Being My Almost Absolutely True Adventures with Stanley Booth

The South, sir, is no more than the Creation viewed by a crocodile.
– Rev. Sydney Smith

I ADMIT I don't know what the South is exactly or even if it is something or if – as the magaziñeros keep telling us – it's gone, gone with the wind, and the new South has taken its place – it's all malled-out and inter-gerated and up-to-date and the old dusty South with the general store and good ol' boys settin’ there and blues drifters riding the rods and obese sheriffs in aviator shades – gone! But whatever it is – or was – Stanley Booth is close to its humid, mossy, scabrous heart.