Somewhere in America: Under the Radar with Chicken Warriors, Left-Wing Patriots, Angry Nudists, and Others

by Mark Singer

Book Overview

Mark Singer has a dream job: he travels the country in search of under-the-radar stories, unusual but emblematic tales of American lives, and writes about them in the New Yorker column "U.S. Journal."... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618197249
• ISBN13: 9780618197248
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 255 Pages
• Weight: 0.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Not a travelogue but a collection of essays

A travelogue is a book that describes the journey to a place. This is not such a book. The chapters vary from one chapter to another, be it a small town in Indiana to another town in Texas or North Carolina or New Jersey. Singer focuses on certain people and the places the people find themselves in, taking on contemporary topics like religion, unsolved murders, guns or dog fighters. Well-written and witty, this is still a good read.

Have you ever been to.....?

Let me be the first to write a Customer Review on this book.At first glance, I thought it was going to be your typical Road Book by someone taking a long trip across or around America.I soon found that was not what this book was. The author is a staff writer for The New Yorker and I gather this book is a compilation of stories he has written for the magazine.A reader of the magazine will probably be familiar with Singer,but he was new to me.He is a great writer first, and an excellent observer of the human condition and experience.In many ways he reminds me of Jean Shepard,who used to have a nightly show on WOR New York in the early 1970's,made many appearances on the college circuit,and later did a great TV series "Jean Shepard's America".Unfortunately "Shep" ,"passed into life's next adventure" a few years ago.see pg.167. Rather than travelling the roads and relating his experiencs,he takes us for a visit to 19 places to witness some very interesting and first hand experiences of American life.In all cases we become the fly on the wallpaper and get a real insight into some unusual goings on. Thest are not once ever events .The reader could follow Singer's footsteps if he should be inclined to do. Here are several of the places he takes us: Cockfighting in Oklahoma Snowmobiling in Montana Civil War Buffs in Louisians Closing of a famous Family Diner in Lee, Massachusetts A confrontation over The Pledge of Allegiance in Madison ,WI. The execution of Timothy McVeigh in Terre Haute,In. The Great Obituary Writer's Convention Race Riots in Cincinnati,Oh. The Great Worm Growing Scandal in Weleetka,Okla. These are a great bunch of short stories for anyone who enjoys reading about life off the beaten track. Although this book was published in 2004,I am surprised that there haven't been more reviews written to date.