Talking about books

We get down to brass tacks at last!

Miss Grimke: I just finished reading that book, Confederates in the Attic. Did you read it?

DGF: I did read it. I had to read it, just to shut people up. Anyone who learned I was interested in the Civil War said, "Oh you have to read...blah blah blah."

Miss Grimke: So? What did you think?

DGF: I think he made a book from going around interviewing Southerners. Anybody can write a good book doing that!

Miss Grimke: Ain't that the truth! Not that he isn't a really good writer!

DGF: Bless his heart, he can write up a storm. I'm sure he knows what he owes all those people he talked to.

Miss Grimke: I thought of you at the part where he meets the couple with Southern wife and the Yankee husband. And the wife says, "My husband's a Northerner--from Boston, the worst kind--and he'll always be one....He wants to tell people how to do things, the same way the North tells the South how to live." Are Bostonians the worst kind of Yankee?

DGF: Yes indeed! But that's what I love about them. They think long and hard and do a lot of research to figure out how things should be done and they have no qualms about telling the rest of the country what's what. I love it! They lead the way. They can be obnoxious, no doubt. But you have to listen to them, and much as I hate to admit it, they can be right a lot of the times.

Miss Grimke: But do you consider Cambridge part of Boston?

DGF: Absolutely not. The people in Cambridge are all darling sweeties.