America's Back Porch

By Daniel Jeffreys

On America's back porch, the most diverse and exotic cultures flourish in wild abandon; but it often takes the scrutiny of an outside observer, with an eye for the bizarre, to bring into relief the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0704381222
• ISBN13: 9780704381223
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Quartet Books Ltd
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.49 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.8" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

A Grand book

I loved America's Back Porch. The stories are very funny and the author writes with a very touching compassion for his subjects. I think others who criticize this book for being harsh on America are just people who don't like to look at themselves. Anyone who reads this book is going to have a fun time and will learn a lot.

A Hoot and a Holler

This is a fine book which made me laugh and cry. Jeffreys brings us elements of American life that few of us have ever seen and most of us prefer not to think about and he does so with wit and humanity. I especially loved the chapter where he picks a Native American panhandler off the streets of Manhattan and takes him back to his reservation. Although I was sometimes puzzled by the author's English idiom that was not an obstacle - it simply made me feel like I was seeing my country through the eyes of an outsider who had developed a complex love hate relationship with this amazing land. I bought several copies as Christmas presents and all my friends also say they loved spending time on America's Back Porch.

For all fans of America's dark side, a must read.

I read this book because of a review in the London Guardian which said Americas's Back Porch was "an exquisite morsel of post-modern Americana". But it is even better than that. I read it laughing very hard when I wasn't fascinated by the many insights. There is a Native American theme woven into the delightful accounts of American wackiness, which made me far more aware of the persecution the original Americans suffered. That is when it wasn't making me crack my ribs with mirth. Like the Guardian in their review I loved most of all the chapter about a short airplane ride taken in the obese company of two neo-fascists from America's corporate underworld.

America's Back Porch is like a wonderful movie

This book is like a wonderful movie. I didn't want it to end It is a wonderful antedote to the soft centre humor of Bill Bryson. The author offers a marvellous journey through the strangest parts of America to many places I would be too scared to visit. The effect is dazzling and I had great fun whilst learning a lot. The book is also noteworthy because it does not neglect the American Indian. Jeffreys uses a navajo tour giude to constantly remind viewers that much of what underlies America's darker troubles is the genocide against Native Americans. There is nothing heavy handed about this - he just uses humour and irony to wonderful effect. GQ said "Jeffreys makes Hunter S. Thompson look like a self-mythologising wuss," and they were not exaggertaing.

A great ride through the American outback

I loved this book. It kept me laughing and interested right to the end. There are so many great characters that I lost count of all the fascinating people - plus Jeffreys offers insights about America that maybe only someone from another country can see. Much better than Bryson. A good read. (GQ in the UK said Jeffreys makes Hunter S. Thompson look like a self mythologising wuss and they were right.)