Due South

"Southerners respect tradition, know the value of a good story. We admire the written word because we still have among us some who are not too far removed from a time when our land was ravaged, our people destitute and hungry, and writing was the only thing there was to do. Perhaps that's why we also place such importance on knowing our lineage. Down here, we try to derive our identity not from our possessions, but from our roots--not what we have, but who we are. That's because our forebears learned a long time ago that everything else is expendable."
--from Due South

Scott Brunner spent countless childhood afternoons roaming the hills and hollows of his grandparents' small farm near Parrish, Alabama, picking peas, fishing with his grandfather, and eating his grandmother's fried apple pies. Those experiences, and others like them, formed the basis for the unforgettable essays that make up this book.

In Due South, Brunner offers a wonderful collection of warm and wise observations and reminiscences about life, family, relationships, and Southern culture and language. From the all-purpose Southern disclaimer "Bless your heart!" (as in "Bless her heart, Kathie Lee didn't know those clothes were made by nine-year-old Honduran children") to the particular exoticism of Southern town and county names (like Eastaboga, Nitta Yuma, and Hot Coffee) to the universal fine points of family life ("Why can't diapers come with an indicator telling you what's inside?"; "Why won't my twenty-month-old daughter eat meat?"), Due South finds humor, insight, and inspiration in the details of life as it is lived day in and day out.

As satisfying, soothing, and occasionally surprising as a dish of turnip greens with a dash of pepper sauce, Due South is a book to be read and savored.

R. Scott Brunner is a commentator on Public Radio in Mississippi and National Public Radio's All Things Considered. A Bessemer, Alabama, native, he is a graduate of the University of Montevallo and Auburn University at Montgomery. He is an association executive in Jackson, Mississippi, where he lives with his wife and their three children.