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Summary: The most beautiful book I've ever read
Review: After reading this book, I wanted to call Rick Bragg and set him up with a nice Southern girl-someone strong and kind like his mother. His writing made me laugh, remembering certain aspects of my childhood in southern Mississippi. Mr. Bragg also made me cry with empthy, sympathy, and shame. I hope he gives us more.
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Summary: Rick Bragg tells it like it is.
Review: This book was amazing to me. I had no idea this kind of talent was born in my part of the South. The people in his book are real, I know because I know several of them personally. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a look at real life.
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Summary: Read it!
Review: Thank you, Mr. Bragg, for writing this book. I felt blessed that you were able to share so much about yourself and your family with your readers. I appreciated your self-reflection and honesty. The hubris present in so many memoirs did not poke it's head here, though I appreciated your 'attitude'. Not a southerner myself, I learned a lot about the south and 'white trash'. Being of northern trash descent myself, it was quite educational. I am a critical reader who reads a lot. This is one of the best books I've ever read.
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Summary: CLOSE TO HOME
Review: When I heard that a hometown boy had written a book, I must admit I was sceptical. But when I read the book, I can hardly describe the things I felt. I live about 5 miles from Rick's beloved Possum Trot, and I have experienced much of the things he told about. I must say this is the best book I have ever read. I didn't want it to end. I really believe it would make a wonderful movie, and I hope Rick will write more like it.
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Summary: Rick Bragg's writing is a USA national treasure!!!
Review: A book I could not put down and did not want to see end. The most personal writings I have ever read with an unbelievably unique style by someone who has mastered the the art of expressing feelings. As I read this book I felt as though I was enjoying my favorite meal and I couldn't get enough of it. Rick Bragg is a one of a kind writer and human being.
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Summary: From Pinewoods to Pulitzer
Review: I throughly enjoyed Rick Bragg's writing. He is a master of time and place. His discriptions of his childhoold in a dirt poor corner of Alabama strike a resonant chord in those who grew up in the Great Depression. I felt, however, that his expertise as a reporter got in the way of a clear narrative flow of a longer memoir such as this. He may have had more words than book. br
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Summary: This book is ultimately about love.
Review: Okay, I'm just a Yankee transplanted to California. The only part of the south I've ever spent time in is Kentucky, and there I abashedly caught myself scrutinizing the locals for signs of inbreeding. I was halfway through "All Over but the Shoutin" before I realized that Possum Trot was a real place and not a made up name Bragg had given to his home town. Almost every stereotype I've ever held dear about the south came up in this book. But Bragg didn't dispell those sterotypes, didn't even explain them. Instead he validated them, aggrandized them, and in the end, beatified them. This book is honest, heartbreakingly so. There were times during the reading of it that my chest felt full and I was just short of crying --not from sadness, but from the nearly unbearable love for another human being, and so for all human beings, which Rick Bragg allowed me to feel by sharing so unsheltered an exposure of his own heart. Yankee, Southerner, it doesn't matter. "All Over but the Shoutin'" is the memoir of a southern man's life, but this story is ultimately about love, and it transcends region. And it's a story told so well, that everyone can dwell in it. If we're lucky, and there's been love in our lives, the kind that Rick Bragg's family swathed him in; his devoted, unselfish, deservedly cannonized by Bragg mother, his several aunts and uncles, his banjo picking grandma, his older brother - rock of the family, his younger brother - tortured artisan, and even his drunken father, whose gift of books made in a boozey gesture of tender-bravado, became the 'only treasure Bragg has ever known', --we can grow to prevail over whatever adverse conditions the circumstances of our beginnings may be, and not just prevail but be made greater and stronger because of them. That's a lesson that's been taught before, but not always so irrefutably. The love that Rick Bragg has for his momma, his brothers, his people and his subjects, and his ability to use the written word to communicate that love, to tell a story, is his greatest gift. We who read him are the lucky recipients. Thanks Mr. Bragg.
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Summary: It doesn't get any better than this!!!
Review: I am a book-aholic and read whenever I can. When I saw a review of this book in the Birmingham News I made sure someone got it for me for a Christmas gift and I am so glad I did. It's one of those books where you are actually "there" - riding on that sack of cotton, being scared in that big old house. When I finished, I ran right down the street to Milo's and had a cheeseburger and ice tea to say a silent "THANK YOU" to Rick Bragg for such a wonderful book. There were times while I was reading portions that I just laughed out loud and times when I cried. What an absolutely wonderful woman Margaret Bragg is and what a wonderful gift her son has given to her. I'll treasure this book always.
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Summary: It doesn't get any better than this!
Review: If you grew up in the South 30 or more years ago, you will find yourself or someone you knew in this book! Read it! It will make you laugh, cry, and shout! It will take you over every emotional high and low you can imagine. Rick--write us another one!
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Summary: there may be too many memoirs coming out but not this good
Review: I loved this book so much I read it and then bought it on tape. Bragg is a wonderful writer and the honesty and emotion be brings to this story are extremely touching. Instead of being someone who is ashamed of where he came from, it's clear his background is what has made him so empathic and human. It was hard, but you know he feels lucky to have been born into the circumstances he was born into. You fall in love with his mother from the moment you meet her and can't help but feel her pride and inner strength. There are great stories about working at various newspapers and covering the big news of the day but the real appeal here is the little stuff, the stories no one sees or hears that take place in houses all over this country. This is great literature and to the one review I read that said Bragg was a little self-centered, get a clue. It's a memoir. One of the best, a book that will hold up a long time.
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