Under Magnolia: A Southern Memoir

By Frances Mayes

A lyrical and evocative memoir from Frances Mayes, the Bard of Tuscany, about coming of age in the Deep South and the region’s powerful influence on her life.


The author of three beloved books about her life in Italy, including Under the Tuscan Sun and Every Day in Tuscany, Frances Mayes revisits the turning points that defined her early years in Fitzgerald, Georgia. With her signature style and grace, Mayes explores the power of landscape, the idea of home, and the lasting force of a chaotic and loving family.

From her years as a spirited, secretive child, through her university studies—a period of exquisite freedom that imbued her with a profound appreciation of friendship and a love of travel—to her escape to a new life in California, Mayes exuberantly recreates the intense relationships of her past, recounting the bitter and sweet stories of her complicated family: her beautiful yet fragile mother, Frankye; her unpredictable father, Garbert; Daddy Jack, whose life Garbert saved; grandmother Mother Mayes; and the family maid, Frances’s confidant Willie Bell.

Under Magnolia is a searingly honest, humorous, and moving ode to family and place, and a thoughtful meditation on the ways they define us, or cause us to define ourselves. With acute sensory language, Mayes relishes the sweetness of the South, the smells and tastes at her family table, the fragrance of her hometown trees, and writes an unforgettable story of a girl whose perspicacity and dawning self-knowledge lead her out of the South and into the rest of the world, and then to a profound return home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Crown
• Release date: Apr 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9780307885937

Frances Mayes

Frances Mayes is the author of four books about Tuscany, as well as poetry and a novel, Swan. The now-classic memoir, Under the Tuscan Sun, which was an Australian and New York Times bestseller and which became a film starring Diane Lane, was followed by Bella Tuscany. She divides her time between homes in Italy and North Carolina.

Book preview

[darwa-3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Really enjoyed this memoir by Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun.

[godsgirl_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Was not really a fan of this book. I had tried to read Under the Tucson Sun, but could not get into it. This book is the same way. There is no real story, just memories of things that have happened in her life. Like she was just going from one random thought to another. I need a real story and wish she would have written one.

[delphimo_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The audiobook reading was humdrum and uninspiring, even though the subject matter could be interesting. Mayes seems to be wearing rose colored glasses as she breezes through her past. Frances omits much of the information in her quest for depicting truly Southern characters. To listen to Frances, she grew up in an uncaring home with two older parents bored with children and with life so much that booze became the cure-all. Frances seems like the head strong Isabelle McAllister in Calling Me Home, both believe what they do is the Gospel and neither seems to honor their parents. At the ending of this story, my journey into Southern novels needs a rest.

[dd196406 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Excellent book for lovers of works about the south. Full of quirkiness and southern charm and a little cruelty. I was so surprised that this author had roots in Georgia and Florida. Very enjoyable musings on her early life.

[journeygirl_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I received Under Magnolia by Frances Mayes as part of the Early Reviewer program. Under Magnolia is a powerful, beautifully written memoir of her youth in Fitzgerald, GA. I grew up in the next generation, in a town about a hour from Fitzgerald, yet I felt like so much of Mayes' story was mine as well. What is it about the south that raises it's children among such horror and beauty. Mayes has so many breathtaking sentences that I wished I was reading it on my Kindle so I could highlight. She covers all the big topics - abuse, race, forgiveness, love, hate, and the dream to escape. I loved her memoir.

[pinklady60 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In this book the author relates her experiences growing up in a turbulent family in Fitzgerald, Georgia and her time at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia. Her writing was definitely influenced by other southern writers. At one point, she professes to dislike William Faulkner, but later comes to admire him, and I found her stream of consciousness writing similar to his. There seemed to be no semblance of order and, consequently, I felt no connection to any of the characters. On the positive side, I did enjoy the little and unexpected glimpses of humor, however this was probably the least favorite of Mayes’ books that I have read.

[gingersnap000 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As a Early Reviewer, I requested Under Magnolia by Frances Mayes, author of the extremely popular book Under the Tuscan Sun. Ms. Mayes' Memoir is a an intelligent and witty but dark story of a young Southern girl from a small town in Georgia.

Coming of age in the sixties as Frances did, her memoir hit a cord of truth with me. Being an independent thinker in the South of the Fifties and Sixties, Frances found the Southern old fashion morals and racism difficult to uphold especially in her dysfunctional family. She paints a vivid narrative which the reader will find a delightful but dark read.

Ms. Mayes knew at a young age that she wished to be a writer and her notebooks or journals made a memoir possible...young ladies take note.

[brenda63_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Obviously this is the memoir of Frances Mayes, Author of Under the Tuscan Sun. I found her writing to be breathtakingly descriptive throughout. That being said, I was often lost in the details. Overall I find the author to be brave, witty, strong, courageous, and eclectic- wonderful qualities for a writer. I would recommend the book for others who love to get lost in the details while waiting for the other shoe to drop- in the case of Frances Mayes it was her alcoholic parents and their destructive behavior.

[cindyb29 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Mayes paints a vivid picture with her writing, but the subject matter didn't particularly interest me. I've read several books about life in the South, and they always come across as thinking they're so special: friendlier, more hospitable. I beg to differ. Living in the northeast I find that most people I meet are equally friendly and hospitable, and i'll bet residents of every area of our country would say the same.

[esta1923 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"Under Magnolia" by Frances Mayes is subtitled "A Southern Memoir." It is that and much more. Readers who have envied the author for her lovely life in Tuscany will find how vastly different it is from her early years.

She was less than happy during her childhood in a dysfunctional family. Her comfort came from a close relationship with their servant, Willie Bell.(An award she received at summer camp was "For Learning to Eat the Crust of Bread," and she had boyfriends at school starting in fifth grade.) We see her at school and out in the world.

I am struck by her use of direct quotations. Although I also can vividly remember many episodes of my longago young life I could not possibly recall exact wordings as she does.

~~~As a bonus this edition has a Reader's Guide, a lovely essay ("A Life on Paper"), and a Recommended Reading list of Personal Narratives.

[lnduff · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I had trouble finishing this book. Not because the content was troubling, though some of it was sad. Not because the writing wasn’t good; some of it was lovely, incandescent, evoking colors and scents along with events from Mayes’s past. Much, though, felt overwrought, overworked, overthought. Maybe because I couldn’t discern an organizing principle to these stories of a Southern childhood. Like memory, episodes rose, became lit, and faded. Like short stories, new chapters often seemed disconnected, entirely different from the apparent direction of the book in the chapters which preceded and followed. And like some books of short stories, I found it easy to put this one down at the end of a chapter with no urgency to pick it up right away to find out what would happen next.

Memoirs can be like that: like paging through a scrapbook, things recorded almost randomly, sometimes not fully complete or coherent when shared with audiences who were not there. I’m not disappointed I read it, but would not recommend it to a reader who’s not a committed fan of the author.

[antonette-471409 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Frances Mayes does not disappoint! I've loved all of her books, and this glimpse into her life and how it shaped her is no different. I found myself underlining phrases that were utterly beautiful in their description. I wanted so badly to be able visit the places of her past she describes so vividly.

[asomers_8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Under the Tuscan sun is one of my all time favorite books and Frances Mayes does not disappoint with this book. Under Magnolia gives you a glimpse into her surprising past. Never would I have imagined the forces that shaped her. But beyond the story of her dysfunctional family, is her beautiful prose. I just want to roll her words around on my tongue to savor every morsel.

[dmtcer-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was over-the-moon thrilled to receive an advance reader’s copy of Under, Magnolia by Frances Mayes. From the moment I first picked up Under the Tuscan Sun I became obsessed with Frances’ writing; I’ve re-read that book so many times I’ve lost count. Her life in Italy intrigued me, her thoughts on everything else under the sun intrigued me even more so. Under, Magnolia is different from her other writings, and yet it did not disappoint me. She says “ Since I love imagery, I will practice writing as thought I were painting, as if my words would re-create a single glimpse of a panel of sunlight on the grass, the flash of a fish, the antique gold in the murky pond, the first scent of we lilacs, and then the under-scent of ashes and rain.” She accomplishes this, and then some. Her ability to portray imagery expands to include emotions, too. Her early years were riddled with confusion and conflict, and she is able, through her words to show the turmoil of her childhood and teen years. The tone of the book, to begin with, shows the surprise she experiences when she makes the decision to move back to the southern United States from her chosen exile in northern California; a world she left behind long ago for a more distant horizon. The momentousness of this decision quickly becomes clear. Frances Mayes was raised by a generation of southern women who depended on their (flawed) husbands, fathers, uncles to make all the family decisions, like it or not; for better or worse. The influence of her mother, flawed as well (and she makes it abundantly clear that none of us are ever perfect) had good and bad moments. She says she never forgets the “negative ions” of her mother, but from her, she also received a “shower of gifts”. Because of her – despite her, she is on “a quest to see everything I want to see, which is everything she never saw.” Frances Mayes, you are a gift to the world with your talent for your pen and speckled black notebooks. I thank you for this gem; this gift of your life and your words.

[khiemstra631 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If all memoirs were like this, I would read nothing but memoirs. Frances Mayes, of Tuscany fame, was raised in the south but avoided it like the plague for years, spending most of her life in California. Then the southern pull reasserted itself in her life, and she found herself living in an old home in North Carolina. And that caused her to put pen to paper and share with her delighted readers the memories of her unconventional childhood and adolescent years. Her parents were dysfunctional, to say the least, but the experience probably forged the writer in her. A great story!

[loisck_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Frances Mayes' memoir, Under Magnolia, is beautifully written with poetic, minimally structured sentences. One comes away with the full story of her "coming of age"; with the emotional reality stronger than the factual. We learn that her mother and father had a difficult marriage but we feel the tense atmosphere of the house in Georgia. We learn that Frances had many friends at college but we feel their sisterly giddiness as they search for love. We learn that Frances has a difficult relationship with her alcoholic mother but we feel the ache of love as she dutifully bathes her and puts her makeup on as her mother descends into dementia. As difficult as it was for Frances to finally break free of her mother, she comes to realize in the closing pages that "her life blossomed into mine." A lovely thought for all of us who struggled to love our beautiful, difficult and vulnerable mothers. If you love stories about eccentric southern families, this is another family you will want to come to know.

[lmikkel · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Although I normally enjoy memoirs this one did not resonate with me. Maybe because I already knew Mayes has lived her life well and fully, or maybe I am not terribly interested in another story of an eccentric southern upbringing. Mayes is a good writer and her many fans will no doubt enjoy this outing. I am waiting, however, for her return to Tuscany. I must add that the foreword did nothing to draw me into the book. I might have been more engaged without it.

[brangwinn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The author of UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN writes an intense, honest memoir about growing up in Fitzgerald, Georgia. Parents who drink and bicker, black women who are the anchor to a young girl's life and a controlling grandfather are the fodder for a southern childhood. How different her childhood was from mine of mid western origin. When I read a memoir from the south, I always feel I have entered a foreign country. Mayes childhood was filled with memorial characters and a smattering of love. Well worth reading.

[muddyboy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Seems like everyone these days is writing a memoir about their lives. The problem is that some people lead far more interesting lives than others.
Ms. Mayes life is not exceptional at all. She was a generally pampered white girl coming of age in the South during the 1950's. Yes, she has a dysfunctional family but I think were probably a few others in the South during that era. She portrays herself as a "renegade" in her tastes in music and literature etc. Her rebellion is very mild. The book is very well written but I think the book was more cathartic and beneficial to the author than it will be to anyone who reads it. Most of the review readers probably had a more interesting coming of age than she did. Read the book for its writing not for its exceptional content.

[margomargo_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In her recent memoir, Frances Mayes has come full circle, coming to terms with – and celebrating – her southern upbringing. Mayes uses the rich imagery that graced her Tuscan memoirs and applies her vivid descriptive powers to the South of her girlhood, indeed the South, as we discover, that created her love of words. She explains: "Since I love imagery, I will practice writing as though I were painting, as if my words could re-create a single glimpse of a panel of sunlight on the grass, the flash of a fish, antique gold in the murky pond, the first scent of wet lilacs, and then the underscent of ashes and rain."
She writes, further…"In The Mind of the South, W.J. Cash maintained that the blue air, softening all edges, gave us our ambiguous ways of seeing things." Mayes characterizes southern writers evocatively: "Memory—a rebel force, a synesthesia that storms the senses. All southern writers have to be drawn to the eccentric language of the South, the rhythmic loops of the narrative, wild metaphors and hyperbole, larger-than-life figures in local legends, the still-alive folktale pattern of telling three incidents in order to illustrate a point."
Mayes has re-found her community, as she describes: "People talk to you everywhere. Waiting at the dentist, filling the tank, checking out at the grocery store. Each gesture may mean little, but cumulatively, there's a message: you are not alone." As she and her husband settle into their new North Carolina home, she reconnects with her past and the interwoven threads of southern community life, which, on many levels, reminds her of her beloved Tuscany.
Her voice is sure and incisive, and she relates a continual story from her childhood: "One sass at the table and out I had to go to pick my privet switch in the yard. As I stalked through the kitchen, Willie Bell just shook her head. 'When are you going to learn?' she said quietly. 'Just don't talk back.'" Indeed, as readers, we should rejoice that she never stopped talking back; her voice is vibrant and clear and often full of sass. She writes: "Imagine, writing a book. What else could you do with your life that could compare with that?" and we are grateful that she has done so.
This is a perfect book for southerners eager to look at their way of life, for writers afraid to take risks, and for readers wanting to read a memoir as firmly grounded in memory as it is in a deep sense of place.

[pamelabarrett · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This memoir by Frances Mayes feels like a scrapbook: each word a picture. Her writing brings the South to life, and shows us how her early years made her the popular writer she is today. Her memories ring true to those of us who had less than perfect childhoods. As she says “we didn’t know “dysfunctional” but we lived it.” Yes, and she not only survived the chaos, but thrived in spite of it. It is a great book to for writers to read, her way of word painting helped me slow down and hear her voice, enjoy the stories, and make connections. Especially when she reminisced about food; which brought back memories of one of my grandmothers Sunday dinners and how her cooking was influenced by the South. Read this book on a hot humid summer day with a tall glass of sweet tea and enjoy the journey. Four stars.

[beamis12 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A charming and thoughtful meditation of her youth growing up in Fitzgerald, Ga. Although she early escaped to California and fell in love with Tuscany, buying a house there, it only takes a trip to do a reading at Square Books in Oxford, MS., to bring back much of what it means to be Southern. She quotes Faulkner quite extensively, even visiting his house, though it was not open at the time and she had to be satisfied with peaking through the window and imagining his life within.

Often humorous in her antidotes about her complicated family history, though many are less than joyful, many difficult to relate, her attempt to comes to terms with the past, is evident. The smells of magnolia, wisteria, the pecan trees among others, NeHi orange and wrap around porches, the generosity and friendliness of the people all seem to be calling her back. Infusing her memory with visible evidence. She and her husband actually do move back, but this time to North Carolina.

A charming and insightful read. Now I need to read [book:Absalom, Absalom!|373755], which she refers to in her book.

ARC from Netgalley

[ashmolean1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I loved under the Tuscan Sun. Under Magnolia is a different story. It is one of those books that I could easily give up on due to lack of interest in spite of the good writing style. I suppose it is that I am just not that interested in the South. It lacks the history and glamour of Tuscany and Ms. Mayes return to the South after a long sojourn did not grab my attention. Other readers who have a connection with the area may have a different opinion.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mayes recalls her childhood and youth in Georgia, her college days in Virginia and Florida, and a few moments from her recent return to the South. She has a way of describing place that is a true gift. We even see some glimpses of some of her poetry. While I prefer her works on Italy, this one does give you insights into what shaped her as a person and writer. She also draws comparisons between Italy and the Southern United States. The writing is elegant as one has come to expect in her works. This review is based on an e-galley received by the publisher through NetGalley with the expectation a review would be written.

[chrisac_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have been a fan of Frances Mayes' for some time, having thoroughly enjoyed "Under the Tuscan Sun" and "Bella Tuscany" several years ago. I was delighted when I was awarded "Under Magnolia" as a member of the Early Reviewers Group.

One of Ms. Mayes' great gifts as a writer, in my view, is her descriptive, beautiful prose. I still fondly recall her vivid descriptions of Tuscany, the sights, scents, the people, the landscape. She again uses that gift in "Under Magnolia".

This memoir takes us into Frances Mayes' past... to the South of the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. Again, her prose absorbs the reader, and we can practically smell the honeysuckle, bougainvillea, and magnolia she tells us about. We can taste the delicious meals and foods. We also feel the fears of her childhood, as we see the alcoholic rants of her parents, the slow disintegration of their marriage, and how they affected Frances, their third daughter and youngest child.

I was particulary taken with other members of her family - notably the loyal and loved housekeeper, Willie Bell; her stern grandfather, Daddy Jack, who ruled over his grown children and grandchildren as an absolute monarch. Frances takes us through her school years, her college years, and all the while, I was hoping the book would never end.

I recommend "Under Magnolia" for any fans of Frances Mayes' writing, and for any readers who want to know more about life in the American South in the middle decades of the 20th Century.

[mchwest · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book attracted me because the author grew up in the South. Her childhood, although seems challenging, was not a lot different from mine. Her great confidant, Willie Bell, was a southern maid through and through just like the one who helped raise me, right down to the oven toast and egg! Her writing is so detailed and I've enjoyed her other books, this explains where she became a writer… It was a nice, slow, easy read.

[etxgardener · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Frances Mayes rocketed to fame with her book Under the Tuscan Sun that can rightly be categorized as lifestyle pornography for middle-aged women. After mining this topic for years, she has now turned to her home turf, the American South, in a memoir that describes her southern Gothic childhood complete with a drunken and abusive father, a beautiful but disturbed mother, the beloved family retainer and grandparents who are actually called Daddy Jack, Big Momma and Big Daddy like characters out of a Tennessee Williams play.

Frances, the family after thought, is bright, but pretty insufferable - willful an opinionated. Her parents tolerate her eccentricities since his is the South and the only important thing in life is outward appearances. Nightly she hears the battles between her parents, but by day all is normal - her father helping to run the family mill and her mother occupying her time with bridge and the garden club. Frances' job is to grow up to be a model Southern woman and marry into a good family.

While she is a cosseted member of her communities privileged class in her small town, her life is very constricted. Boyfriends need to come from "good families," options for college are restricted to the South, and no girl from a good family would ever have a summer job.

After her father dies from an unexplained illness, that one assumes is cancer, Frances and her mother rely on her paternal grandfather, Daddy Jack, for money that he doles out with miles of strings attached to each check. Frances copes by spending as much time as possible away from home on school vacations, while her mother dives deeper and deeper into a gin bottle.

Eventually Frances graduates from college, marries what appears to be a nice guy and moves to California. Years later, while on a book tour, she finds herself in Oxford, Mississippi and the lure of her roots pulls her back home. But not home exactly. Instead of the red dirt of a small Georgia town, she lands in a enclave of rich artists near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a university community full of those Yankees that her Daddy Jack warned her about years ago. From this prospective she can wax eloquently about how while "you can still see the Stars and Bars flying over a trailer in the woods.....still hear an occasional slur from someone who doesn't have the sense to see you don't agree....mostly the good inheritance of southern manners in both races prevail." As someone who lives in a different South, where things aren't so polite, I'd like to point out that she is largely living in fantasyland.

Ms. Mayes is an evocative writer, spinning out beautiful prose. I just wish it was more honest.

[jamieschecter · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I didn't love this memoir. The writing was very pretty, but the story wasn't really present through the first half of the book. I didn't feel like the author focused on telling the story of her childhood until she entered high school. Prior to her teenage years, the story felt abstract and detached. As a reader who has never read her previous work, Under Magnolia didn't leave me with a desire to.

[vasquirrel · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Although known for her stories of life in Tuscany, Mayes proves with this memoir that she can time travel and effortlessly recreate the South of her birth, ground zero for her challenging family, and paint her escape and subsequent return in exquisite detail. Thoroughly fascinating read that proves that we all may, in fact, have several different stories to tell, over the course of a life well-lived.

[whitreidtan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Frances Mayes is, of course, best known for her memoirs about buying and restoring a home in Tuscany and the sunlit ex-pat life she lives there. But Mayes is not just the American professor from California now living in Italy, she's a mid-twentieth century child of the deep South and all that that entails. Her newest memoir, Under Magnolia, offers a window into her childhood and the ways in which her family and growing up in Fitzgerald, Georgia have shaped the writer and person she is today.


Although her childhood was not a happy one and her family was dysfunctional, Frances Mayes could not escape the South that was bred into her very bones. Living in California and Italy, she still felt pulled to the South, especially after uncovering a collection of memories written long ago and long since set aside. And so she convinces her husband to move from California to North Carolina, to the land of her ancestors and if not exactly the land of her memories, close enough.


The youngest of three daughters by a good margin, Mayes grew up in the midst of her parents' constant battles, unaware that happier childhoods were to be had. Her father died young, leaving her mother and her dependent on her cantankerous grandfather's charity, after, at least for her mother, a lifetime of wealth. Mayes was left alone much of the time, stubborn as a mule, and determined to do as she pleased. And even as she grew and matured and society changed in massive and monumental ways, she rebelled against the only upbringing she knew, her biggest life goal to escape Fitzgerald as her mother never did.


Each of the chapters in the book is really a short essay strung together with the other essays to form a snapshot of her growing up years. They are arranged mostly chronologically, telling of her early life as scrap of memory after scrap of memory. The writing is descriptive and lyrical and it is clear that Mayes is a poet heavily influenced by the natural world around her. As each chapter follows on the previous one, the writing lulls the reader into stifling, heavy peach scented memories weighted with heat and humidity and dysfunction. It is somehow not a traditional memoir, grounded so heavily as it is in the physical description of place and the attitudes that pervaded that small town. And the reading of it is thick and slow, as only a southern summer day can be. But that Mayes both escaped Fitzgerald and is forever rooted in the South is evident in every honestly felt word of the book.