Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Oakdale Library | 814.54 WHI | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | 814.54 WHI | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Offers a collection of humorous stories about Southern characters, places, and goings-on, from leaky mansions to fishing camps to one-room schoolhouses.
Author Notes
Bailey White teaches elementary school in south Georgia, her writing has appeared in many magazines and newspapers, and her bestselling book Mama Makes Up Her Mind was nominated for the Southern Book Award and the ABBY Award. She is also a regular commentator on National Public Radio's All things Considered.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
NPR commentator and first-grade teacher White (Mama Makes Up Her Mind) here explores the many quirks of the human psyche and the richness and variety of American landscapes. A series of sketches, originals and reprints from Smithsonian and other magazines, recounts her experiences in Virginia, Vermont, Los Angeles and elsewhere but mostly focuses on people and places in and around her native Thomasville, Georgia. There the lives and personalities of local ``characters'' reflect the intersection of tradition and change in the small-town South. From the 1931 Rose Queen, who still feels that her title gives her the prerogative to pick flowers out of municipal rose beds, to the upstanding Baptist schoolteacher who drags White with her when playing hooky from her computer training course to attend dog races, to the rural folk artist whose hauntingly lovely statues sit in White's yard, White brings to life a host of often odd but always engaging personalities. Her vignettes illuminate the complexities of human relationships and the immense satisfaction that can be derived from an appreciation of nature. Author tour. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Quirky and evocative sketches that capture the human spirit and the passing of a simpler and more genteel era. Drawing upon the people and places around her, White (Mama Makes Up Her Mind, not reviewed), a first-grade teacher and NPR commentator, creates a picture of American life, from portraits of family members to landscapes as diverse as northern Vermont and the Florida Everglades. Set primarily in the South, these mostly brief essays explore the passage of time and our attitudes and beliefs about the past. The voice is that of the native child, comfortable with the pace and aware of the region's history and lifestyle. In vignettes populated by eccentric characters and recounting zany situations, the reader encounters a former Rose Queen who daily relives her high school graduation while picking roses from municipal parks; a newly rich cousin intent on reuniting for his new mansion a set of Chippendale chairs that has been spread out among many family members; and an old southern woman who allows her once magnificent home to deteriorate around her and the house's eventual restoration to its former glory. These stories are written with respect and affection, and White never falls into the trap of turning her unusual characters into caricatures. The title sketch, the last in the book, is one of the more self-consciously philosophical in the collection, and seems to belong to another group of stories, until it becomes clear that herein lies the point of the book: Life is just a one-night stay in a modest motel, but the ice is free, a breeze ripples the water of the pool, and peaceful dreams are dreamt there. Focusing on the brevity of life, White reminds her readers that every moment has its unique value.
Booklist Review
Those who made Mama Makes Up Her Mind (1993) a surprise best-seller will be happy to know that the alligator Aunt Belle trained to bellow for a treat returns in this book. Not many of the other real-life characters from Mama do, though, not even indomitable Mama herself. Maybe that's because White's sketches this time report excursions about town, region, nation, even the world: in the very first piece, she reveals that she regularly whisks over to Paris to visit a friend, then adds that her earliest memory is of seeing in a Pompeii museum (Pompeii, Italy) a dog that was turned into charcoal by Vesuvius. The little lady's been around. But she refracts her experiences through the prism of her own bemused, wry, warmly human humor. She's rather a classical humorist: she vividly renders the peculiar temperament of each person she writes about--she gives the unique "feel" of a character in a particular situation rather than a rounded characterization--and sometimes the effect of her humor is other than funny. But always, like a good surrealist painting, a Bailey White sketch makes an indelible impression, and usually it is funny to boot. (Reviewed Apr. 1, 1995)0201626705Montezuma Re{{‚}}vanche
