We entered Empire State South and I threw my copy of Deep South down on the bar, next to the copy of the patron sitting next to me. The author, Paul Theroux, had just spoken at the Margaret Mitchell House across the street.
Tom was a lawyer who had graduated from Emory Law School a couple of decades ago and stayed. His girlfriend, Diana, was from Columbus.
"I think it's going to be hard for me to read that book," she said.
I was surprised, as I'd gotten the impression from reviews, and from the moderator tonight, that Theroux had developed a real affection for the place, something which is never a given in his travels.
But there are subtleties about the South, she explained, that most Northerners don't get. She knew because her ex-husband had been from Massachusetts (like Theroux). She remembered the first time she visited his family, it was for Thanksgiving, and at one point she broke away from the gathering and hid in a closet to call her mother. "These people don't talk," she announced sobbing.
