Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta
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THE A5 BOOK REVIEWLeave it to the English writer Richard Grant to capture the soul of the enigmatic and often disparaged Mississippi Delta. Grant, captivated by the beauty of the region and a love of the blues, makes an impulsive decision to leave his shoebox of an apartment in New York City to buy an isolated old plantation house and to bring his girlfriend Mariah to the tiny and bizarre little community of Pluto, Mississippi. Daily life is an adventure as the couple learns to fight off snakes and alligators, to grow and hunt for their own food, and to assimilate with the eccentric cast of locals. And Morgan Freeman. Grant does a fantastic job describing the unique culture of this region, including real insights into the complexity of racial tensions and the crushing impact of a shrinking economy. Despite the challenges of daily life and the overwhelming clouds of racism, Grant describes an enjoyable experience with some remarkable and generous people. Dispatches From Pluto is entertaining and funny, written with empathy, and giving readers a rich view into the area that Grant calls “the best kept secret in America”.
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OTHER RECOMMENDED TRAVEL BOOKS - RICHARD GRANTRichard Grant is a freelance English travel writer who now lives in Mississippi, best known for his writing on exploration and culture. He has published a number of books including two travelogues: God's Middle Finger (2008) recounting his travels in a dangerous part of Mexico and Crazy River: Exploration and Folly in East Africa (2011). Click here to learn more about Richard Grant and his work.
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GREAT QUOTES:“One of my hopes in writing this book is to dissolve these clumsy old stereotypes, and illustrate my conviction that Mississippi is the best kept secret in the United States. Nowhere else is so poorly understood by outsiders, so unfairly maligned, so surreal and peculiar, so charming and maddening. Individually, collectively, and above all politically, Mississipians have a genius for charging after phantoms and lost causes. Nowhere else in the world have I met so many fine, generous, honorous people..."
- Richard Grant, Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found on the Mississippi Delta. “It was religion, it was worship, it was masterful musicianship and electrifying performance art, all rolled into one. It was a tradition, honed and perfected over many generations. It was a survival mechanism, an escape hatch, a way to feel exalted, sanctified, joined together in glory. It was a way to beat mortality and to live forever in the perfect sky.” - Richard Grant, Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found on the Mississippi Delta. “So you see the difficulty in trying to generalize about racism even in one tiny pocket of the Mississippi Delta. It’s a shifting target, a grouping of perceptions about other people’s perceptions. There’s a huge social chasm between the races, a deep history of prejudice, and bonds so close they feel like kinship.” - Richard Grant, Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found on the Mississippi Delta. INTERESTING LINKS:
A MAP OF PLUTO AND THE MISSISSIPPI DELTATHOSE WHO LIKED THIS BOOK WILL ALSO LIKE:
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