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Set in the insular South of Broad neighborhood of Charleston, South Carolina, A Southern Girl is a tale of international adoption and Southern identity, of family bonds and hidden biases. With two sons and a successful career, Coleman Carter's life seems complete until his wife, Elizabeth, champions their adoption of a Korean orphan. This seemingly altruistic mission estranges Coleman's conservative parents and sends him headlong on a journey into the unknown.
The arrival of Soo Yun (later called Allie) opens Coleman's eyes to the subtle racism that had always dominated his sheltered life. Now Coleman must come to terms with his past in order to help Allie on her own life journey. Deftly told through the voices of Allie's birth mother, her orphanage nurse, her adoptive mother Elizabeth, and finally Coleman himself, A Southern Girl brings readers into Allie's plights—first for her very survival and then for her sense of identity and belonging.
John Warley guides us through the enclaves of southern privilege, the poverty-stricken back alleys of Seoul, South Korea, the jungles of Vietnam, and the stone sidewalks of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, as the bonds between father and daughter become strong enough to confront the trials of their pasts and present alike.
Foreword by New York Times bestselling novelist Therese Ann Fowler
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
November 12, 2021 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781611173925
- File size: 884 KB
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781611173925
- File size: 1444 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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April 1, 2014
Under pressure from his liberal wife, a member of Charleston society reluctantly adopts a baby girl from Korea in this novel by Southerner Warley (The Moralist, 2011, etc.), himself the father of a daughter born in Korea. In the late 1970s, Elizabeth Carter and her litigating attorney husband, Coleman, are raising their two sons in New Hampton, Va. Elizabeth is a native Kansan. Although she plays the part of traditional wife and mother, she's a quiet rebel--i.e., she won't join the Junior League--who has always wanted to adopt a Korean baby. Coleman, on the other hand, was raised in Charleston by parents who drummed into his head the danger inherent in threatening their traditional values: God, family and South Carolina (by which they meant established Charleston families) above all. He has serious reservations about bringing an Asian child into the family, but he acquiesces, recognizing that it's time to cast off his parents' fear of change. Meanwhile, in Korea, a young mother reluctantly gives up her beloved infant, knowing that adoption in America is her daughter's one chance to survive and prosper. That child becomes Allie, the Carters' new daughter. Shortly after her arrival from Korea, the family moves back to Charleston, the only home Allie will know. Smart and adorable, she fits into the Carters' lives more seamlessly than either parent might have expected, and Coleman especially adores her. When tragedy strikes less than halfway through the novel, he rises to the occasion. But seven years later, when Allie is a Princeton-bound high school senior, a seemingly trivial issue--her exclusion from a society ball--becomes a major crisis. After Coleman fails to win over the society's board members, several of whom he counts as close friends, a Jewish ACLU attorney from New York pressures him to sue for discrimination. Although manipulatively written, with a heavy-handed plot and a cast of noble Asians, Warley's story offers a surprisingly nuanced take on political correctness.COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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