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Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads Hardcover – September 29, 2015

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Paul Theroux (Author)
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Paul Theroux (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars 282 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (September 29, 2015)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0544323521
  • ISBN-13: 978-0544323520
  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.5 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (282 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsGreat! More Books Based in the U.S. Please!
By T. Young VINE VOICE on August 13, 2015
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Take him or leave him, Paul Theroux always brings out a lot of interesting emotions in his readers. With Deep South this is no different. In fact, it is probably even more evident. I would assume that most of his readers are American. This being a very "American" book, it is perhaps too close to home for some. I can see many Americans not liking this even if they have liked Theroux's previous works. After all, it is easy to read about the negative aspects of a far away land. It is far harder to read about the issues that face locations closer to home.

I remember reading The Kingdom by the Sea, which chronicles Theroux's journey around Great Britain. In the first few pages he details his observations about this island. I was living in England while I read this and I thought it was the funniest, most accurate description of the British I had ever read. The insanity of a TV license, the general tone of the people, etc. I cannot remember everything. But I felt it was totally accurate. I read these pages to several of my English friends and they got extremely upset. They thought it was total hogwash.

I think Deep South might elicit a similar response from American readers. I've read nearly every non-fiction book Theroux has ever written. I've seen him speak in London and I feel I know the man pretty well. As well as you can know an author. He is constantly getting nailed for being misanthropic. However, I don't believe that's him at all. Quite the contrary. After all, why would someone spend this much time traveling and meeting new people? Surely you don't do this if you hate humanity. I don't even like to talk to people when I'm on a long flight!

What Theroux is good at is simply observing what is what and writing it down. That's all.Read more ›
2 Comments 175 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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3.0 out of 5 starsAn interesting but ultimately sad and depressing journey south
By Elisa 20 TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on August 9, 2015
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Paul Theroux is a very good writer and he finds ways to remind us of it periodically--whether its the affluent life its given him on Cape Cod, his frequent critical riffs on other writers (Faulkner's "over-embellishments" just for one) or how dismissive he is when someone he is interviewing calls him out on being fifteen minutes late and not calling to tell them, informing him upon arrival that it seemed disrespectful, and a condescension typical of "white privilege".

To his credit, he tells the story, even though in doing so he scoffs at the idea that his lateness had showed any disrespect at all, even though the appointment, set as a courtesy for him, had been scheduled at the last moment for his convenience. There is an arrogance here--one that he would vehemently deny--and it bubbles all the more often to the surface because of the task he has set himself in "going south". He's a college-educated, wealthy white travel writer from Cape Cod, driving around "the South" to see how the poor (read: black) folks live. There are a few problems inherent in this journey right from the start and they don't really get fixed.

It's interesting, maybe to the point of being a mistake, that he decides to focus on the poor, the 20% of the Deep South that live in poverty, the 20% of the southerners--he tells us--for whom "poor" is synonymous with "black". He meets a lot of these impoverished minorities on his trip through Virginia (not exactly "deep south"), Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi. And almost invariably they are good-hearted, welcoming (even if some are initially a bit edgy given his purpose) and helpful.Read more ›
8 Comments 116 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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3.0 out of 5 starsAn interesting and worthy read unfortunately spoiled by an apparent agenda
By Colin Brown VINE VOICE on September 14, 2015
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Paul Theroux has fairly much travelled the world and written about his experiences, whether it is Africa, Greece or the far East. In Deep South, his latest travel book, Paul has decided to write about his experiences at home. Well...not quite home seeing as he is a Yankee and lives in Hawaii, but of the South, the deep South.

This book was written over the course of 4 trips to the South, one in each Season and his travels take him from the Carolinas through to Arkansas and his beloved Mississippi river, "The Old Man". Unusually, rather than taking in all that the South has to offer, Paul decided to go out of his way and visit the places that people don't really want to visit. Not the tourist spots or the bustling cities but the poorest and most run down areas of the South.

Paul is well versed in the travel books of others before him, "Reading made me a traveler; travel sent me back to books" and he often cites other works and authors in the text. During his travels he meets and interviews a broad spectrum of people from mayors to social workers, students to the myriad of friendly soul food diner owners.

Although the book is mainly split into the four major chapters, each covering a season (with a brief interlude in-between), each chapter is really divided into lots of short stories, each only a couple of pages in length. I find this style of writing a welcome change as you can pick up the book, read a few sub-chapters and put it back down again without losing the overall plot or meanderings Paul takes.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 starsThis book was very disappointing to read! I was ...

This book was very disappointing to read! I was hoping to read a book that truly depicted the Deep South but this is just a bigoted viewpoint by an author who doesn't seem to... Read more

Published 2 days ago by Carol McKellar
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Purchased for family and they thoroughly enjoyed it.

Published 24 days ago by D. T.
4.0 out of 5 starsNot his best. The prople discriptions are always rich

Enjoyable. Not his best. The prople discriptions are always rich

Published 26 days ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsmr. theroux has always intrigued me. he has ...

mr. theroux has always intrigued me. he has a way with a word that flows. his insights are always expressed in a personal and unique manner.

Published 28 days ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsThis involved a lot of historical as well as contemporary ...

This involved a lot of historical as well as contemporary viewing of the Southern scene. Theroux as usual keeps one turning pages.

Published 29 days ago by maureen
4.0 out of 5 starsGood Read

This is a good book, but not Theroux' best. It's very interesting, but he can't help speaking politically in his own country. Read more

Published 29 days ago by Jon W. Florey
4.0 out of 5 starsgood for understanding inner America

an interesting anecdotal view of the American Deep South focusing on the rural poor.

Published 1 month ago by mont
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

good read, illuminates the real poverty that goes unnoticed in the USA

Published 1 month ago by Douglas C. Shepard
3.0 out of 5 starsI would have given this book another star just for ...

I would have given this book another star just for the style of Mr. Theroux's writing; however, I could not lose the feeling that many of Mr. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 starsShame on Washington (DC) for forgetting the South of this Nation.

After a slow beginning Theroux's 'Deep South' evolved into a very interesting quasi political account particularly his travels and review of Arkansas. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Gesine deWolf

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