βI left the South in search of the Enlightenment. Iβm pro-choice, in favor of gay marriage, and against creationism and the war in Iraq. But both my parentsβ people are deep Southern from many generations, and I spent a little over a third of my life, including the presumably most formative years (toilet training through college), living in the South. Mathematically, that makes me just about exactly as Southern as the American people, 34 percent of whom are Southern residents. But it goes deeper than mathβmy roots are Southern, I sound Southern, I love a lot of Southern stuff, and when my [Northern] local paper announces a festival to βcelebrate the spirit of differently abled dogs,β I react as a Southerner. I believe I care as much about dogsβ feelings as anybody. It is hard for me to imagine that a dog with three legs minds being called a three-legged dog.β
A sly, dry, hilarious collection of essaysβhis first in more than ten yearsβfrom the writer who, according to The New York Times Book Review, is βin serious contention for the title of Americaβs most cherished humorist.β
This time Blount focuses on his own dueling loyalties across the great American divide, North vs. South. Scholarly, raunchy, biting and affable, olβ Roy takes on topics ranging from chicken fingers to yellow-dog Democrats to Elvisβs toes. And he shares experiences: chatting with Ray Charles, rounding up rattlesnakes, watching George and Tammy record, meeting an Okefenokee alligator (also named George, or Georgette), imagining Faulknerβs tennis game, and being swept up, sort of, in the filming of Nashville. His yarns, analyses, and flights of fancy transcend all standard shades of Red, Blue, and in between.
Roy on language: βRemember when there was lots of agitated discussion of Ebonics, pro and con? I kept waiting for someone to say that if you acquire white English, you can become Clarence Thomas, whereas if you acquire black English, you can become Quentin Tarantino.β
Roy on eating: βThe way folks were meant to eat is the way my family ate when I was growing up in Georgia. We ate till we got tired. Then we went βWhoo!β and leaned back and wholeheartedly expressed how much we regretted that we couldnβt summon up the strength, right then, to eat some more.β
Roy on racism: βAnybody who claims . . . not to have βa racist boneβ in his or her body is, at best, preracist and has a longer way to go than the rest of us.β
Blountβs previous books have included reflections on a Southern president (Jimmy Carter), a novel about a Southern president (Clementine Fox), a biography of Robert E. Lee, a celebration of New Orleans, a memoir of growing up in Georgia, and the definitive anthology of Southern humor. Long Time Leaving is the capper. Maybe it wonβt end the Civil War at last, but it does clarify, or aptly complicate, divisive delusions on both sides of the longstanding national rift. Itβs a comic ode to American variety and also a droll assault on complacency North and Southβa glorious union of diverse pieces reshaped and expanded into an American classic, from one of the most definitive and esteemed humorists of our time.
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