Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(2)
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3 star:		(1)
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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.

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.

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.