Deep Dixie Book

I stayed up well into the morning reading "Deep Dixie" by Annie Jones, because I just couldn't seem to put it down. It was making me smile. It was making me laugh. And it was making me remember.

The characters in DD are special in very many ways. They are somewhat stereotypical, but in a good way. They are very "Southern" in the way that is best about the South. Where many southern inspired books lean more towards the inbred, cruel, violent, uneducated, deeply prejudiced, women bashing, 'good-old-boys beating up the blacks and gays' sort of southern mentality (hey, I grew up there, I can say these things!) DD instead explores the other side of the South. The side where manners are expected, gentility is overlaid over a base of steel, kindness is a given, and morality isn't a joke. I genuinely liked and admired all of these characters. Well, except for the sleazy lawyer, but I enjoyed watching him having his evil plot blow up in his face (see 'women bashing' above), so it's all good!

The main character, Dixie, is strong, self-reliant, and strong willed as any true Southern Belle. Velvet over steel. She just lost her beloved father and now has three companies to run on her own, a nasty attorney trying to undermine her and take over her companies and a house full of insane relatives to ride herd on.

The main male lead is strong and handsome (of course) but he is also funny, gentle, loving and deeply determined to do the right thing for his family no matter the cost to himself. Of course, you know a relationship will develop, but it does so in such a funny and charming way that you know that Dixie will still BE Dixie after all is said and done. And he has his own family issues, a 'daughter' he took as his own when his useless sister abandoned her at two days old in the hospital, a tough southern lady mother with a broken hip and a strong need to get a real adoption completed so that he really can be 'father' to the daughter he has raised so well. Throw in some attorney mischief.

"That was before you realized that Greenhow had made just as big a monkey out of you as he had me. Now suddenly it doesn't seem like a laughing matter, does it?"

Add in some prototypical insane southern relatives:

". . . he picked up the(business)card and read aloud, "George Robert 'Smilin' Bob' Cunningham. Principal Judge, Miss Fulton's finest Future Furniture Fanatic (baby and toddler division), chief Justice Dominion Days Bail and Jail Fundraising court, Little League umpire, Mediating matters of all magnitude since 1978!"

See what I mean? Add a marvelous rendering of a 100-year-old black 'maid' who has been with the family since childhood, and a tragedy of true Southern Gothic proportions. Mix well with a depth of kindness, caring and consideration missing in most of the books I have read since I can't remember when. Tons of laughter, some surprises that I could see coming, but not exactly in the way they turned out to have happened, terrific writing overall and a ton of true heart. Overall, this was one of the most truly lovely books I have read in ages. And Dixie retains her guts, her spirit, her gentle kindness and her drive to do the right thing throughout the book - what more can you ask?

Highly recommended to anyone who wants a feel of the good parts of the South and the people there