cover image Grits Friends Are Forevah: A Southern-Style Celebration of Women

Grits Friends Are Forevah: A Southern-Style Celebration of Women

Deborah Ford. Dutton Books, $23.95 (264pp) ISBN 978-0-525-94918-3

Ford's third book devoted to her GRITS (Girls Raised in the South) theory of friendship reads like a sassily rewritten '50s-era catalog of tips for young women that, in keeping with the old-fashioned advice, offers nary a magnolia-scented drop of new insight on friendships. However, Ford presents her time-tested information in a light-hearted manner that will please some female readers. She celebrates women's most rewarding relationships (with a Mom who is ""part confessor, part fashion guru, part teacher, part cook, part drill sergeant and part coach""), and offers stale hints on deepening friendships. But readers with modern sensibilities will scoff at Ford's vintage take on friends (""No matter how much a Southern girl looks forward to the day when she gets a pin... from her Southern fraternity man, that moment is not as sweet as the day she gets a bid from her sisters."") and manners (""ladies know that politics doesn't make suitable evening conversation"") and her insistence that universal traits-a fondness for family gatherings, for instance-are Southern in origin. Readers who appreciated earlier GRITS volumes may find a few gems in here, though most readers would do well to spend the cover price on a couple of mint juleps.