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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Lost Tribes of America, April 9, 2009
What's it like to be the oddball, the type of "out of the box" person or group that most people pretend to admire - from a distance in reality? What makes such folks tick? And whether or not one judges with the terms dysfunctional, weird, strange, etc., etc., shouldn't one understand these outsiders since the world is full of same? Evan Wright, who previously wrote for "The Hustler" magazine and "Rolling Stone" newspaper brings the reader into the world of men and woman who have a very definite but different outlook on the American Dream.
The author introduces the reader to his own evolution from a rebel using drugs to cope with reality into a sober, reflective person seeking to pen his explorations of what he calls a "tour of the Lost Tribes of America. Therefore, the reader is surprised that the opening account concerns American troops serving in Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold in southeastern Afghanistan. The area is a veritable dust storm waiting to happen and one gets an uncensored glimpse into the grinding, tense yet mundane atmosphere these soldiers endure daily, fantasizing and teasing newbies about the happy meals one can get in a nearby village and coping with unremitting sexual tension, fear of being killed and spurts of total inactivity.
The scene then shifts to the world of a professional skateboarder, a daredevil who performs his most dangerous stunts when totally drunk but someone who makes a fortune in this field while claiming to reject most acceptable values and occupations. We continue to meet similar yet different characters, taxi-dance hall girls occupied by would-be fantasy partners, radical protestors with the best of intentions carried out with the most destructive possible means, neo-Nazi groups seriously believing in anti-everything-but-white living, con artists, porn professionals and so much more that defies one's most imaginative moments.
Hella Nation raises more questions than it answers. It stretches the reader's definition from what is acceptable to offer a portrait of men and women who find satisfaction and purpose in unique situations that are rather dark, disturbing, frightening, sometimes funny in a skewed fashion, deceptive, laid back, sacred and profane. In a sense, Hella Nation defies description and in that goal Evan Wright has succeeded in presenting another side of America! The conclusion is yours!
Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on April 9, 2009
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hella Journalism, May 25, 2009
I've found it's always a big thrill being a tourist in your own country -America! Hella Nation gathers Evan Wright's award-winning journalism done before and after he wrote Generation Kill. His profiles and encounters across America make Hella Nation an extraordinary and compelling road trip. Through his courageous storytelling, he brings his subjects to light, with humor and surprising compassion - making this genius collection impossible to put down. For a summer trip across America, Hella Nation is a must see!...Like your stop at Yellowstone National Park, only this version is filled with Wright's cast of schemers, dreamers, exotic dancers, Hollywood renegades, and Wright himself, seeking redemption on this journey into the wilds of the American Dream.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Ultimate Cool, June 22, 2009
Hella Nation by Evan Wright
A collection of essays from Rolling Stone and other magazines, the book is about subcultures and social misfits, weird outliers who are fascinating and sometimes frightening in their weirdness. With the courage of a war correspondent, Wright places himself in harm's way to get stories like one about American skinheads; or a Hollywood producer gone over the edge with drugs and rightwing craziness who is just cagey enough to hold onto a few famous contacts; or, most chilling, a story about the intersection of Russian killers and a deadly white-collar criminal. He once worked as an editor at Hustler magazine and writes a hilarious yet sympathetic story about the porn industry with pitch-perfect dialogue. As a top-notch reporter and writer, Wright lets the scenes and people speak for themselves: comical, graphic, and immediate. Even though the stories have been compared to Gonzo journalism, Wright does not inject himself into the story; but renders his subjects with sympathy and objectivity. He comments that the people he covers, far from being society's outcasts, "gravitated to subcultures because they didn't want to participate in the dominant culture."
My favorite piece was the Introduction itself, in which he writes about the impulse behind this book. Wright endured years of alcoholism and substance abuse, but remained a student of the world and an intellectual with a keen and curious mind and a caring soul. "...The more I learned about man's inhumanity to man, the more I was afflicted with intense bouts of sadness, no matter how remote humankind's injustices were in space and time." In his refusal to posture or interject himself in these bold stories, Wright attains the ultimate cool.
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