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jodiguerra's review against another edition
5.0
Richard Grant is a British journalist and author fascinated by the ironies of Natchez, MS. He is friends with Regina Charboneau, a Natchez socialite, cookbook author, and business woman. While visiting her, he begins a quest to understand this full-of-contradictions Southern town.
As noted in the book jacket, Natchez “once ad more millionaires per capita than anywhere in America, and its wealth was built on cotton and slavery.” The social scene for white citizens swirls around fundraising to keep up the many antebellum plantation mansions in what is likely the only matriarchy in the US. The black citizenry sometimes rails, sometimes participates, in these spectacles. Natchez faces financial battles and upheaval as it tries to cope with its past and somehow work together to build a better future.
This book, even before I received it, interested me because I already knew Natchez was a close cousin to that other distinctly weird and wild Southern city, Savannah. I know this because my mother was born in Natchez, and Mississippi is always a place full of contradictions. As Grant notes, it has produced per capita “more great writers and musicians...than any other state in America -- and in blown psychological gaskets and erratic behavior.” And while John Berendt had a murder in a mansion in Savannah to anchor his story “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” (a must read!), Grant has his own completely off the wall cast of characters including elderly women in hoop skirts, the only police chauffeured drunk-driving escapade of Santa Clauses that I’m aware of, haunted houses, visits to cemeteries, gay mayors, frustrated activists, and feuding garden clubs.
Grant weaves the story of Prince Ibrahim, a royal son of Africa, who finds himself enslaved and working on a plantation in Natchez. His tale is the haunting backdrop to the current state of affairs Grant also explores.
While reminiscent of “Confederates in the Attic,” this book is more direct but just as fun. If you like Southern history or travel tales, you will like this book!
As noted in the book jacket, Natchez “once ad more millionaires per capita than anywhere in America, and its wealth was built on cotton and slavery.” The social scene for white citizens swirls around fundraising to keep up the many antebellum plantation mansions in what is likely the only matriarchy in the US. The black citizenry sometimes rails, sometimes participates, in these spectacles. Natchez faces financial battles and upheaval as it tries to cope with its past and somehow work together to build a better future.
This book, even before I received it, interested me because I already knew Natchez was a close cousin to that other distinctly weird and wild Southern city, Savannah. I know this because my mother was born in Natchez, and Mississippi is always a place full of contradictions. As Grant notes, it has produced per capita “more great writers and musicians...than any other state in America -- and in blown psychological gaskets and erratic behavior.” And while John Berendt had a murder in a mansion in Savannah to anchor his story “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” (a must read!), Grant has his own completely off the wall cast of characters including elderly women in hoop skirts, the only police chauffeured drunk-driving escapade of Santa Clauses that I’m aware of, haunted houses, visits to cemeteries, gay mayors, frustrated activists, and feuding garden clubs.
Grant weaves the story of Prince Ibrahim, a royal son of Africa, who finds himself enslaved and working on a plantation in Natchez. His tale is the haunting backdrop to the current state of affairs Grant also explores.
While reminiscent of “Confederates in the Attic,” this book is more direct but just as fun. If you like Southern history or travel tales, you will like this book!
alsmilesalot's review against another edition
I have just so enjoyed Grant’s writing (this and ‘Dispatches’ thus far). What a great storyteller! He is compassionate about a very challenging (and eccentric) place and clearly genuinely interested in understanding it, not just reporting the ‘juicy bits’ (of which there are plenty).
Learned a lot about my home state and about Natchez (which I think I’ve only ever been to once—my loss!)
I especially loved the structure of this book with the alternating story-/time-lines!
Learned a lot about my home state and about Natchez (which I think I’ve only ever been to once—my loss!)
I especially loved the structure of this book with the alternating story-/time-lines!
greyt_things's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
ceeemvee's review against another edition
4.0
The Deepest South of All: True Stories from Natchez, Mississippi by Richard Grant (4 Stars)
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.
I couldn’t put this one down! Written by bestselling travel writer Richard Grant, this is a glimpse into the town of Natchez, Mississippi. Natchez once had more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in America, with its wealth built on cotton and the backs of slaves. At one time, it had the second-largest slave market in the south. Today, it is a dichotomy of liberalism, having elected its first gay black mayor with 91% of the vote, yet still dressing up in hoopskirts and Confederate uniforms to keep tradition alive, and ignoring outrageously insensitive and appalling displays of racism (such as a 28’ mammy building that is a restaurant).
This book chronicles Natchez history then and now. Natchez is full of beautiful antebellum homes, and I found myself looking each one up so I could picture it as I read. Indeed, it is hard to reconcile the beauty with the slavery that made it all possible.
The most fascinating part of the book was the life and times of Abdul-Rahman ibn Ibrahima Sori, of royal lineage and captured as a slave in Fouta Jallon, Guinea, West Africa. Upon learning of his nobility, his master named him Prince. Prince spent 40 years as a slave before being freed and returning home with his wife, leaving the rest of his family behind. I won’t spoil the story with any more details.
Present-day Natchez is full of eccentric characters:
The wealthy society women who run the two rival garden clubs and raise funds for preservation. Their antics to upstage each other reads like fraternity pranks.
A 6-5” antique dealer who enters a clothing store, drops his gloves on the ground for his manservant to pick-up, then drops his cane, then allows his mink coat to drop to the floor in a puddle.
Nellie Jackson, a black woman who openly operated a brothel for 60 years. She and her “girls” reported to the FBI all the pillowtalk heard from KKK members.
A couple who decorates 167 Christmas trees with costume jewelry.
A former concert pianist who suffered a hand injury and had a complete mental collapse. He turned his home into a hovel that crumbled around him and wore nothing but a burlap sack with a hole cut for his head.
The list goes on.
Racism is addressed by Grant, giving both black and white viewpoints. And, as we all know, there isn’t any easy fix. We each need to try and make our little corner of the world a better place.
https://candysplanet.wordpress.com/
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.
I couldn’t put this one down! Written by bestselling travel writer Richard Grant, this is a glimpse into the town of Natchez, Mississippi. Natchez once had more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in America, with its wealth built on cotton and the backs of slaves. At one time, it had the second-largest slave market in the south. Today, it is a dichotomy of liberalism, having elected its first gay black mayor with 91% of the vote, yet still dressing up in hoopskirts and Confederate uniforms to keep tradition alive, and ignoring outrageously insensitive and appalling displays of racism (such as a 28’ mammy building that is a restaurant).
This book chronicles Natchez history then and now. Natchez is full of beautiful antebellum homes, and I found myself looking each one up so I could picture it as I read. Indeed, it is hard to reconcile the beauty with the slavery that made it all possible.
The most fascinating part of the book was the life and times of Abdul-Rahman ibn Ibrahima Sori, of royal lineage and captured as a slave in Fouta Jallon, Guinea, West Africa. Upon learning of his nobility, his master named him Prince. Prince spent 40 years as a slave before being freed and returning home with his wife, leaving the rest of his family behind. I won’t spoil the story with any more details.
Present-day Natchez is full of eccentric characters:
The wealthy society women who run the two rival garden clubs and raise funds for preservation. Their antics to upstage each other reads like fraternity pranks.
A 6-5” antique dealer who enters a clothing store, drops his gloves on the ground for his manservant to pick-up, then drops his cane, then allows his mink coat to drop to the floor in a puddle.
Nellie Jackson, a black woman who openly operated a brothel for 60 years. She and her “girls” reported to the FBI all the pillowtalk heard from KKK members.
A couple who decorates 167 Christmas trees with costume jewelry.
A former concert pianist who suffered a hand injury and had a complete mental collapse. He turned his home into a hovel that crumbled around him and wore nothing but a burlap sack with a hole cut for his head.
The list goes on.
Racism is addressed by Grant, giving both black and white viewpoints. And, as we all know, there isn’t any easy fix. We each need to try and make our little corner of the world a better place.
https://candysplanet.wordpress.com/
lewnie's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.25
ellaharris37's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
slower paced BUT it was so good. Natchez is such an interesting little town and an embodiment of faulkner’s quote “the past is never dead, it’s not even past.” i wish some of the chapters were a bit shorter but overall i loved it
jacobpark's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.75
lonestarwords's review against another edition
5.0
It's just the south. There's no point in trying to explain it.
The Deepest South of All
Richard Grant
•
I don't remember where I stumbled upon this book but the minute I did I knew I had to read it immediately. An expose of Natchez, Mississippi, I listened to this start to finish almost without stopping.
•
Natchez was one of the cities we visited after moving south and it is a walk through history as many of the town squares look much as they might have two hundred years ago; preservation is something Natchez has worked hard to achieve. But Natchez has a complicated past and The Deepest South of All explores how a city with it's roots deeply seated in slavery moves towards a future that incorporates a dark history.
•
Natchez is an eclectic southern city full of bigger than life characters, Antebellum homes, and some very southern traditions. It is full of contradictions, from long ingrained southern rituals involving hoop skirts and home tours yet Natchez also overwhelmingly elected a gay black mayor. Grant spends a lot of time highlighting Greg Iles, author of The Natchez Trilogy (a series I loved) and how he has made peace with his home city-- I found this to be one of the most interesting parts of the book.
•
The narration was absolutely stellar; it felt both like a history lesson and a travel journal. Natchez is full of both shame and hope and The Deepest South of All did a fantastic job exploring both. William Faulkner’s quote “the past is never past dead” seems written with a city like Natchez in mind. 5 huge stars.
The Deepest South of All
Richard Grant
•
I don't remember where I stumbled upon this book but the minute I did I knew I had to read it immediately. An expose of Natchez, Mississippi, I listened to this start to finish almost without stopping.
•
Natchez was one of the cities we visited after moving south and it is a walk through history as many of the town squares look much as they might have two hundred years ago; preservation is something Natchez has worked hard to achieve. But Natchez has a complicated past and The Deepest South of All explores how a city with it's roots deeply seated in slavery moves towards a future that incorporates a dark history.
•
Natchez is an eclectic southern city full of bigger than life characters, Antebellum homes, and some very southern traditions. It is full of contradictions, from long ingrained southern rituals involving hoop skirts and home tours yet Natchez also overwhelmingly elected a gay black mayor. Grant spends a lot of time highlighting Greg Iles, author of The Natchez Trilogy (a series I loved) and how he has made peace with his home city-- I found this to be one of the most interesting parts of the book.
•
The narration was absolutely stellar; it felt both like a history lesson and a travel journal. Natchez is full of both shame and hope and The Deepest South of All did a fantastic job exploring both. William Faulkner’s quote “the past is never past dead” seems written with a city like Natchez in mind. 5 huge stars.