Southern Living
A Novel
by Ad Hudler
List Price: $13.95
Pages: 352
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0345451295
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Welcome to the utterly eccentric world of Selby, Georgia, where the folks sprinkle three things liberally over their daily lives: sugar, religion, and the wicked fun of Southern living.
Margaret Pinaldi is the quiet daughter of a hell-raising abortion-rights advocate who recently died—bequeathing Margaret a house in Georgia. Finally free from her mother's demanding presence, this transplanted Yankee is finding herself for the first time, courtesy of the Deep South. And, much to her surprise, she likes it.
A former International Dogwood Festival Queen, Donna Kabel once had cute male suitors chase her like hounds to the fox. But all that changed after a car accident left her with a huge facial scar. Now Donna works in the produce section of Kroger. But it seems that the scar that could have cost Donna her inner strength has actually spurred her to reinvent herself.
Thirty-four-year-old Suzanne Parley, the chardonnay-alcoholic wife of a fifth-generation Selby neurosurgeon named Boone, longs to have the most exquisitely decorated house in the affluent Red Hill Plantation community. Childless and directionless, Suzanne suddenly comes up with a bold plan to make her bored husband love her again: she'll simply fake a pregnancy.
On the eve of this year's all-important Dogwood Festival, the disparate lives of these three women will converge in a brilliant comedy of Southern manners like none other. With this funny and poignant novel, Ad Hudler joins Fannie Flagg and Adriana Trigiani as one of our best chroniclers of Southern life.
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1. Food plays a prominent role in the lives of each of the three main characters. Discuss those relationships, their similarities and differences.
2. The theme of religion is woven through the book, too. Margaret has an aversion to it, after countless run-ins with anti-abortion activists. Donna's father hammers it home to her but she, too, remains a religious outsider. How does religion shape the two women's lives?
3. Selby, a sleepy old Southern town, is in the midst of a transformation with the sale of the newspaper to a big Northern chain and the influx of Asians and Northerners who have relocated to work at the Toyota plant. Discuss what those changes are and the positive and negative effects.
4. Donna and Margaret seemingly come from different worlds. Donna is a home-town Southern girl, a high school graduate who strives to fill her homemaker mother's role in her domineering father's life. Margaret grew up fatherless, has a master's degree and was raised in the North by a well-educated, feminist mother. What is it that makes them bond despite those differences? Conversely, Suzanne and Donna have quite similar backgrounds yet never develop much of a relationship. Why?
5. Margaret, Donna and Suzanne all undergo change. Discuss what their metamorphoses have in common and what's different? What role do men play in each one's transformation?
6. Does the fact that Margaret doesn't know who her father is play a part in how she views men?
7. What role does makeup play in Donna's life? If she'd had her scar repaired early on, might she still have been so driven to become a supermarket success?
8. Which character do you find the most interesting? Why?
9. In her letter to Margaret, Ruth Pinaldi tells her: "If you choose to be a gentle breeze for most of your life, also remember there will be times that call for the roar of a hurricane — and you must blow the bastards away. History does not remember the 'good girls.'" Do you agree? Why or why not?
10. Randy is a well-educated Northerner who loves fine food, which initially appears to give him much in common with Margaret. Why then does she turn away from him in favor of Dewayne?
11. What role does race play in the book? Are Boone and his Sugar Day Country Club peers racist or is the club all white because blacks and whites are more comfortable with that arrangement?
12. The Chatter items sprinkled throughout the book change in tone and nature as the plot progresses. Discuss those differences and what they appear to show. What purpose do they serve?
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"Winning . . . [A] breezy comic outing."
—The New York Times
"You'll think it's a man's world until you read Househusband, Ad Hudler's hilarious debut. It will make you laugh, cry, and eat—move over Martha Stewart: wait until you taste his tortellini!"
—Adriana Trigiani, Author of Big Stone Gap
"[An] engaging debut . . . With self-deprecating humor and adroit expression, Hudler delves deep into the American psyche of gender roles. . . . The dialogue rings with authenticity."
—The State (Columbia, SC)
"A funny and insightful book . . . Should be required reading for men who wonder what their wives do all day."
—Lorna Landvik, Author of Patty Jane's House of Curl
