I am not native to the South, but I have been living in "Mother Country" (Perry's chapter title description for Virginia) for six years now. As a resident outsider, I learn, on a near daily basis, something new about living in what is the most historic territory in the USA. Some of that knowledge is factual (the first Thanksgiving took place in Virginia on the Berkley Hundred, on the James River in 1619), other is intuitive awareness of a more subtle kind (the way "house" is pronounced varies from location to location in the Old Dominion). My meager understanding of "the South" thus far extends only so far as the Commonwealth of Virginia, and I recognize I have a lot to learn.
Much of that learning can be acquired through carefully written history texts or accessed on any one of multiple websites, from tourism sites, to family history sites, as well as state government sites. Accumulating tidbits of knowledge is quite accessible for even the most casually interested newcomer to a geographical setting. It is much more challenging, indeed, to gain an awareness of the subtleties of context, most of which are not apparent even to those who have lived in an area for generations.
Imani Perry is masterful in creating the literary environment for such nuanced, intuitive learning. Her style
is autobiographical, suffused with multiple references to historical, cultural and literary figures for the multi-faceted world of "the South." Her work reflects a warm personal style, while not neglecting the sturdy necessity of factual moorings.
Her concluding chapters, in particular, are Imani Perry at her best. Her "Magnolia Graves and Easter Lilies: New Orleans" is a candid, appreciative reflection of her childhood home. Her craft shines as she interweaves her family's personal history with contextual details about Louisiana that are distinctly revelatory. While she does well in describing the other parts of the South, Perry shines with her chapter about Louisiana, and New Orleans in particular. In this chapter, don't miss her intriguing history of the United Fruit Company and its Louisiana/Central American connections.
Her final chapter may be a bit of a surprise for the unsuspecting reader, because the author sees The Bahamas and Havana as part of "the South." With convincing detail she makes the connections between the USA cultural south and these two Caribbean nations. If you mentally puzzle about the deep and abiding racial challenges in the USA, it will do you well to contemplate what Perry has to say in her final chapter, "Paraíso: The Bahamas and Havana."
South to America is a work all USAmericans, whatever your cultural/ethnic/racial heritage, need to read, for it is beneficial in bridging many thought gaps we have to understand how significant "the South" is to understanding our "American" soul.
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