Eat, Drink, and Be from Mississippi

By Nanci Kincaid



There is a certain way one is expected to live in the south. Don't hurry. Treat everyone with kindness. Love God. Eat lots of fattening food. So what happens when you take a boy out of Mississippi and place him in California? Well, you can take the boy out of Mississippi, but you certainly can't take Mississippi out of the boy.

Truely Noonan and his sister Courtney are both transplants from Mississippi to California. As adults, they are both smart and hardworking, making them very successful and wealthy. They have something else though; they have an ability to love their neighbor and always try to do right by them.

Even though Truely and Courtney are struggling to deal with the ends of their own marriages, they befriend a troubled young man named Arnold. Arnold has no father, his mother is in prison, and his best friend has been badly injured in the war.

Truely and Courtney take it upon themselves to show Arnold a better way of living. They give him a place to stay and help him get an education. Most importantly, they never stop believing in him. They grow to love Arnold, like a parent would their child. In the process, they all learn that family does not have to be blood, and home is wherever your "family" is.

Nanci Kincaid has written a truly remarkable story that is enjoyable to read. It is a comment on the dysfunction in every family and how true family will still be there in the end. She defines every character the minute they are introduced to the story, making the the reader honestly care. Truely is the first character we meet:

Hinds County needed rain. Heat rose to nearly a hundred degrees most afternoons. Already two boys had gone down, threatening to collapse of heat stroke. They'd been sent to sit under a sprawling shade tree with cups of ice chips to chew on. One spilled the ice on his head and rubbed it over his parched skull.

Truely had long ago sweat through his pads and jersey, adding a couple of pounds to his misery. It occurred to him that wearing a helmet in this kind of heat could cause your brain to fry. Still, drill after drill, he went at it full speed. Nobody on the field worked harder or complained less. According to his coach there was a certain genius to that. Truely liked pushing himself. He liked knowing that no matter how tough it got out there, he didn't quit. Nobody could make him.

Eat, Drink, and Be from Mississippi is a great read with an uplifting message for anyone who has ever faced problems within their family. A book about rising above the trials of life and moving beyond them, Eat, Drink, and Be from Mississippi is a heartwarming must-read.