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Homeplace: A Southern Town, a Country Legend, and the Last Days of a Mountaintop Honky-Tonk Hardcover – July 17, 2018

3.9 out of 5 stars 54

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An intimate account of country music, social change, and a vanishing way of life as a Shenandoah town collides with the twenty-first century

Winchester, Virginia is an emblematic American town. When John Lingan first traveled there, it was to seek out Jim McCoy: local honky-tonk owner and the DJ who first gave airtime to a brassy-voiced singer known as Patsy Cline, setting her on a course for fame that outlasted her tragically short life. What Lingan found was a town in the midst of an identity crisis.
 
As the U.S. economy and American culture have transformed in recent decades, the ground under centuries-old social codes has shifted, throwing old folkways into chaos.
Homeplace teases apart the tangle of class, race, and family origin that still defines the town, and illuminates questions that now dominate our national conversation—about how we move into the future without pretending our past doesn't exist, about what we salvage and what we leave behind. Lingan writes in “penetrating, soulful ways about the intersection between place and personality, individual and collective, spirit and song.”*
 
* Leslie Jamison, author of
The Empathy Exams

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Editorial Reviews

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“You end Homeplace thinking that every American town could use a book like this one written about it; every town could afford to be this lovingly but critically seen. Like many of the best country songs, the book is sentimental in a way that makes you wonder why sentiment is such a dirty word.”  —New York Times Book Review "Those who pick up Homeplace will find a means to escape the ugly partisan drone of their TV programs, to take refuge in something quieter and more measured on the page. In these times when we learn about the Other more often through derogatory memes than through in-depth reporting, an immersive experience like Homeplace feels exponentially more revelatory than any nonfiction you're likely to have read since the dawn of Twitter. It's a refreshing shift in intellectual gears, and the details about rural American living that Lingan spotlights, even when they depict this society as substantially less than perfect, combine to make for a poignant but satisfying whole: a trip through Winchester, at least as seen, heard, smelled and felt through Lingan's pen, is just plain good for the soul...By searching with an open heart, and writing with a frank honesty, Lingan manages an impossible feat: to make Homeplace an antidote to the divisive anger of today's America and to the unrealistic nostalgia that our current despairs inspire."-- PopMatters “John Lingan writes in penetrating, soulful ways about the intersection between place and personality, individual and collective, spirit and song.” —Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams and The Recovering   “Homeplace is a magnificent work, new school journalism with old school heart. The combination of intellectual integrity and human curiosity, human compassion, is as intoxicating as it is educational. This is a book in service of place and time, which is to say, literature.” —Rick Bass, author of The Traveling Feast   “Some of the best histories of America are those told in miniature: a forgotten landmark, a local celebrity, a small town in transition. John Lingan's Homeplace is all of that and more: a perfectly rendered elegy for an iconic music venue that tells a much larger story: how our dreams, desperation and hope become transcribed in the landscape that surrounds us and embedded in the songs we pass down as our legacy.” —Colin Dickey, author of Ghostland   “John Lingan writes movingly about places that are just up the road yet seem impossibly distant to many. Homeplace offers a vivid portrait of a disappearing America, and a hope that the barriers that divide us can be breached by listening to other people's stories.” —Peter Manseau, author of The Apparitionists   “John Lingan is an old-school storyteller, wringing humor and heart out of every little interaction. But Homeplace is so much more than a good yarn. Lingan looks into every crack in the American myth, turning the story of one town over until the beauty, tragedy and contradictions of a huge chunk of national identity become clear. The reporting here is indefatigable, the prose full of music. Lingan achieves that highest, hardest goal of writing: he makes us see the world fresh.” —Lucas Mann, author of Captive Audience “Brimming with humanity, here is a lyrical elegy to a declining Shenandoah honky-tonk, to the country singer who drove us "Crazy" and broke our hearts, and to the slow, inexorable erosions of modernity in one little mountaintop town. J —

About the Author

JOHN LINGAN has written for the Oxford American, Atlantic, BuzzFeed, the Baffler, Slate, the New Republic, the Virginia Quarterly Review, and many other places. He lives in Maryland. He spent four years reporting and writing Homeplace, his first book.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper (July 17, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0544932536
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0544932531
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.98 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 out of 5 stars 54

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
54 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2018
I was drawn to this book by a glowing review in the New York Times Book Review in early June and was not disappointed. This is a nuanced look at the changes that are occurring in places like Winchester Virginia as they try to maintain a sense of community identity, economic viability and relevance. It is the story common to many places and Mr. Lingan elevates the tale in warm, sympathetic prose. He has a keen eye and ear for what is and is not authentic. He conveys a very clear sense of place. We all know places like Winchester and hope for their survival. Jim McCoy is emblematic of the town, following his passion for the "real" music, staying the course for the duration. There are many side roads including an hysterical chapter about a spring water tasting competition. Along the way i was introduced to Joe Bageant whose life was too brief but whose writing I have added to my list of intended reading. All in all, Homeplace is a very enjoyable read. This could be a cloying and predictable story in the hands of someone less accomplished. Lingan is a promising new voice whose perspective, heart and talent is impressive. Five stars indeed.
8 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2020
I was looking for more info directly on Patsy
Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2018
John Lingan has written a very engaging book based on his intimate knowledge and relationship with the town of Winchester, Virginia and its better known citizens. The book is rich in well-researched history of people and place. The author brings his own worldview to the table in an engaging, non-judgemental way that respects all sides and allows the reader to make their own judgement regarding character and place. I enjoyed it immensely
Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2018
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
Homeplace is an interesting book because it sells itself as an examination of a small town in the South caught up in the changes of the 21st century. I am not so sure it cceeds in that manner. However, as the story of an author in search of something authentic and perhaps discovering more about himself, the book scores quite well. At the center of the story is the author's engagement with the city of Winchester, Virginia. The city is famous for its Civil War history and as the birthplace of country music legend Patsy Cline. The city fathers (and mothers, I should point out) are far more favorable to the former. Lingan contrasts the city's relationship to those two legacies quite well. I enjoy his use of local country star Jim McCoy to enter the Cline side of the story, and that side quickly dominates the book. But this isn't a book about Patsy Cline, rather, Lingan struggles to understand this place outside of, but so near, the beltway. Sometimes I don't know if he is trying to present a realistic picture of some folks or a cartoon of them. That bothers me. However, ultimately this is about John Lingan attempts to understand himself in this world outside the beltway. And I do like the portrayal of McCoy who isn't treated as a cartoon, though I don't think his career was as much a "failure" as Lingan might think. McCoy was a local working country musician who achieved regional success. That is a far more common story than the (now) towering success of Cline. I also think that this book has the potential to become one of those "why are they different than the coasts" book that people might try to use to understand America in the 2010s, which I don't think it should be seen as. I was hoping to understand Cline's hometown and the world that produced her after reading this book, but I don't think I came away with that. I did read an account of a beltway person who tired sincerely to engage a world not his own. If he (and his book) are clumsy at that, he still produced a good read. Now go read Warrren Hofstra's work on Winchester for an academic interpretation
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Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2018
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
When you drive through the country on the interstate highways, you miss what is going on in the small towns of America. But, travel on the two lane roadways and you go through small towns. Each has its own story to tell. “HOMEPLACE -– A Southern Town, A Country Legend, And The Last Days Of A Mountaintop Honky Tonk” -- is a collection of stories about people and the actions they took to grow family enterprises , agriculture, music industry careers, and a down-to-earth way of life set against the background of the Blue Ridge Mountains and The Shenandoah Valley. The author, John Lingan, is an adept writer whose work previously appeared in The New York Times and other publications including those found on line. This is his first book and is the fruit of four years of research.

He took the time to meet some interesting people in Berkeley Springs (pop ~ 600), West Virginia and Winchester (pop ~ 25,000), Virginia. They shared with the author their recollections of Patsy Cline, a major country music star with a gigantic voice who died tragically in a plane crash just as her career was moving like a rocket. One of her mentors and biggest fans was Jim McCoy who owned the Troubadour, a family-run honky tonk on a high overlook accessed by a mountain road. The author centered much of the story on the history of the towns and on the recollections and deep memories of those who cherish their memories of Patsy Cline. John Lingan introduces his readers to the colonial history of the two places, one a small town and one a small city, and to their growth, pertinent politics and won and lost prosperity and their present day status. I felt like I was sitting in on conversations at diners, church gatherings and events, fund raisers, town festivals, chamber of commerce boosters, honky tonk days and nights, and hard times as well as good times. The author has a way of bringing the small town life into focus in the reader’s mind. There are surprises in this book as you ramble through its pages. One thing for sure! You will look at small Southern Town life with greater insight after you read “HOMEPLACE”. The ways of small Southern townspeople are explored in detail along with some of the backbiting, envy, frustrated ambition, class status and even the impact of prejudice mounted against former slave families, people of color and those who are "different" or "outsiders". It took time and patience to gain the trust of the people portrayed in this book and the author did that with empathy by sharing their hopes, fears and stories. At times the book feels like a collection of articles that might appear in a travel magazine or a local newspaper and I found myself not anticipating what might be on the next page. Overall, it is a good story and a slice of uncommon history.
Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2019
This book was based around my uncle. Fun things that I did not know. Loved how it told the true and close relationship my uncle had with Patsy, Charlie and Ernest Tubbs.