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W. R. Mayo
Out of Print
Pretty Little Lies
Ten Generations Of Southern Hypocrisy by W. R. Mayo
Červená Barva Press, 2009-
Pretty Little Lies, as told from the perspective of a member of the southern Mayo clan, reads like a gothic novel spanning centuries. In a take no prisoners accounting. W. R. Mayo's memoir is a serious undertaking that makes for fascinating reading. Though not from an old southern family, I, for one recognize much of what we all carry in our DNA.
- Susan Tepper, author of DEERIn his biting family memoir, Pretty Little Lies, W. R. Mayo courageously puts a dagger into the heart of the southern plantation myth. By unflinchingly facing his own dysfunctional past, Mayo gives the romantic, idealized version of ante- and post-bellum life below the Mason-Dixon Line a well-deserved paddling. In moving prose, he reveals the underbelly of the "big house"- a way of life created and sustained by traffic in human slavery and one reliant upon the manipulation, or far worse, of the land and those who lived and toiled upon it. Pretty Little Lies is a must read for anyone looking to see past the mythology of the Old South.
- J. B. Hogan, authorUnflinching. Revealing. In this exhaustively researched family history, Mayo charts the rise of a Southern family from its roots in England to the founding of a plantation in Southeastern Arkansas in the middle of the nineteenth century. Through the degradations of the Civil War, two world wars, and countless family conflicts still raging to this day, Mayo lays bare the mythology of Southern "Nobility." He frankly examines the treatment of slaves by his family which led to "the other Mayos," a family of blacks descended from these slaves, and describes the uncompromising natures of his progenitors. From his mother who never apologized for anything, considering it a waste of time to his racist, domineering father, Mayo chronicles the infighting, manipulation, and xenophobia prevalent in his family's past. Mayo digs to the core to face head-on not only the lies, exaggerations and conscious-salving stories of "pride" passed down within his family, but also to uncover the real story of Southern history. As Faulkner said, "The past is never dead. In fact, it's not even past." Mayo's past is certainly not dead, though this book is an attempt to put a stake through it's heart.
$15.95 | ISBN 978-0-9773695-4-0 | 211 Pages | Out of Print
- C. L. Bledsoe, author of Anthem, Riceland and editor for Ghoti Magazine
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