Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads

“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.” — New York Times Book Review
 
Paul Theroux has spent the past fifty years roaming the globe, describing his encounters with remote people and far-flung places in ten best-selling travel books. Now, for the first time, he explores a part of America—the Deep South. Setting out on a winding road trip, Theroux discovers a region of architectural and artistic wonders, incomparable music, mouth-watering cuisine—and also some of the worst schools, medical care, housing, and unemployment rates in the nation.
                Yet, no matter where he goes, Theroux meets the unsung heroes of the South, the people who, despite it all, never left, and also those who found their way home and devoted their lives to rebuilding a place they could never live without.
 
“Paul Theroux’s latest travel memoir had me at hello . . . Theroux pulls no punches in his quest to understand this overlooked margin of American life.” — Boston Globe
 
“A vivid contemporary portrait of rural life . . . a deeply affecting personal account.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Published Oct 18, 2016

480 pages

Average rating: 7.33

3 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

SamIAm
Jan 12, 2023
6/10 stars
Depressing as hell. The few bright lights and thoughtful, caring people are buried by the hate and ignorance encountered at the next stop (usually yet another gun show). Sherman should have done us all a favor and executed, salted and plowed it all under like Rome did with Carthage.
BingoGunter
Dec 27, 2022
8/10 stars
An American travel writer that usually writes about Africa and India tours the US South. A well done examination of the dire inequities that mirror those in the rest of the Global South.

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