Eat, Drink, and Be from Mississippi

Truely Noonan is the quintessential Southern boy made good. Like his older sister, Courtney, Truely left behind the slow, sweet life of Mississippi for jet-set San Francisco, where he earned a fortune as an Internet entrepreneur. Courtney and Truely each find happy marriages - until, as if cursed by success, those marriages start to crumble. Then their lives are interrupted by an unexpected stranger - a troubled teenager named Arnold, garrulous, charming, thuggishly dressed, and determined to move in to their world. Arnold turns their lives upside down - and in the process this unlikely trio becomes the family that each had been searching for. In the best Southern fiction tradition, Kincaid has brought us an inspiring story about finding the way home.

“"With a sensibility as sweet as a glass of sugary iced tea and a plot as placid as a hazy summer day, Kincaid's sixth book (after As Hot As It Was You Ought to Thank Me ) tracks the domestic travails of Truely and Courtney Noonan, brother and sister Mississippians who have forsaken sleepy rural life for adventure in California.... Though they both live in the Bay Area, these rootless siblings seldom cross paths, until Arnold, a black teenager, insinuates himself into their lives. Kincaid has been pigeonholed as a Southern writer, but this unsentimental story about the forging of an unorthodox family has universal appeal."-- Publisher's Weekly”

"[T]here's something raffish and whimsical about Kincaid's prose that hooks you good and pulls you in.... [A]ffecting." A---Entertainment Weekly "It takes a little nerve for a non-native Mississippian to write a novel with "Mississippi" in the title, but [Kincaid] isn't fazed by stepping onto hallowed literary ground. . . . This novel isn't in the end, so much about Mississippi as it is about our American future, and on that subject it is decidedly and sweetly optimistic."--Washington Post "Playing off its tantalizing title, Kincaid's tale offers a fresh, winning take on basic themes of modern life--leaving, longing and reconnecting with childhood."--People Magazine "With a sensibility as sweet as a glass of sugary iced tea and a plot as placid as a hazy summer day, Kincaid's sixth book (after As Hot As It Was You Ought to Thank Me) tracks the domestic travails of Truely and Courtney Noonan, brother and sister Mississippians who have forsaken sleepy rural life for adventure in California.... Though they both live in the Bay Area, these rootless siblings seldom cross paths, until Arnold, a black teenager, insinuates himself into their lives. Kincaid has been pigeonholed as a Southern writer, but this unsentimental story about the forging of an unorthodox family has universal appeal."--Publisher's Weekly

Nanci Kincaid is the author of Crossing Blood, Balls, Pretending the Bed Is a Raft (made into the feature film My Life Without Me), Verbena, and As Hot as it Was You Ought to Thank Me. She divides her time between San Jose and Honolulu.

Truely Noonan is the quintessential Southern boy made good. Like his older sister, Courtney, Truely left behind the slow, sweet life of Mississippi for jet-set San Francisco, where he earned a fortune as an Internet entrepreneur. Courtney and Truely each find happy marriages - until, as if cursed by success, those marriages start to crumble. Then their lives are interrupted by an unexpected stranger - a troubled teenager named Arnold, garrulous, charming, thuggishly dressed, and determined to move in to their world. Arnold turns their lives upside down - and in the process this unlikely trio becomes the family that each had been searching for. In the best Southern fiction tradition, Kincaid has brought us an inspiring story about finding the way home.

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