A Long Time Leaving: Dispatches From Up South by Roy Blount Jr. Blount is never very far away from his southern roots and thank goodness for that! In his first book in ten years he defends, laments, carries- on and sings his Southern pride! For fun, get this on CD and listen to Blount’s wonderful southern accent if for no other reason than to listen to the “The Way Folks were meant to Eat” story. It is just perfect both in wording and accent and it will make you wish you could go to your Grandma’s house for Sunday supper and eat some homemade gravy just one more time before you have to up the Lipitor. He mentions Southern food has recently been labeled, “comfort food.” He thinks that is condescending. He says it is more like the "fiber of being food." Mmmm..mmm..m. He meanders through the south with us in tow and we are the richer for it. He has a vast (yes, vast) collection of different recordings of “Mama’s Little Baby Loves Short’nin’ Bread.” As a bonus you will find out what short’nin’ bread actually is. He defends Mark Twain - seems there is a debunking of Mark Twain going on somewhere (north?) in the country. Blount defends each point as they come up and is fairly polite about it. In fact, there is so much here of interesting and varied topics you roll along with him just for the open air ride of it all. He is smart, articulate, engagingly humorous (sometimes out loud) and I think we should listen or read his books just because we are Americans and he brings up things we should know about or at least think about for a spell. He may live in Massachusetts but he is all southern fried and critically acclaimed as one of the best humorists of our time.
Long Time Leaving: Dispatches from Up South Reserve It! |