| Edition |
First edition. |
| Description |
369 pages :bport. ; 19 cm |
| Contents |
Upon this rock -- Feet in smoke -- Mr. Lytle : an essay -- At a shelter (after Katrina) -- Getting down to what is really real -- Michael -- The final comeback of Axl Rose -- American grotesque -- La·Hwi·Ne·Ski : career of an eccentric naturalist -- Unnamed caves -- Unknown bards -- The last wailer -- Violence of the lambs -- Peyton's place. |
| Summary |
"A sharp-eyed, uniquely humane tour of America's cultural landscape--from high to low to lower than low. John Jeremiah Sullivan takes us on an exhilarating tour of our popular, unpopular, and at times completely forgotten culture. Simultaneously channeling the gonzo energy of Hunter S. Thompson and the wit and insight of Joan Didion, Sullivan shows us--with a laidback, erudite Southern charm that's all his own--how we really live now. In his native Kentucky, Sullivan introduces us to Constantine Rafinesque, a nineteenth-century polymath genius who concocted a dense, fantastical prehistory of the New World. Back in modern times, Sullivan takes us to the Ozarks for a Christian rock festival; to Florida to meet the alumni and straggling refugees of MTV's Real World, who've generated their own self-perpetuating economy of minor celebrity; and all across the South on the trail of the blues. He takes us to Indiana to investigate the formative years of Michael Jackson and Axl Rose and then to the Gulf Coast in the wake of Katrina--and back again as its residents confront the BP oil spill. Gradually, a unifying narrative emerges, a story about this country that we've never heard told this way."-- Provided by publisher. |
|
"A collection of nonfiction essays"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Genre/Form |
Essays.
|
| Subject |
Social sciences -- Popular works.
|
|
LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Essays.
|
|
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture.
|
|
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Essays.
|
| ISBN |
9780374532901 paperback |
|
0374532907 paperback |
|
