From Manhattan to Mississippi: A New Yorker Falls in Love with the South

By Daisy Karam-Read

Book Overview

When Daisy left the razzle-dazzle of New York City to move to Mississippi, she took a huge leap of faith. Daisy Karam-Read, an urbanite to the core, thrived on Manhattan's fast tempo and glamour, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1934193097
• ISBN13: 9781934193099
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Quail Ridge Press
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.4" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Hospitality in the South

When I read the title, I knew I had to buy this book for my "7th year in the south" daughter-in-law from upstate New York. My husband, much like Daisy's, loves for me to read to him as we're traveling. I read (aloud) as we drove from Memphis to North Carolina/Virginia, and we loved it! Here,in the south, we feel it is our privilege and our duty, to make sure our 'Yankee transplants' find their niche and 'fall in love with the southern family, neighbors and friends.' We're looking forward to the next book from this young lady!

Delightful

A delightful read on a subject I've never given much thought to. The style of prose is easily read, intelligent in language and the topic one that, much to my surprise, deserves an audience. Thanks to Daisy, I'll make it a point to visit Mississippi and very soon.

Hoosier Discovers Mississipi Through a New Yorker's Eyes

Reviewed by Robert Beardsley, President The Ruthmere Foundation, Inc. Elkhart, IN All dessert and no spinach first, this slender volume is an inviting introduction to a state until now I knew little about. Like Antarctica, I know where Mississippi is but I have never been there. Thanks to Miss Daisy I want to go tomorrow. "In Mississippi there are no strangers--only new friends to meet." In clipped, stylish prose, our writer first introduces her new husband, a gentlemanly reincarnation of Rhett Butler. Like Ruth, she follows him to his homeland, leaving behind without regret the glitz and concrete canyons of her earlier fast-paced life in the City. With charm and sensitive humor she introduces his people and their kind, gentle ways. Chapter by chapter, we explore the ways and byways of this large, fertile state, its food and topography. The Mississippi Gulf Coast despite the ravages of Hurricane Katrina still sounds gorgeous. In "Ol' Mississip" yesterday and today live comfortably together. The hoop skirts are gone but Southern Belles with their practiced and effective charm do survive. More importantly, racial integration and all the good that comes from it seems to be working here. Her impressions are warm, intimate, and inviting. There is more to America than New York, California, Florida and Kansas and Daisy tells us where to find it. I come from Indiana but now I want to savor Mississippi. This is December reading with a glass of wine by the fire after dinner. Don't miss "Tastes of the South". Gumbo, jambalaya, sweetened tea, bacon juice, yes, bacon juice, Vidalia onions, crawfish and shrimp soufflés alone will make you hustle south to explore the gustatory, scenic and social pleasures of this beautiful part of our country. More, please, Miss Daisy!

An Exceptional Raconteur

From Manhattan to Mississippi - from this Manhattanite's perspective - is a delightful tale of scores of unexpected treasures revealed in a Southern Gulf Coast State. The riches discovered there are not material for the most part but are more cultural and civilizing. Karam Read intoxicates you with unanticipated stories of unyielding refinement and propriety intermingled through all classes of Mississippian society. This discerning glance into a world many believe no longer exists can easily be consumed in one sitting and I highly recommend the read.

A charming read for those on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line

When New Yorker Daisy Karam-Read fell for a southern lawyer in 1998, she never imagined she would fall in love with his home state, too. A decade later, the urbanite who once viewed Mississippi as "decades behind the times, benightedly entrenched in the values of the antebellum South," has published a charmingly readable book of essays to the contrary. You don't have to hail from the Magnolia State to enjoy Karam-Read's _From Manhattan to Mississippi_. While she celebrates the state's iconic symbols, such as expansive verandahs and ancient oak trees, the beauty of this little book is Karam-Read's observations of Mississippi's people. They are gracious, tolerant, well-mannered, unhurried. The men adore their mothers and "have the most glorious speaking voices anywhere." The women "know how to exercise restraint when making a new acquaintance," as opposed to many urbanites who "begin aggressively questioning a person they've just met." Karam-Read also posits that southerners are not as self-obsessed and "overpsychologized" as people in New York or Los Angeles. (That's probably because she's married into a particularly earthbound circle of family and friends ... believe me, narcissism is alive and well in the South.) Flexible enough to transition from being "too chic to eat" to loving pecan pie, Karam-Read is an agile writer as well. She easily alternates breeze (ladies' hats, bacon grease) and gravitas (the Civil War, Hurricane Katrina) to bring meaning and understanding to Mississippi. She shatters many myths along the way, but in a style as gentle as the people she's come to so admire. For example, she doesn't remind northerners, as she could have and maybe should have, that New York was the capital of American slavery for more than two centuries. Obviously, Karam-Read is as gracious and well-mannered as her new friends and neighbors. Perhaps that's why she is so drawn to them. _From Manhattan to Mississippi_ ends powerfully, with reflections on Katrina. Karam-Read, who lost her home in the hurricane, vividly and painfully describes its life-altering destruction. But she chooses not to surrender to it - a sign that she really has become a part of Mississippi, as much as it's become a part of her. Whether you live north or south of the Mason-Dixon line, this is an enjoyable, worth-your-time read.