Paul Theroux visited US southern states in four seasons. I was very impressed by how he could approach strangers, connect with them and discover the stories from them.
As New York Times Book Review said “Theroux’s eye for landscape remains as sharp as ever . . . It’s Theroux’s remarkable gift for getting strangers to reveal themselves that makes going along for this ride worthwhile.”
Yes, in my own travel, I would never go into a gun-shop to strive for a conversation, or go to churches in the america back roads, or drink with native american veteran... It’s worth watching how he approaches people from all walks and listen to the stories.
Published on September 29, 2015, this book is pretty recently. Yet, it’s a bit hard to believe what happened in his trip is recent and it’s in US, the same country where I live. No wonder Mr Trump’s making america great again touched so many people in those states. OK. More specifically, the back roads, deep south, he traveled, seemed poor and hopeless.
While I believe his stories, and believe poverty and hopeless live in the US, I still have subtle doubt about how “typical” his encounters are. The photos by Steve McCurry seem convincing enough, but again, are those “typical”.
The right to read his book is probably: believe what he encountered, imagine this type of life. Not to judge how “typical” those stories are. Not feel depressed because such type of life still exist. They always exist. Read them as stories. Observe how Paul weaves history with real person accounts, covers wide range of topics: indian owned motels , philanthropist supported schools, native america. Absorb the novelty of all the small stories and how they adds to the texture of the places traveled.
Paul Theroux is definitely a seasoned traveler and travel writer. I felt sad that I discovered him in 2016, not earlier. I also felt lucky that I discovered him in 2016, not 2066. :) Will read more books by him.
A few highlights:
Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads (Theroux, Paul)
- Your Highlight on page 144 | Location 2492-2494 | Added on Wednesday, December 28, 2016 7:01:54 PM
“Look at this,” he said. “Feel it. I was a weaver by trade, made cloth right here. But they closed the mills and sent the jobs overseas. So there’s nothing here anymore. Now check out this label—see? ‘Made in Vietnam.’ And look what the hat says, ‘Combat Veteran,’ and that there is my vet facility.”
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Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads (Theroux, Paul)
- Your Highlight on page 153 | Location 2633-2635 | Added on Wednesday, December 28, 2016 7:23:46 PM
People who dealt with guns were generally talkers, I’d learned. Usually they had a gripe with the government and strong views on neighbors or crime, and felt put-upon and slighted. A man with a weapon was a man with something on his mind. So I parked and went in.
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Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads (Theroux, Paul)
- Your Highlight on page 160 | Location 2763-2765 | Added on Wednesday, December 28, 2016 7:44:47 PM
“A certain ethnic group becomes entrenched in a clearly identifiable economic sector, working at jobs for which it has no evident cultural, geographical or even racial affinity.” It’s also known as “occupational clustering,” like the Korean-owned deli in New York or, in the England that I knew, the Greek-owned fish-and-chips shop.
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Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads (Theroux, Paul)
- Your Note on page 164 | Location 2821 | Added on Wednesday, December 28, 2016 7:56:01 PM
how he connects with people to get deeper understating about the place.
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Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads (Theroux, Paul)
- Your Highlight on page 164 | Location 2817-2821 | Added on Wednesday, December 28, 2016 7:56:02 PM
“So what’ll I do?” I said, just to provoke him. And it worked so well I was sorry for my insincerity, because the man looked pained on my behalf. “I know. You off the grid. You really need one in these parts. Me, I wouldn’t drive around here without one.” “But it all looks beautiful to me.” “They’s some strange places here. God, I only wish I could help.”
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Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads (Theroux, Paul)
- Your Note on page 167 | Location 2886 | Added on Wednesday, December 28, 2016 8:06:15 PM
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Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads (Theroux, Paul)
- Your Highlight on page 167 | Location 2882-2886 | Added on Wednesday, December 28, 2016 8:06:15 PM
I thought I had misheard. Surely this was impossible. I queried the date. “Correct—1850.” So Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) was younger than Reverend Lyles’s grandfather. “My grandfather wasn’t born here, but he came here. He remembered slavery. He told us all about it. I was thirteen years old when he passed. I was born in 1934. He would have been in his nineties. Work it out—he was ten years old in 1860. Education wasn’t for blacks then. He lived slavery. Therefore his name was that of his owner, Lyles, and he was Andrew Lyles. Later on, he heard stories about the Civil War, and he told them to me.”
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Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads (Theroux, Paul)
- Your Note on page 170 | Location 2922 | Added on Wednesday, December 28, 2016 8:10:50 PM
many quotations like this to add support.
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Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads (Theroux, Paul)
- Your Highlight on page 170 | Location 2921-2922 | Added on Wednesday, December 28, 2016 8:10:50 PM
Erskine Caldwell wrote in Deep South: Memory and Observation, his 1966 book-length essay on Southern churches—his own father was an itinerant preacher—“
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Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads (Theroux, Paul)
- Your Highlight on page 171 | Location 2942-2943 | Added on Wednesday, December 28, 2016 8:14:51 PM
I needed solitude to transcribe my notes and conversations into description and dialogue. I did not use a tape recorder.
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