Deep South
"One of the most acclaimed travel writers of our time turns his unflinching eye on an American South too often overlooked. Paul Theroux has spent fifty years crossing the globe, adventuring in the exotic, seeking the rich history and folklore of the far away. Now, for the first time, in his tenth travel book, Theroux explores a piece of America--the Deep South. He finds there a paradoxical place, full of incomparable music, unparalleled cuisine, and yet also some of the nation's worst schools, housing, and unemployment rates. It's these parts of the South, so often ignored, that have caught Theroux's keen traveler's eye. On road trips spanning four seasons, wending along rural highways, Theroux visits gun shows and small-town churches, laborers in Arkansas, and parts of Mississippi where they still call the farm up the road 'the plantation.' He talks to mayors and social workers, writers and reverends, the working poor and farming families--the unsung heroes of the south, the people who, despite it all, never left, and also those who returned home to rebuild a place they could never live without. From the writer whose 'great mission has always been to transport us beyond that reading chair, to challenge himself--and thus, to challenge us' (Boston Globe), Deep South is an ode to a region, vivid and haunting, full of life and loss alike"
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2recommend
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2people
2018–2023years
100% recommend
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What Hacker News says
- I just went on a Theroux binge reading his recent books, Dark Star Safari, Deep South, On the Plain of Snakes. I wish I discovered him earlier in my life. Its given me a totally different perspective on what travel can and should be. I think his view doesn't go along with the internets view of travel. Which maybe is snobbish, or elitist or w/e but definitely richer then most guides or what people do. I think in one of his books he has a quote calling sight seeing just superficial lol. Hes also pretty judgemental at times of other people, I think the world needs a little of that sometimes. Its inspired me to do a big overland trip like this, even if stuff is modernized now. Still think it would be cool to just take trains around china even if they are fast now.
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5) Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads by Paul Theroux.
The greatest travel writer of the last half-century finally turns his attention homeward: the American Deep South. Four road trips over four seasons. He published an article in Smithsonian Magazine hitting the highlights: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/soul-south-180951861/
