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Off Main Street: Barnstormers, Prophets, and Gatemouth's Gator: Essays
by
Michael Perry (Goodreads Author)
Whether he's fighting fires, passing a kidney stone, hammering down I-80 in an 18-wheeler, or meditating on the relationship between cowboys and God, Michael Perry draws on his rural roots and footloose past to write from a perspective that merges the local with the global.
Ranging across subjects as diverse as lot lizards, Klan wizards, and small-town funerals, Perry's wr
...morePaperback, 284 pages
Published
April 12th 2005
by Harper Perennial
(first published April 1st 2005)
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Essays by the author of Population: 485. I loved that book; it was one of my favorite things I read this year. This book is not nearly as good. It’s really just a collection of some random magazine articles Perry wrote over the years, some of which are quite interesting, others not so much. A lot of them are about trucks. I used to edit car magazines for a living, and I have to say, when I’m not getting paid for it, reading essays about engines is not something I really want to spend time doing...more
Favorite quotes:
"War is a morally repulsive business, and when the fog of battle clears, we are quick to consign the details to history and myth. But the veterans are the details that walk among us."
"That history grows toward the past, but it is born in the present - a fact that implicates each of us in the shape of the future."
"We spring from a thicket of tangents.
"War is a morally repulsive business, and when the fog of battle clears, we are quick to consign the details to history and myth. But the veterans are the details that walk among us."
"That history grows toward the past, but it is born in the present - a fact that implicates each of us in the shape of the future."
"We spring from a thicket of tangents.
Well now I've read everything by Michael Perry. This was an interesting collection of essays. I had no idea how diverse his early writing experience was. I especially liked the road stories about Sara Evans and Aaron Tippen.
I am glad that I read Mike Perry's books in reverse chronological order because I enjoyed this one the least. His writing has developed into something much better, and I'm happy for that for any of his future writings.
all sorts of great essays from Perry's career writing for various magazines and such.
Superb essays from the author of Population 485, which I might recommend over this one.
Kathy Beck
is currently reading it
I am liking the essays on truck driving!
This is a great book for storytelling. I love how Perry embraces his roots while thinking deeply at the same time.
A great collection of essays. I preferred some more than others just because of the topics addressed, but even the ones I didn't LOVE were really good, well-written, thought-provoking. On to Truck, A Love Story...
This was a compilation of essays, some of which had been published elsewhere. I wasn't as interested in the stories about trucking, but it was good.
It's Michael Perry and that's all anyone needs to know!
* suspended because my parents own it and I haven't been home since June. I would like to finish it eventually...
I got sick of all the essays on truckers, but overall it was pretty good. I want to reread Population 485.
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Michael Perry is a humorist and author of the bestselling memoir Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time, and the essay collection Off Main Street. Perry has written for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Outside, Backpacker, Orion and Salon.com, and is a contributing editor to Men’s Health. His essays have been heard on NPR’s All Things Considered and he has performed and ...more
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