Bless Your Heart: A Field Guide to All Things Southern by Landon Bryant

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

First a confession:  I hadn’t heard of Landon Bryant until this book came in. I’m sure I read a review and saw the name, but I didn’t know about the videos or online presence or else I’d probably have snapped this up sooner. 

Landon Bryant is not only one funny guy but he’s a very observant one.  I laughed and nodded almost every point.  Even better, he allowed for a difference of opinion, unlike some of the books which want to be the absolute authority on all things Southern.  I name no names.  Landon (I feel that he would not mind me calling him Landon) is open to different versions of the Southern experience.  Nowhere was that more obvious to me than in his discussion of dinner vs. supper: when do you eat which meal?  Now, many folks today would argue that dinner as in “going out to dinner” is an always an evening meal but my grandparents always referred to the mid-day meal as dinner.  People took their food to work in “dinner buckets,” after all and “Sunday dinner” is usually in the middle of the day.  I for one was just happy that Landon brought this up, as I suspect a lot of people nowadays never heard the mid-day meal as “dinner.”

My grandparents didn’t know what to make of “lunch.”

Anyway, Landon is fine with whichever you want to do with, just as long as the food’s good.

Speaking of food, he also addresses other controversies such as chili—beans or no beans, how to construct a proper pear salad and how to eat it (just ignore that bed of lettuce, nobody eats that), the hierarchy of foods served at a gathering and who is allowed to bring them, and best of all, handy charts to determine if something is a salad or a vegetable or a meat. 

Also I would note that he is of the “no sugar in the cornbread” camp, and I am in full agreement on that.  As one of my coworkers used to say, “If God had meant for there to be sugar in cornbread, He would have called it cake.”

This hasn’t even scratched the surface of all the topics Landon handles.  He can tell you all about emotional states like “bein’ ugly” or “hissy fits” or “come to Jesus” meetings, conditions such as “lollygaggin’” and “I’d have to feel better to die.” He also provides helpful information about nature, from bugs to creepy crawlies to the weather. Holidays, cast iron skillets, the differences in grocery stores or dollar stores, Landon covers it all.

There is just a sweetness behind all of this that I find appealing.  He is not one to judge (after all, he has an aluminum Christmas tree) but he does have opinions, like which eye of the stove (and it is an eye, not a burner) to use.  But I also feel that if I were to disagree about which eye to use, he would not be upset with me.

The only thing it lacks is an index so that I could quickly locate sections to compare, say, “piddlin’” and “lollygaggin’” but there is a pretty good table of contents for that.

And while I find it to be basically very true to my experience, it’s also very, very funny.  I may buy copies to give as Christmas gifts.  I’m sure Landon will approve.