An Ozarks story grows from the land and is never pure fiction; but one has never been entirely factual, either. Even so, this book of tales is about real people--their philosophic bent and extraordinary vocabulary, neither of which has its roots in erudition, and how they combine individuality, irreverence, and human warmth into a reasonable way of life that hardly seems possible in this day and age. As storyteller, commentator, guide, and reporter, the author takes us down a road, part past, part present, where a fancy car would lose its axle within the hour, but where the age of anxiety hasn't made much headway either, to find a slice of American life not duplicable anywhere.
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