In a rich blend of memoir and meditation, Abbott focuses her graceful and witty attention on mothers and daughters of the South. Theirs is a world of red dirt and backbreaking chores and roof-raising revival meetings - a far cry from the magnolias and mint juleps of Gone with the Wind. "The South of the backwoods, hillbilly plain folk has at last found its true and inspired interpreter," says C. Vann Woodward.