Full name: Noodling for Flatheads: Moonshine, Monster Catfish, and Other Southern Comforts

Author: Burkhard Bilger Year: 2000 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Non Fiction, Essays, Travel Purchase/reserch links: Goodreads LibraryThing Amazon ISBNs: 9780684850115 0684850117

Burkhard Bilger vividly captures a world that lies outside the familiar images of life in the United States in the twenty-first century in eight superbly crafted essays about little-known corners of the South. It is a world in which grown men catch catfish with their bare hands, crowds of people cheer on chickens as they fight to the death, and a woman moves into a trailer home when her house burns down just so she can continue hunting 350 nights a year. Bilger records the eccentric and sometimes downright bizarre behavior he encounters with humor and wit but nary a whisper of mockery. In essays that combine history, anecdotes, and personal observations, he describes each activity, its origins, its dangers, and its pleasures. But Noodling for Flatheads is much more than a survey of unlikely pastimes. Through lively portraits of the participants, Bilger illuminates the obsessive individualism that is at the heart of the American spirit. Similar books: Seek by Denis Johnson Sightlines by Kathleen Jamie AA Gill is Away by A. A. Gill Beyond the Wall by Edward Abbey Crossing Open Ground by Barry Lopez Abbey's Road by Edward Abbey What Am I Doing Here? by Bruce Chatwin Words of Mercury by Patrick Leigh Fermor Following Fish by Samanth Subramanian Fresh-Air Fiend by Paul Theroux To the Ends of the Earth by Paul Theroux The Moronic Inferno by Martin Amis Figures in a Landscape by Paul Theroux Sun After Dark by Pico Iyer The Tao of Travel by Paul Theroux Sunrise With Seamonsters by Paul Theroux Tropical Classical by Pico Iyer Nomad's Hotel by Cees Nooteboom The Global Soul by Pico Iyer Coming Home Crazy by Bill Holm