Product Description

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 admired writers in the country. Florence may have been a disappointment to her Granny, whose dream of rearing a Perfect Southern Lady would never be quite fulfilled. But after all, as Florence reminds us, "no matter which sex I went to bed with, I never smoked on the street."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47053 in Books
• Published on: 1990-10-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 278 pages

Review
"The damndest adventures in autobiography hilarity to come down the pike in recent years...She is a Bombeck with bite, a female Art Bushwald with Southern sass, an A-one original American humorist down to her wicked, wicked bones." --Susan Brownmiller

"An outrageous commentator on men, women, and other sources of amusement, particularly the Southern variety...Florence King never loses her warmth, her humor, or her ability to be delighted by life's inherent contradictions." --Chicago Sun-Time

"Miss King, who lives in Virginia, is among the few writers who can make you laugh and gasp out loud...She is a social commentator who wipes away the thick-as-molasses layers of Southern sham...Write on, Miss King." --Chattanooga Times

"She lesves more Old South traditions in shreds than Gen. William T. Sherman...Confessions of Failed Southern Lady should appeal to all belles, Southern not, failed or not." --Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Witty, intelligent, freewheeling...Surely the author told these stories before she wrote them, stretching and perfecting them with each telling, mining them for humor." --Newsday
-- Review

Review

Customer Reviews

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.

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.