Pulphead Pulphead

Pulphead

Essays

    • 4.3 • 48 Ratings
    • $11.99
    • $11.99

Publisher Description

A New York Times Notable Book for 2011
One of Entertainment Weekly's Top 10 Nonfiction Books of the Year 2011
A Time Magazine Top 10 Nonfiction book of 2011
A Boston Globe Best Nonfiction Book of 2011

One of Library Journal's Best Books of 2011


A sharp-eyed, uniquely humane tour of America's cultural landscape—from high to low to lower than low—by the award-winning young star of the literary nonfiction world.

In Pulphead, John Jeremiah Sullivan takes us on an exhilarating tour of our popular, unpopular, and at times completely forgotten culture. Simultaneously channeling the gonzo energy of Hunter S. Thompson and the wit and insight of Joan Didion, Sullivan shows us—with a laidback, erudite Southern charm that's all his own—how we really (no, really) live now.

In his native Kentucky, Sullivan introduces us to Constantine Rafinesque, a nineteenth-century polymath genius who concocted a dense, fantastical prehistory of the New World. Back in modern times, Sullivan takes us to the Ozarks for a Christian rock festival; to Florida to meet the alumni and straggling refugees of MTV's Real World, who've generated their own self-perpetuating economy of minor celebrity; and all across the South on the trail of the blues. He takes us to Indiana to investigate the formative years of Michael Jackson and Axl Rose and then to the Gulf Coast in the wake of Katrina—and back again as its residents confront the BP oil spill.

Gradually, a unifying narrative emerges, a story about this country that we've never heard told this way. It's like a fun-house hall-of-mirrors tour: Sullivan shows us who we are in ways we've never imagined to be true. Of course we don't know whether to laugh or cry when faced with this reflection—it's our inevitable sob-guffaws that attest to the power of Sullivan's work.

GENRE
Fiction & Literature
RELEASED
2011
October 25
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
384
Pages
PUBLISHER
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
SELLER
Macmillan
SIZE
869.7
KB

Customer Reviews

helipilot_rivera ,

Really awesome read

You know, what I liked the most is this author's writing style. When you read this book, you actually feel as if you were standing right next to him and seeing what he is seeing. I don't mean that in a boring way either. I got to say that this is one of the most interesting books I have read in a while. Didn't really care for the chapter of the blue's singer (I skipped) but all other chapters, specially the one on Michael Jackson were awesome. Peace.

bw82 ,

From Chicago

When I use the phrase "transit-reading," I mean it in the absolute best sense. And with Pulphead, I have not enjoyed a book more on my Belmont bus to Red Line commute. What I need is a world (or, worlds) to fall into with headphones turned up every morning and evening. Sullivan accomplishes this, bringing complexity (and wonder, and connection) to - at least for this reader - mostly unconsidered subjects (Creation Fest, ancient American cave artifacts, Jamaican garrisons, Axl Rose's Lafayette). I never strayed from it start to finish.... but also wasn't able to breeze through, either. A compliment. Heavy writing that felt like easy reading.

Or maybe the opposite. Either way, highly recommended.

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More Books by John Jeremiah Sullivan

Blood Horses Blood Horses
2005
The Best American Essays 2014 The Best American Essays 2014
2014
Pulphead Pulphead
2013
Americani Americani
2014
Pulphead Pulphead
2013

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