I was looking for something more recent by White but she doesn’t seem to have done anything other than a christmasy book since her heyday in the late 90’s. So I reread this because everyone needs to have an aunt who teaches an alligator to bellow on command and a mother who… well Ms. White is a force of nature but often that nature is mostly without reference to modern mores and conventions. Most of these pieces aren’t really long enough to be stories, they are more in the line of anecdotes. But the little bits of southern life and the eccentricity of Bailey and her relatives are worth while.
(pub. 1994)
* Mama’s mind is a weird and wonderful place — just don’t stand too close *