Deep South by Paul Theroux

Many people want to travel the world.  And Paul Theroux did, going to Africa and Asia.  What he realized though, was that he had never traveled to the South.  The real "deep south".  How can one travel the world and not have traveled within our own country?

The fact is, our country is ginormous.  It's huge.  And each region has its own isms reflected in its food, customs, religions, cultures, music, holidays, celebrations, every aspect of daily life.

Here in New England, summer means carnivals and Six Flags.  Hot dogs and the beach.  Fall means a rainbow of colored leaves, pumpkin everything, and Halloween.  The whole family together on Thanksgiving, with traditional food.  None of this new fangled recipe nonsense in magazines.  Winter is skiing and snowboarding.  Hockey.  Christmas lights and honoring holiday traditions of a plethora of different religions.  Spring time brings baseball and allergies.  Daffodils.  We speak faster than other regions.  We are addicted to Dunkin Donuts.  We mix New York and Boston.  The Cape.  Vermont and New Hampshire.  Yankee Candle.  Long Island Sound.  Clam chowdah and lobstah rolls.  The T and Fenway.  Hunting, boating, fishing.  The 4th of July.

You can see how devoted we are to our homes.  About 5 years ago, my sister decided to move to California.  Then when her fiance, an officer in the Air Force, was transferred to the D.C. area, they settled in Charlottseville, Virginia.  Going to visit her was like visiting a different world.  We stayed overnight in Manassas, visiting the historic Civil War battlefield and watching a re-enactment.  We met an actor playing a New Hampshire doctor.  He told us his character was a very smart man, then whispered "for a Northerner of course", not knowing we were "Yanks".  People open carry and fly the Confederate flag.  We were only a few hours from home, but it was like being transported to a different country.  Driving North, from Charlottesville to Hershey, we went on back roads.  Churches and crosses every where.  The sky was bluer.  The grass was a different shade of green.

Theroux is from Cape Cod and decides to head to the South, somewhat of a midlife crisis.  He's a white, privileged, middle-aged Northerner in a foreign land.

Life moves much slower in the South.  I have a friend living in Georgia for the past twenty years.  I can't talk to her on the phone because. she. talks. so. darn. slow.  People are identified by race and respective church.  Both define one's "people".  Here in the North, we'd think a stranger asking questions was suspicious and would likely ignore them.  Theroux finds people are eager to offer him a meal or drink and talk about the past and present.

Race dominates many of the stories he hears.  Segregation and the Voter ID law come up frequently.  Food is a major thematic topic.

The book is organized into vignettes, which can be read independently of the whole.  This would make a great text in modern regionalism and the study of the disparities between the American people, often o generalized by media outside our nation.  Americans are X and Y, but in reality we run the gamut A to Z.

There is nothing new about the travel story or the journey to find oneself story, which Theroux admits early on.  What makes this different is that is really about the people he meets and what life is like for them, when viewed by an outsider welcomed in without reserve.

I plan to recommend some of the stories to my colleagues for use in English II (American Lit), U.S. History, Issues in Government, Philosophy, and Psychology.

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