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Learning to Speak Southern

A Novel

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

A searing Southern story about confronting the difference between the family you're born into and the family you choose, from the acclaimed author of How to Bury Your Brother

Lex fled Memphis years ago, making ends meet with odd jobs teaching English around the world. She only returns when she has no choice, when her godmother presents her with a bargain she can't refuse. Lex has never understood her mother, who died tragically right before Lex's college graduation, but now she's got a chance to read her journals, to try and figure out what sent her mother spiraling all those years ago.

The Memphis that Lex inhabits is more bourbon and bbq joint than sweet tea on front porches, and as she pieces together the Memphis her mother knew, seeing the lure of the world through her mother's lush writing, she must confront more of her own past and the people she left behind. Once all is laid bare, Lex must decide for herself: What is the true meaning of family?

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    • Library Journal

      June 4, 2021

      Lex has been traveling the world since graduating college. She'll go anywhere but home: Memphis, TN. Rather than facing her mother's unsettling death, she immerses herself in words, creating a lexicon of her own lived experience. Yet after a heartbreak and with help from her godmother Cami, Lex returns to Memphis for what she assumes will be a short visit. Instead, Cami gives Lex the opportunity to learn her mother's life story. Through her mother's own words in diary entries from before Lex was born, this daughter begins to question who she is and how many ways there are to define family. A quick and intimate read, Cook's second novel (after How To Bury Your Brother) embraces the classic story of a daughter realizing that within her mother was a woman she never knew, who was as spirited and strong-willed as Lex herself. Though the plot is predictable, this isn't frustrating. The familiarity and assurance that you know what's coming is rewarding and endears the characters to the reader. VERDICT Readers of Southern and women's fiction will become deeply immersed in this mother-daughter narrative.--Shannon Marie Robinson, Fisher Fine Arts Lib., Penn Libs., Univ. of Pennsylvania Philadelphia

      Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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  • English

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