Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady: A Memoir

by Florence King

Book Overview

Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady is Florence King's classic memoir of her upbringing in an eccentric Southern family, told with all the uproarious wit and gusto that has made her one of the most... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312050631
• Release Date: October 1990
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 278 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.7" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

I think she succeeded admirably

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.

A modern classic

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!

Wonderful - A unique reading experience

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.

If you've never lived here, you'd never believe it...

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!

Wicked, hilarious and rings so true

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.