My Southern Journey
True Stories from the Heart of the South
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From the celebrated bestselling author of All Over but the Shoutin' and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Rick Bragg, comes a poignant and wryly funny collection of essays on life in the south.
Keenly observed and written with his insightful and deadpan sense of humor, he explores enduring Southern truths about home, place, spirit, table, and the regions' varied geographies, including his native Alabama, Cajun country, and the Gulf Coast. Everything is explored, from regional obsessions from college football and fishing, to mayonnaise and spoonbread, to the simple beauty of a fish on the hook.
Collected from over a decade of his writing, with many never-before-published essays written specifically for this edition, My Southern Journey is an entertaining and engaging read, especially for Southerners (or feel Southern at heart) and anyone who appreciates great writing.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Full of homespun philosophy and reflection, the 72 short essays in this collection from Pulitzer-winner Bragg (All Over But the Shoutin') present a paean to his Southern roots. Grouped under "Home," "Table," "Place," "Craft," and "Spirit," the pieces explore a range of themes, including Alabama red dirt, rednecks, football, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, gospel singing, All Saints Day in New Orleans, and in the best section, Southern homestyle cooking. Each essay is steeped in personal memories and experiences and most are infectiously funny; for example, "For a Vegetable, I'll Have White Gravy," a celebration of Southern comfort food, asserts that a bagel is "a biscuit without sin or indulgence." They are also full of down-to-earth insights, such as an observation prompted by neighbors working together after a ferocious storm: "As Southerners, we know that a man with a chainsaw is worth 10 with a clipboard, that there is no hurt in this world, even in the storm of the century, that cannot be comforted with a casserole, and that faith, in the hereafter or in neighbors who help you through the here and now, cannot be knocked down." Even confirmed Northerners will find the genial charm of these essays hard to resist.
