The Redneck Way of Knowledge: With a new introduction by Dorothy Allison

Years ago I came across this book and found it to be one of the most authentic, funny, and enjoyable reads in a long while. It remains one of my favorites. As a Southerner, I can attest that Blanche gets it right. As a straight male, I find her perspective refreshing and her humor irresistible. I feel the same about her novels. No pressure Blanche,but when is the next one coming out?

I was introduced to Blanche McCrary Boyd by my creative-writing professor, who only advised that she was a good essayist. If you knew him, you knew this meant she was not writing persuasive essays or stumping for a cause. What I like best about this collection of essays is that they are neither feminist nor non-feminist, they are not about being a lesbian or even, necessarily, about being a woman. They are occasionally narrative, occasionally quite insightful, often funny. They're easy to read, enjoyable, and if you *want* to delve deeper (you don't have to in order to appreciate the book), the author is saying something about being human and being individual, or in Shakespearean coin, to thine own self true. Not as wild as her Revolution of Little Girls or Terminal Velocity, it is suitable for a wider sort of audience.If you enjoy reading about other cultures (I'm a northerner) and other lifestyles (I'm a very traditional heterosexual girl), this book is a good place to start. Like reading Frederick Douglass's Classic Slave Narratives, it cannot truly teach us what it is like to truly live these people's lives, but it gives us a glimpse of their experiences and -- if only by analyzing our own reactions to their perspectives and opinions -- a deeper undertanding of our own experiences and subtle preconceptions.

I saw Ms. Boyd on a panel in San Francisco talking to Norman Mailer (expecting all out war) but she was charming, funny and very interesting. You don't have to be a lesbian, a Southerner or even a woman to enjoy her work. This series of essays will have you feeling the roar of the Nascar race cars and she then takes a critical, perceptive, yet affectionate look at her Southern family, friends and culture. Well written too.

In the Redneck Way of Knowledge , Blanche McCrary Boyd comes off as brutally honest yet the book has an underlying attitude that seems to say, "Every word of this is the truth... but of course you should know better than to believe a word I say." As a northerner who is somewhat younger than Ms. Boyd, the Redneck Way of Knowledge was able took me to a place and times I have never been to and would have no other way of visiting. Blanche McCrary Boyd succeeds in the art of southern story telling in a way that is completely southern and uniquely her own. The girl is not afraid to go there. She's a trip and she warmly welcomes you along for the ride.