DSL August Read: Gwen's Pick
Long Time Leaving: Dispatches from Up South by Roy Blount, Jr.
It won my heart on page 198: "My goal in life is to make some tiny headway toward lifting from Southerners some tiny bit of the burden of having to prove that we are being tongue in cheek. For Southerners, the price of irony is eternal vigilance."
posted by Gwen @ 9:35 AM
12 Comments:
I finished the book. It was a little hit-or-miss for me. Some of the essays, in particular ones where he imagines conversations between people, got a little tedious. And some of the literary analysis ones didn't entirely keep my attention.
Also, although I understand that these were columns published in different venues, when you read them all at once it gets annoying how often you encounter the exact same quotes or anecdotes.
That said...when Blount discusses the duality of the Southern thing, he nails it. His discussions of how annoying it is to have people treat you condescendingly like the cause of all racial problems in the country entirely captured that feeling I've had. And then on the other hand politicians and crazy religious people from our states do stuff that make it hard to defend them with a straight face.
So overall, I felt the good essays outweighed the lesser ones.
Okay, it is my intention to read this book, but there's a really long waiting list for it at my library right now. Hadn't expected the demand in Los Angeles to be so high.
Anyhow, I'll try to get a copy by the end of the month.
Blount is pretty popular with the NPR set, so I'm sure there's a certain level of demand just about everywhere.
just picking up my copy today.
the next book is --so we all have time to order it--
The Lyre of Orpheus, by Robertson Davies
i might have spelled, lyre wrong and orpheus.
best,
dust
Sorry about picking a new book. I know we all agreed not to pick new books so it wouldn't be hard to find them, but since several of us mentioned being excited to read this one, I picked it anyway. My apologies.
Yeah, I'm not going to get this book by the end of the month. There are still three people ahead of me in line for a library copy, and I'm too broke to buy it at the moment.
That said, Gwen, I do want to read it at some point, so it was definitely a good pick.
I'm also excited about next month's - I love Robertson Davies!
Well, maybe we could leave this open for comments whenever people get around to it while we move on to the next book.
well, i got it.
and i like it too. i'm picking and chosing which parts i read.
i really liked the Klan piece. i've never seen writing about the klan done so well. Usually their depicted as the embodiement of pure evil or pure stupidity.
my grandfather was in the klan and i refuse to condemn him for it. jesus, the man only had an eighth grade education.
my attitude towards the klan is one of pity mostly, like the poor folks who get sucked into the military.
anyway, enough said, the klan piece is good. the eating stuff is hilarious. the political stuff is mildly amusing. I'm skimming through it.
I also found the Klan piece to be funny and sad--it's these people out trying to make themselves important and their lives meaningful, but they just end up seeming silly and pathetic.
i really liked reading this book. it's fun not to have to go in order, or not even feel obligated to read an entire piece.
loved the mark twain piece.
liked most of the political stuff, although i rarely read more than a page into those.
i loved the robert e lee stuff. loved it. i grew up right next to Washington and Lee where he was president. my high school was robert e lee high school.
Ok I'm still reading this one. I've gotten massively behind. But, I just came to the point where he talks about the Human and Organizational Development (HOD) majors at Vanderbilt. For those of you who don't know, I got my masters at Vanderbilt and a bunch of my classmates were HOD majors at Vandy. What he fails to mention is that Vanderbilt doesn't have a business major; the closest thing to one they have is the HOD. That's why so many of the students major in it. That, and b/c it's considered one of the easier majors at the University. You go to school for 5 years and come out with a masters. You're guarenteed aceptance into the masters program, you don't have to take the GRE, and you get to pay the undergraduate tuition rate. Who wouldn't do it? Anyway, just thought I'd share. As far as the book goes, I'm not loving it as much as I thought I would, but I'm not hating it either like I did what little I read of The Road (sorry Dust).
And for as why I don't leave comments anymore...it's because you all read way faster than me. By the time I actually have finished the book, y'all already said everything worth saying and have moved onto something else you want to read. I'm not complaining; just wanted to let you know.
i'm jealous. i've always wanted to go to Vanderbilt.
onto the next book --
i suggest we pick books well in advance(1) in order to get them and (2) so Karen can be up to speed.
best,
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