My Southern Journey
True Stories from the Heart of the South
Ratings4
Average rating4.8
15
True Stories from the Heart of the South
Ratings4
Average rating4.8
"From celebrated New York Times bestselling author 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."--provided by publisher.
Reviews with the most likes.
Funny and heartwarming and honest.
How funny? Funny like this: “tarted up show turkeys” and “I am a miniature donkey rancher.” I actually laughed out loud on both of those parts.
The author read the audio book, so that was a pretty awesome perk.
I cannot deny it: I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which is a collection of short articles by Bragg that appeared in various magazines, especially Southern Living. Probably my enjoyment was enhanced by the fact that I listened to the audio version, narrated by Bragg himself in his Alabama drawl.
But apart from the drawl, the writing is excellent. Not only is Bragg a wonderful storyteller, he's got a gift for the Southern metaphor, and the whole thing oozes charm.
Having said that, most Southern writers tend to glorify the Southern mystique, and it does get rather tiresome, as if there's nothing at all interesting about the North. In fact, from time to time I was annoyed (mildly) when Bragg would take a jab at Yankees (of which I'm one, although I live in the nominally Southern state of Virginia), but then he would take just as many jabs at the foibles of Southerners, and that evened it all out.
One more criticism, but not enough to lose a star: too much about Alabama football.
