Washoe County Library System

"An essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American South--and a revelatory argument for why you must understand the South in order to understand America"--

It has been a while since seven-year-old Dolly's dad has spent time with her, just the two of them, so when he scoops her up and promises to take her on the adventure of a lifetime, Dolly is thrilled. The first days on the road are incredibly exciting. But as they travel farther south, into a country Dolly no longer recognizes, her dad's behavior grows increasingly erratic. The adventure isn't fun anymore, but home has never been so far away. --adapted...

From Nashville to Natchez, Mississippi, we drive the 444-mile Natchez Trace. Along this onetime Indian foot-path we discover the heart of country music in Nashville, the birth of the blues at W.C. Handy's home, see where Helen Keller began to understand the world, find out where Elvis bought his first guitar (and first performed), and finally roam the streets of Natchez, a city that slavery once turned into America's wealthiest.

On road trips spanning four seasons, wending along rural highways, Theroux visits a deep south characterized by gun shows and small-town churches, laborers in Arkansas, and parts of Mississippi where they still call the farm up the road 'the plantation.' He talks to mayors and social workers, writers and reverends, the working poor and farming families -- the unsung heroes of the south, the people who, despite it all, never left, and also those who...