Deep South
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4.5 • 19 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The acclaimed author of The Great Railway Bazaar takes a revealing journey through the Southern US in a "vivid contemporary portrait of rural life" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution).
Paul Theroux has spent decades roaming the globe and writing of his experiences with remote people and far-flung places. Now, for the first time, he turns his attention to a corner of America—the Deep South. On a winding road trip through Mississippi, South Carolina, and elsewhere below the Mason-Dixon, Theroux discovers architectural and artistic wonders, incomparable music, mouth-watering cuisine—and also some of the worst schools, medical care, housing, and unemployment rates in the nation.
Most fascinating of all are Theroux's many encounters with the people who make the South what it is—from preachers and mayors to quarry workers and gun show enthusiasts. With his astute ear and penetrating mind, Theroux once again demonstrates his "remarkable gift for getting strangers to reveal themselves" in this eye-opening excursion into his own country (The New York Times Book Review).
"Paul Theroux's latest travel memoir had me at hello…Theroux pulls no punches in his quest to understand this overlooked margin of American life." — Boston Globe
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
See the American South in a way you’ve never looked at it before. Renowned novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux ventures off the major highways to get an up-close-and-personal look at some of America’s poorest communities, where he often finds a vibrant and life-affirming culture. With a straightforward and engaging tone, Theroux gets his subjects to open up and share their stories during countless visits to diners, locally owned motels, church services, and gun shows throughout Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. We were impressed by the way the Massachusetts native seamlessly weaves place-setting personal anecdotes into thought-provoking (and at times eyebrow-raising) explorations of topics like the N-word, William Faulkner, and the value of Southern literature. Deep South raises more questions than it answers, but it’s an absolutely fascinating read.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Travel writer Theroux (Ghost Train to the Eastern Star) finds the traveling easier and his insights more penetrating in this engrossing passage through the South. Celebrating the wonders of American driving no more rattle-trap trains or jam-packed buses the New England native recounts several road trips from South Carolina through Arkansas, circling back to revisit places and people in a way he couldn't on his treks across foreign continents. His relaxed schedule lets him forget the journey and, instead, immerse himself in destinations that seem both familiar and strange ("Jesus is lord we buy and sell guns," reads a billboard). Avoiding tourist traps, Theroux seeks out gun shows, church services, seedy motels, and downscale diners such as Doe's Eat Place, in Greenville, Miss.; he insistently probes the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, and the appalling poverty of back-road towns abandoned by industry. All this emerges through vivid, novelistic reportage as he gently prods people for their stories, reveling in their musical dialects, mapping the intersections of personal experience and tragic history that give the South "a great overwhelming sadness that couldn't fathom." Free of the sense of alienation that marked his recent travelogues, this luminous sojourn is Theroux's best outing in years. Color photos.
