Customer Reviews

Southern Ladies & Gentlemen

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Although I'm a lifelong Richmonder, I have to admit that much of the Southern mindset confounded me as I grew up. Perhaps this was because I grew up in the '50s and '60s when television showed us a wider world, so I viewed the provincial quirks of family and neighbors as being just that. I was taught by Miss Frances, Buffalo Bob, and Captain Kangaroo, and saw the Cleavers and the Andersons, and their heartland towns of Mayfield and Springfield as "normal." The media SHOWED one set of accepted behaviors and I was TAUGHT another by relatives from Richmond and Charleston. ("The REAL Chawleston, my deah, not that one in Wes' Vuhginyah!) Perhaps my confusion also stemmed from the fact that many of my playmates were children of transplants and also saw a larger world. Whatever the reason, so much of what went on around me defied logic of any kind. Reading this book as a young adult, however, cleared up every mystery for me. Now it all makes sense. (Southern sense, that is!), and I've been privileged over the years to have enjoyed a friendly written correspondence with Miss King. This lady knows her stuff. The book is a must-have for anyone who plans on spending any measureable amount of time in the South, or for anyone who needs a good laugh at the human condition. Perhaps those of you from other environments might not hoot and cackle as knowingly, but believe me, you'll still hoot and cackle!

Today, when I checked Amazon.com for another copy of Southern Ladies and Gentlemen it came to mind that this will be the nineteenth copy I have purchased since the late 1970's when I found the book at the Birmingham Public Library in the Travel section. I keep buying them and then lending them and never getting them back. For some reason my friends never manage to return them. The bittersweet truth is I married two "Good Ole Boys", have done the cemetary crawl, know first hand about the "Upton Womb" and aspire to become a "Dear Old Thing" within the next decade. My best friend in college could have been Florence King's mother and my own mother was related by spirit to Granny. No matter how many times I read this book, I still laugh until I cry. This time, I will not lend the book. I will not lend the book. I will not lend the book.

Florence King and the late Molly Ivins were the two funniest contemporary American writers. Miss King writes for the _National Review_, and Ms. Ivins wrote for _The Progressive_.

When I moved to the South to attend graduate school, I dutifully read _The Mind of the South_, to ready myself. I was utterly unprepared nevertheless. I simply had never met people who talked about their ancestors, or didn't know the price of a movie ticket because: "Mah escort always buys the tickets!"

Then, a kind soul told me to read _Southern Ladies and Gentleman_. After reading it, nothing Southern surprised me. Thanks to Miss King, I knew about the tombstone twitch, i.e. geneaologists who desperately wanted to prove they had royal blood, self-rejuvenating virgins, why you never, ever cross
a Dowager, Rock or a Dear Old Thing--three varieties of southern old ladies, and the Pert Plague, that is the tendency of some southern women to shriek loudly and at length about the strangest things. This behavior will greatly puzzle anyone who is a stranger to the south. If you read _Southern Ladies and Gentlemen_, gentle reader, you will UNDERSTAND.

So, if you are about to spend substantial amounts of time south of the Mason-Dixon line, spare yourself much anxiety, and read this book. I predict that once you have read this title, you will immediately want to read everything Miss King has written.

It's a comical examination of the south, written with a stilleto rather than a pen. And yet, that stilleto is an elegant instrument. Florence King is a wonderful writer.



Miss King, I beg of you, write another book, please. Soon.

Southern Ladies and Gentlemen was the first book by Miss King that I read. Since that time several years ago I have read every title I could find. S L&G is a laugh out loud, wipe the tears from your eyes look at a group of people that I have always thought to be just a little boring. How wrong I was. After looking at them through Miss King's eyes and with the help of her biting humor and mastery of the language, I always look forward to my travels in the south. It seems I can almost point out the folks in Miss King's book and I find myself trying to classify them according to her "system". I'm a professional pilot and although I usually have one of Miss King's books with me to read on layovers, I don't dare peek at one when I'm on the flight deck. Belly laughs aren't appreciated there.

Florence King defines the southern lady and gentleman, in each of their various incarnations, to a "tee" in this riotous book. The perfect gift for any yankee who's been transplanted and can't seem to figure out his neighbors. And a journey of self discovery for any southerner who appreciates a good laugh--and a little irony. Funny how little we have changed in the thirty years since it was first published.

I was first given this book when I had just moved to NYC from Georgia. My first time leaving the South. My Mississippi-born singing coach loaned me this book, since I was feeling homesick. I laughed out loud so much while reading this on the New York subway that people backed away from me! I managed to scare New Yorkers!! (even if they don't understand that Southern freeze look) It is still hystercially funny after a dozen years of reading it.Buy every one of Florence King's books. They are all wonderfully funny and frighteningly accurate about far too many of my own relatives!

It's interesting to go back and read some of Florence King's earlier works. This book is clearly from the beginning of her writing career: Her writing is not as sharp as it was in her column ("The Misanthrope's Corner"), and she occasionally tends to delve into long spells of almost too much information.

That said, "Southern Ladies and Gentlemen" was one of the funniest books I've ever read. As a Northerner (and infatuated with the South), this book is an insightful - and hilarious - glimpse into every-day Southern culture. After a couple trips to the South, and then reading this book, I can see where her descriptions come from - and how frighteningly (and laughably) accurate they are.

While this book is occasionally punctuated with the sexual remark (or "saucy outburst"), the point is still very much in the text: The South has a very regimented set of codes for its citizens to follow. Women, all at once, have to be scatterbrained and pert, "saucy" and chaste...This balancing act, of course, is written about numerous times throughout the book.

This is an introduction to the South, letting the reader get a sneak-peek behind the scenes, so to speak, of the social, sexual, and political culture. As is King's way, it is full of sarcasm, wit, and hilarity: She does an excellent job of entertaining the reader.

In this book which candidly reveals every detail of existence in the southern lifestyle, I have found more unforgettable humor and perceptions than any other form of entertainment I have yet witnessed (barring Ellen Degeneras' latest HBO comedy special). It is as if King just sat down one day, with a boiling sense of her troubled but well protected youth, and wrote. Wrote endlessly and without thinking, just sketched the facts and did not leave anything out for the sake of being proper. Stories of people who"are just staying awhile" and how southern homes are full of people who took two years to drink a glass of milk.She explains that "Sears sells more camp mattresses and foam rubber pallets in the south thatn anywhere else in the country." Her honesty concerning her parents,her horrific and clinical accounts of Southern myths regarding pregnancy and sex and all that nasty stuff, her shere generosity in sharing truths of human nature, all work together to form a wonderfully magestic and important work of art. Read this book. please.

I discovered Florence King years ago...and I LOVE her. She has an incredible insight into the workings of the Southern male and female and I howl with laughter every time I read this book!

If you love a Southern woman and are trying desperately to figure her out, this is a perfect handbook for your trip to Tara. If you're a Southern woman and want the comfort of knowing that you are not alone in your strangeness, this is the book for you, sister.

I recommend this book to all my friends. They have called me in hysterics and have asked for a "tilted womb" club.

Florence King is a master!

I've read this book about a dozen times, and it still cracks me up. If you're at all interested in the unique culture and people of the South, you just have to buy this book! You will find many, many people in it that you are either related to or have known your entire life.