num_pages: 336
description: A lyrical and evocative memoir from Frances Mayes the Bard of Tuscany about coming of age in the Deep South and the regions powerful influence on her life.The author of three beloved books about her life in Italy including Under the Tuscan Sun and Every Day in Tuscany  Frances Mayes revisits the turning points that defined her early years in Fitzgerald Georgia. With her signature style and grace Mayes explores the power of landscape the idea of home and the lasting force of a chaotic and loving family.From her years as a spirited secretive child through her university studiesa period of exquisite freedom that imbued her with a profound appreciation of friendship and a love of travelto her escape to a new life in California Mayes exuberantly recreates the intense relationships of her past recounting the bitter and sweet stories of her complicated her beautiful yet fragile mother Frankye; her unpredictable father Garbert; Daddy Jack whose life Garbert saved; grandmother Mother Mayes; and the family maid Francess confidant Willie Bell.Under Magnolia is a searingly honest humorous and moving ode to family and place and a thoughtful meditation on the ways they define us or cause us to define ourselves. With acute sensory language Mayes relishes the sweetness of the South the smells and tastes at her family table the fragrance of her hometown trees and writes an unforgettable story of a girl whose perspicacity and dawning self-knowledge lead her out of the South and into the rest of the world and then to a profound return home.
language: English
title: Under Magnolia: A Southern Memoir
publisher: Crown