Deer Hunting with Jesus: Guns, Votes, Debt and Delusion in Redneck America
£2.98
Thought-provoking - I really wanted to understand, in greater detail, the reason for the solid Republican vote which is still evident in the southern USA and this book looked to be just what I wanted.Bageant understands the reasons because he was brought up in the south - he can talk to people who live within southern right-wing God-fearing gun-toting communities and gain their trust, and therefore their honest thoughts, on why they vote and live the way they do, the issues and problems these communities face (literacy, history, political marginalisation), and which the liberal elite are quick to dismiss. Bageant isn t patronising, but neither does he condone the more fanatical wing, and is able to present clear reasoning to the reader without trying to elicit sympathy.
Like the views but it got a bit tedious - I agree with Paul WelshThis is an interesting book to start off with but it wore me down and I had to stop about 2/3rds of the way through.Agree with his amazement at the politics of his neighbours but the writing style just got too much.
Much more interesting than I expected - I would never have considered myself a redneck or to have any redneck values - until I read this book and, with some horror, I realised that there is redneck in all of us. It s deeply unsettling to discover that there is logic and reason (didn t say it was good....) behind the classic redneck image and how little is being done to combat it - in fact quite the reverse.Read it but be prepared to have your self-perception changed forever.
Depressing reading - This didn t promise to be a fun read but I must admit after reading about a third of it I felt an overwhelming weariness with it. In the end I didnt finish it. It s possible I missed the point.
Interesting in parts, ultimately fails to convince - This is an odd book: at once interesting and readable (apart from the dull chapter on guns) but equally frustrating and, ultimately, unconvincing. As an insight into a side of American life which outsiders rarely see, it fascinates and appalls in equal measure. It has important things to say about guns and their place in parts of American culture (which is particularly interesting to a European, inclined only to see one side of the gun control debate) and was clearly prescient about irresponsible lending to people unable to sustain huge debts. However, it is let down by an author whose conviction not only of his own rightness but of everyone else s wrongness becomes tedious. Ironcially, by the end of the book Bageant has become like the charismatic preachers he scrutinises: he s a man with tunnel vision and some converting to do. Fair enough, this is polemic, but I find it difficult to believe that Joe alone has seen the light while all of the people in Winchester and the other places he writes about are unthinkingly accepting of a Government/Church line. In presenting his countrymen as done-down dupes Joe is surely becoming what he purports to despise, namely the educated outsider who sees the little people as a homogeneous mass to be manipulated and cajoled.