticing everywhere around me the kinds of "issues" Daniell taught me to see affecting my young and old female friends. Aside from that, it is superbly written and good old fashioned storytelling. I read it straight through in three days. I'm very glad this important book is back in print. A lot of women (and men) need to read it.

This book is a beautifully presented, 25-year anniversary reprint of a ground-breaking memoir from the Southern '70's. Its cover is one example of the ample photographs included throughout, which illuminate the author's life story. It is still just as personal, and just as gripping, as it was when first published. Because it tells of the wild ways of the so-called Sexual Revolution, it may not be for everyone; yet it is much more than such groupie stories as, "I'm Here With the Band." Daniell is also a poet, novelist, and journalist, whose creative non-fiction makes you see why many writers reccommend journalism as crucial training. I think would-be writers will find this book exciting, as well as readers who want a story they cannot stop reading. When published it was remarkable for its writer, as a woman, to discuss the things she did in such distinctive and daring language--not to mention, do what she did, such as her "sexual sky-diving" episode. Because of the conclusions Daniell reaches, as well as the story she tells, it is still a daring and controversial sort of book. I am one reader who cannot stop reading it, and I have reviewed it for College Seminars, for its rich themes and imagistic language. Along with her other books, Fatal Flowers is material for many critical studies--as well as a book that will hold your interest and keep you company at four in the morning. P.S. A banner on this page asks for comments from those under 13. If there is such a thing as a rating--this book is not for those under 13, in my opinon. Or even under 18, for that matter. But for those to whom life seen through a fine consciousness is exciting, this book is disturbingly excellent.

I felt validation for every "bad" thought as a young girl. The feeling that I was the only person curious about sex has persisted into adulthood. There is a shared triumph of every old Southern mold I felt I broke and guilt for the many I have kept alive through my own daughter. I related to the women in this book, through divorce, and rebellion. It should be required reading for every young woman, and her mother. It could break down the barriers of resentment we feel towards our parents. We all just do the best we can with what we have, sometimes it comes out okay, and sometimes we find it hard to live with our mistakes.

Rosemary Daniell scores with a book that captures the very essence of the south. Anyone who was born in the south or lived in the south will relate to parts of this book. It is not often that I stop and read parts of a book aloud to my husband. However, I found myself frequently doing this while reading Fatal Flowers. This is a book every woman should read to understand herself, and every man should read to understand every woman. This is book was written almost twenty years ago, but the issues it addresses are as relevant now as they were then. A must read for every student of southern culture.

Rosemary Daniell's memoir, Fatal Flowers, resonantes with an honesty that strips away the stereotypical image foisted onto women, especially southern women, over centuries of male-dominated myth-making, and so, image-making. Born in 1936 and a product of the deep south, I grew up always feeling alone and alienated. Later in life I figured out the reason I felt so 'outside the pale'. I refected this simpering, asexual image of the southern belle. Reading a memoir such as this makes one realize that depression, and even suicide, are sometimes the result of trying to fit into this too-restrictive mold. A recent study showed that female students are on a par with male students (or even ahead of them, academically) until they reach puberty. I wonder how much of our spiritual, intellectual and creative growth is stifled along with our sexuality by trying vainly to fit into this stereotype? This book, along with others, such as Erica Jong's Fear Of Flying, and Marilyn French's Her Mother's Daughter, will pave the way for others to write openly and rebelliously about their own experiences of grwoing up in this oppressive, restrictive society. Perhaps books like this will eventually break the final taboos against southern female sexuality. A must read for anyone who wants an honest appraisal of our ever-emerging female psyche. I highly recommend this fook.

In Fatal Flowers, Rosemary Daniell confronts reality as she shares her own struggles with the bondage of Southern womanhood. She does so in a shockingly honest way. She takes her readers on a sexual tour of the South as she suffers through the pain of her own life and that of her mother. Her book made me more able to confront the truths of my own life.

A Triumph To Honesty

Rosemary Daniell's memoir, Fatal Flowers, resonates with an honesty that strips away the stereotypical image foisted onto women, especially southern women, over centuries of male-dominated myth-making and so, image-making. A product of the deep south, born in 1936, I grew up always feeling alone and alienated. Later in life 1 figured out the reason I felt so `outside the pale'. I rejected this simpering, asexual image of the southern belle. Reading a memoir such as this makes one realize that depression, and even suicide, are sometimes the result of trying to fit into this too-restrictive mold. A recent study showed that female students are on a par with male students (or even ahead of them, academically) until they reach puberty. I wonder how much of our spiritual, intellectual and creative growth is stifled along with our sexuality by trying vainly to fit into this stereotype?. This book, along with others, such as Erica Jong's Fear Of Flying, and Marilyn French's, Her Mother's Daughter, will pave the way for others to write openly and rebelliously about their own experiences of growing up in this oppressive, restrictive society. Perhaps books like this will eventually break the final taboos against southern female sexuality. A must read for anyone who wants an honest appraisal of our ever-emerging female psyche. I highly recommend this book; five stars rating.

This is a chronicle of writer Rosemary Daniell's life. Subjects we wouldn't dare discuss in public like sexuality are discussed so frankly. Gosh, the world has waited too long for a great work like this. She touches on subjects like the criteria for the feminine woman, the pure image of women that was maintained in the South( even though this is one of those universal cultural traits), as well as literature ,particularly Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, that has visioned the South as some polite haven with delicate, feminine women. Other tough topics tackled is the cultural trait of woman as the modest, passive supplicant to the dominant, sexually aggressive man ( I am sorry I can't explain in complete sentences: I am not that eloquent) as well as her curiosity in her own sexuality.

Of course, honesty comes with a price: unpleasantness. Her life is certainly not pretty. But a good dose of reality can be nourishing.

Rosemary Daniell's memoir of her life as a Southern woman is unlike any that exists in literature. Because she has told it like it really is. For those readers who are interested in the truth about women in the South--and women everywhere--this book is for you.

Great autobiographical account of one woman's determination to live her life as she wants in the deep South. Lots of family examination; sometimes painful to read. This book offered me a different array of information and answers in 2010 than it did when I first read it 30 years ago. Its content has held up well, though I am sure some younger folks will be baffled at the author's behavior in the 1970's. We were all like that to some extent at that time.