Customer Reviews

Almost Heaven: Travels Through the Backwoods of America

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Martin Fletcher is a reporter for the Times of London, stationed in Washington D.C., at the start of this book. He takes a sabbatical from this work, and travels across America, ostensibly in search of the "other America." You know, the rural countryside, where life is simpler and the people are poorer, less sophisticated, more honest. The problem is what he finds, and ultimately the method he uses to find it.

Fletcher travelled the country looking at various communities, but he skips large swathes of the country---New England, the MidWest, California. Instead he takes a wandering path that he gives you the impression is random, but eventually he lets it slip that he knew where he was going all along, for the most part. The result is that in his "wanderings" he discovers that rural America is peopled by strange people who speak weird dialects, religious kooks, white supremacists, more religious kooks, unreconstructed hippies, still more religious kooks, and some poor black people. It turns out that Fletcher, being a reporter from the Times, had done some research, and planned to visit various of these places before he left, *because* the people there were strange. He seems to have avoided, or driven through, the places with "just folks."

Nevertheless, the writing is reasonably interesting, and the characters are fun, for the most part. The author avoids being judgmental about everyone but the right wing white supremacist religious nuts, who he openly disdains, but of course no one really likes them anyway. The result is an uneven book, filled with interesting portraits of interesting people on the one hand, but on the other with a definitely skewed perspective of rural America that isn't particularly pleasant, to be honest. I will therefor recommend this book, but with that warning: don't take this as a portrait of America, rather it's more of a portrait of parts of America.

British journalist Martin Fletcher sets out to discover "the other America," by which he means rural America. During his journey, which is limited to the South and Rocky Mountain states, he seeks out America at its weirdest. He interviews snake-handling fundamentalists, UFO cultists, polygamists, Ku Klux Klanners, militia groups, and moonshiners. He visits the US's poorest counties, several Indian reservations, and an island where Black Americans still speak an African dialect. He drops in on an illegal cockfight and a legal brothel. A great deal of page space is given to Louisiana's infamous 18,000 acre Angola Prison, where he seems to have been given free rein to talk to everyone. Here it is, folks - the US at its most embarrassing and most depressing. Fletcher is writing for a British audience, and apparently the Brits eat up this stuff - they like looking down at the US because it takes their minds off the fact that they live in a country that hasn't yet discovered central heating.

Yet, I give it a good rating because as much as I dislike the book's premise, it's hard to put down. It's the book equivalent of the Jerry Springer Show: As repulsive as it may be, it's riveting to watch, and the same is true of Fletcher's book. Nevertheless, I cringe to think what impression it leaves with non-US readers.

A British journalist ends his 8 year assignment in America with a long trip designed to find the weirdest people in America - and largely succeeds.

This is not at all a slice-of-life survey of random Americans, but a purposeful trip to interview these fringe elements. Even so, this book is a fun look at the fringe element.

The author starts from Washington D.C. and heads out to tiny Smith Island in Chesapeake bay. I think he could have found much weirder people in D.C., from corrupt, drug-using, womanizers like Mayor Barry to Congressional homosexual brothel sponsors like Barney Frank. But instead we are treated to the wonders of a vanishing way of life with the watermen on Smith Island.

He then travels through Virginia and West Virginia, going bear hunting with some good-ol'-boys and then enjoying some pentecostal snake handling at church. That the author puts hunters in the same class of "weird" as poison snake-handlers lets you see a little of his European prejudice. After reading about the snake-handlers and how many get bit or die, you just have to shake your head - something you'll do often in this book.

Then we learn about marijuana growing and moonshining, interspersed with the Melungeans - descendants of a group of pre-revolution settlers from who knows where. Even being a native American, these are groups I had no idea existed in this varied country.

Next in the Carolinas we visit a red-neck KKK shop and then islands of blacks who have their own language and culture and no whites need apply. Interesting to see these groups compared and contrasted.

A short visit to hear ex-President Carter preach in his church in Plains Georgia is included. That the arguably worst President in US history has rehabilitated his image is an example of American tolerance and forgiveness.

I found his visit in Alabama especially fun. He interviewed the last Civil War pensioner, the governor of Alabama, and had an impromptu tour of the State Supreme Court building given by the current Chief Justice. He also was shanghaied by a group of ardent Creationists who tried to convert him. The author lets a little of his disdain for those he doesn't agree with leak through, but he obviously has a soft spot for these people also.

He then spends some time seeking out towns with a history of poverty and racism. While plenty of poverty still exists, there isn't too much racism left.

The author then tours the prison in Angola and visits the Cajuns. Both of these areas were surprisingly interesting. Diamond digging in Arkansas, small town Texas and UFO Nirvana in New Mexico are also visited. Polygamists in Utah, prostitutes in Nevada, Indian reservations and various decaying towns along the way are also visited. He ends with visits to various recluses in the Northwest.

If you tried to read this book at one setting I think you would find a sameness to certain parts. The underlying theme of "weird" people can be a little trying. The author also uses the derisive term of the "State of Paranoia" to describe much of America. And though the author gives plenty of examples of weirdness, his judgements ring a little hollow given that you can't even cut a tree down in your own backyard in much of Europe without government permission.

In my 50 years of travelling the US with my itinerant Geologist father and on my own, I have crossed paths with many of these same people. In almost all of them, I have found a joie de vivre, openness, and respect for other's foibles lacking in New York, LA, London, and San Francisco. And though I think playing with poisonous snakes and trying to secede from the Union are as kooky as it gets, I just have a hard time trying to force my views on others as long as they don't hurt anyone else. So long live kooks! The world would be a poorer place without them.

Overall, I recommend this book with the advice to take it all with a grain of salt and the knowledge that these people in no way are representative of Americans in general.

This is a really good read. Martin Fletcher is an Englishman who travelled the back roads of the USA. This book is about his findings. For the most part, Fletcher had specific destinations in mind, but the things and people that he introduces us to are remarkable. Some of the things that he writes about that amazed me are: a group of Americans whose speech patterns still smack of Elizabethan English, an island that is home to a herd of wild horses that are the descendants of a Spanish shipwreck from hundreds of years ago, the Mysterious Melungeons, and just about every other sub-culture group in the US. This is a very informative and interesting read. I couldnt put it down.

I love travel writing, of which this book is a great example. However, I only stumbled upon it because I happened to meet a friend of the author, and I think its a great shame that more people haven't been introduced to this writer. This book covers his journey from The Delmarva peninsula all the way to the Pacific NW. Along the way he took the time to meet with locals, and learn about their everyday lives and the changes that have been ongoing in many of the little nooks and crannies of this country. He had researched his trip well, and took the time to meet with local politicians and newspaper editors, all of whom added their own local flavor. I have been eagerly awaiting Bill Brysons next book and now I will add Martin Fletcher to the same waiting list.

I'll admit that this book didn't jump off the shelf at me. In fact, I got it at a bargain sale at our college on the sole premise that I couldn't go wrong with a travelogue for a buck. However, in retrospect, I would easily pay full price for this book. It's an interesting, relaxing, and fun read.

There's enough written here about the premise of the book. I thought it was captivating though to see the real cross-section of America that he was able to meet just by hopping in his car and taking off. For those of us that are much too shy to travel across America and walk up to strangers and introduce ourselves, or for those too tied down for an extended road trip, this is a great book through which to live vicariously.

Fletcher reveals the fallacy of American cultural homogenisation, by highlighting the infinite and remarkable complexity of the United States. A book you won't regret reading, but will lament finishing.

A Brilliant book. Martin Fletcher takes the reader through the unexplored tracks of America, and paints the reader a picture of an unknown america so fantastically well that it is a book immpossible to put down. I strongly recommend this book. Funny, well-written, and fascinating, Martin Fletcher easily compares with Bill Bryson and John Steinbech.

Mr. Fletcher is fascinated by the American characters not found in the scrubbed and clean travelogues that whip you past tourist monuments. He's after the detours that take you through some of the scruffier parts of the country, with wicked good portraits of the eccentrics he's found. If you want a genial, witty companion who is bemused by -- and obviously fond of -- Americans, you can do no better than Mr. Fletcher. Plus, his humor is infectious and inspirational. If you have any interest in writing about your own travels, you'll want to see if you can do for the British what he's done for (to?) Americans.

I'm sure this trip could only have been undertaken by a journalist. No other professions have this many contacts as it was obvious that Fletcher was not driving randomly about the country. No sarcasm or cheap shots markes this out as something different.