The literary equivalent of a Hee Haw joke.
“Ah cot mah wife in bed with my brutha”
“You bitter?”
“Ayup, bit him too!”
I am from the South and while I am not from the SOUTH-SOUTH and we were blue collar and working class (more from a mountain town), we didn’t have any money and my siblings and I were the first generation from the family to go to college. I’ve also taken a number of Southern Lit classes. That’s all to say that when I asked my professor about this book one time 15 years ago, she just shuddered and called it trash. And it is trash. It’s got the sensibility of Hillbilly Elegy, but without the sympathy. It’s like a slightly less grotesque version of the X Files episode, “Home”.
I won’t get into the story except to tell you that the whole book is written not with a sneer, which would be antagonistic and confrontational, but with a false and infuriating sense of pity. So the effect of the whole book is say “look at these poor rednecks who can’t even do for themselves” and if you know any “poor” rednecks you would know how that attitude would go over.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Tobacco-Road-Novel-Erskine-Caldwell-ebook/dp/B0054TB664/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=tobacco+road&qid=1584999124&sr=8-2)
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