Redneck Riviera: Armadillos, Outlaws, and the Demise of an American Dream [Hardcover]

Dennis Covington (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 23, 2003

From the author of the National Book Award finalist, Salvation on Sand Mountain , a quixotic, comic account of one man's quest for a small piece of the American Dream. Every year, Dennis Covington's father brought his family to the Gulf Coast of the Florida Panhandle, the "Redneck Riviera," and it seemed there was no place he was happier. Florida was an intoxicant to him. In 1965 he made the only investment of his life--two and a half acres of an inland Florida development called River Ranch Acres. Years after his death, the development went bankrupt, setting the stage for a classic, often violent, confrontation over land use and property rights.Deed in hand, Dennis Covington journeys into the Wild West of the Redneck Riviera to claim his only inheritance. His quest charts a dangerous course: His life is threatened, his truck torched, and his small plot shot up and vandalized as his father's passion to possess the land becomes his own. Redneck Riviera is a personal journey as well as a brilliant look at the clash of values that is tearing apart much of rural America in a place beyond the law.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rednecks, armadillos and outlaws all play only ancillary roles in National Book Award nominee (for Salvation on Sand Mountain) Covington's touching, meandering tribute to his father. And although the title is somewhat misleading, the American dream is front and center as two generations of the Covingtons tenaciously pursue it. In 1965, the elder Covington bought a two-and-half-acre plot in River Ranch Acres, a Florida real estate scam. The land was worthless, never surveyed, miles from the nearest road, and when his father died in 1988, the younger Covington inherited it. Unfortunately, a band of locals, hunters and ne'er-do-wells calling themselves The Hunt Club had since fenced off the entire area and, with guns, restricted access to outsiders. Undeterred, deed in hand, the author sets out to understand, then realize, his father's dream. He chases "the crazy idea that any inheritance might be worth claiming, no matter how small, no matter the cost." Though this is a bracingly original American adventure story, there's too much padding in this short, generously spaced book. Covington is an able observer and skilled writer, but his detours-especially to Idaho toward the end of the book-prevent cohesiveness.
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Review

"Salvation on Sand Mountain is the mesmerizing, creepy description of Covington's spiritual investigation. With care that approaches reverence, Covington makes the story of [the snake handlers] struggle not only fascinating but almost comprehensible. If that's not a miracle, nothing is."

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint Press (December 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582432953
• ISBN-13: 978-1582432953
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,291,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, in fits and starts, March 4, 2004

By 

S. Rosen (NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Redneck Riviera: Armadillos, Outlaws, and the Demise of an American Dream (Hardcover)

The core of the book, which is the author's wrongheaded and doomed attempt to reclaim his father's land -- now dominated by local hunters, outlaws and vaguely corrupt law enforcement officials -- is fascinating. Covington's attempt to transfer his dream of recapturing his inheritance to the wilds of Idaho is somewhat less interesting. Most dissapointing, though, is the attempt to string together a narrative over what must be about a decade's chronology. All told, a few key days on his father's land makes up the core of the story, and you don't get a sense of how long or how hard Covington's efforts were.

Interestingly, this area in Florida where the book takes place seems to dovetail with the swamps covered in Susan Orlean's "The Orchid Thief," which also gives a brief history of the land scam that sets this book's plot in motion.

I'm glad I read the book, though it's less compelling than "Salvation on Sand Mountain," Covington's earlier book on snake-handling and other religiously-driven fervor.

5.0 out of 5 stars Am I showing my age?, January 10, 2011

By 

Cynthia S. Marquez (Miami) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Redneck Riviera: Armadillos, Outlaws and the Demise of an American Dream (Paperback)

I'll start by saying I think Dennis Covington is a fabulous storyteller, so keep that bias in mind. His recounting of his youth brings back such viceral memories of family vacations, family dinamics and his relationship with his father, that you almost feel this book rather than read it. The pleasure is in the telling, not the plot.

I have read this book twice and selected it in book on tape form for our last road trip. Just loved it again.

Have also given it as a gift with satisfying results.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent small book!, November 16, 2004

By 

Reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Redneck Riviera: Armadillos, Outlaws, and the Demise of an American Dream (Hardcover)

Despite its relative lack of heft, this book makes for rich reading. You will learn a lot and think about what Mr. Covington has to say on the subjects of family, land, and place.