Have you ever asked yourself, Am I southern? If not geographically, then deep down, at heart? Or, if I am not southern myself, do I know people who are southern, whom I misunderstand? Is there some authority I should consult?

Crackers. Without this book, you will just flail around in the shallows of Southernity, with nothing solid to hold onto. Roy Blount Jr. puts you in touch with possums, heterosexist dancing, people named Junior, a two-headed four-armed three-legged gospel-singing man, your feelings about the Carter administration. These specifics take you out into the depths.

As a character in Crackers puts it, "I don't read books about the South, but I read southern books. Hoooo, people stealing one another's wooden legs, setting fires, making tarbabies out of one another. . . ."

Crackers is a southern book.