I abandoned this book because it was impossibly dull, insufferably dull, exasperatingly dull, it was the sort of dull book then when I was at universiI abandoned this book because it was impossibly dull, insufferably dull, exasperatingly dull, it was the sort of dull book then when I was at university would make your melt and strip of the will to live. Fortunately I am not at university any more, indeed a lifetime well or misspent (depending on ones point of view) separates me from the days when I had to read such twaddle. Obscurantist prose is not a prerequisite of academia - it is the defense slopping thinking uses to hide its mediocreness and fallacies.
I am politely giving this work my compromise three stars. I don't think it any good, I wouldn't recommend it, but I can't honestly say it is really useless because I haven't, no, I can't read it....more
This book is rubbish but also fun in the same way that pictures of the sacred heart or dayglo last supper images are, it is something to read when youThis book is rubbish but also fun in the same way that pictures of the sacred heart or dayglo last supper images are, it is something to read when you are bored, but not to be taken seriously. Shelving it as waste-of-time is probably unfair but to take it seriously would be a waste-of-time.
If a library hadn't stocked the book I would never have even glanced at a copy - which would have been a pity because it was, like some heart attack inducing junk food, enjoyable, for a very little time. In the days when there were bookstores it was the sort of book you read in them, unless you read in the loo of some friend's house. ...more
I read this book maybe twenty years ago and only only recently discovered it on my shelves and, in response to the several po-faced reviewers on GoodrI read this book maybe twenty years ago and only only recently discovered it on my shelves and, in response to the several po-faced reviewers on Goodreads who claimed the author was a snooty English journalist seeking freaks to make fun of, I had to take another look because my recollection of the book was entirely different. Upon rereading I didn't find the callous sophisticate making fun of the yokels but a rather sensitive and observant one. Mr. Jeffreys does take an interest in some odd and, to a UK reader like myself bizarre people and events, but he is acutely conscious and dwells on the poverty, decline in economic opportunity and the 'American Dream' that are the roots of what he reports. It maybe this aspect that caused some American reviewers to find offence, no one likes to hear that the 'land of opportunity' is in fact a land of opportunity for only those who have the opportunities already.
Looking at the book today I have to admit that like a great deal of travel reportage it has been overtaken by events. Things that were novel in 1999 - the Burning Man festival, hiring hitmen to kill unwanted spouses, LA dog grooming parlours are still around as are bear wrestling (where a bear declawed and with filed down teeth is brought to some honky tonk bar bar and wrestles with various dunk customers), and the Angola prison rodeo (where prisoners 'performed' various dangers tasks for paltry sums and the amusements of visitors) are still going strong. The 'Dead Serious Group' which offered $5,000 to anyone killing a criminal in the midst of committing a crime seems no longer to be operating and, I am happy to report, that Heather Tallebrief has still not been caught. It is still illegal to have sex outside of marriage in the state of Idaho but the active prosecution of teenagers who had sex in Emmett city seems no longer to be a priority of the local police. The real pity is that the most interesting stories such as Stella Kasza's attempt to sue the US government over over the environmental and health breeches at Area 51 which one would hope would have found resolution have none.
What is really interesting is that there is so much that the author reports, such as the rise of conspiracies and social media, which the author didn't see how important they would become. Other stories, such as the malaise and loss of direction and purpose in the CIA post the collapse of the Soviet Union, have been overtaken by events since 9/11 - though the real effectiveness of the CIA is just as problematic today. It just has a new raison d'etre but seeing how badly it handled its original brief against the Soviet Union that isn't much comfort.
Jeffreys book is, in my opinion, better than most books of this type, there is a great deal of foreshadowing here, such as the rise of the bail bond industry, though back in 1999 reality TV had yet to make heroes of its more grotesque practitioners. It is actually in dealing with the bail bondsmen, snake handlers and other 'freaks' that Jeffreys shows his greatest sympathies because he doesn't treat them like fools but people struggling against forces that have made a lie of all their hopes and dreams.
This is a book which twenty five years has made continuous google updates essential but sadly, reading it again, it is easy to see the roots of the USA's current situation has long, deep, complex and uneasy roots....more
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