Synopses & Reviews
Reconciliation and remembering are the forces at work in
Inheritance of Horses. In these essays, James Kilgo seeks the common ground between his roles as a man, as husband and father, and as heir to his family legacy. Pausing at mid-life to make an eloquent, understated stand against our era's rootlessness, he honors friendship, kinship, nature, and tradition.
In the opening section, Kilgo focuses on the tension between his need for ritualistic male camaraderie and his familial obligations. Searching the woods for arrowheads, sitting around the dinner table at a hunting lodge, or careening down an abandoned logging road in a pickup, he seems ever-prone to the intrusions of domesticity and civilization: a sudden memory of miring the family station wagon in the sand on a beach trip, an encounter with a couple on their sixtieth wedding anniversary, a stream littered with trash and stocked with overbred hatchery trout.
Restlessness and responsibility converge and again clash in the second series of essays, in which domestic themes are explored in settings that range from Kilgo's own living room to Yellowstone Park and the deep waters off the Virgin Islands. Through such images as a hornet's nest, a gale-force storm, a grizzly bear, and a marlin, Kilgo gauges the strengths and vulnerabilities of his family and moves toward an existence that is part of, not apart from, the women in his life.
The long title essay composes the book's final section. Reading through a cache of letters exchanged between his two grandfathers, Kilgo recovers and revises his memories of them. What he learns of their open, passionate friendship reveals an essentially feminine aspect of their patriarchal natures, enriching, but also confusing, Kilgo's earlier understanding of who they were. As some of the more unhappy or unpleasant details of his grandfathers' lives come to light, they first heighten, then assuage, Kilgo's ambivalence about a family heritage built as much on myth as on truth.
The manner in which Kilgo makes such intensely personal concerns so broadly relevant accentuates what might be called the "told," rather than the "written," quality of Inheritance of Horses. He is foremost a storyteller, working in a style that is classically southern in its pacing and its feel for the land, but all his own in its restrained humor and lack of self-absorption. Guided by a storyteller's respect for common people and common feelings, Kilgo never prescribes or moralizes but rather brings us to places where principled choices can be made about what we need and value most in our lives.
Review
"The New Georgia Guide is a yarn-spinning, gallus-snapping, barbecue-sniffing, language-loving, gator-wrestling, backroad-exploring travel companion. Part history, part folklore, part recipe book, part yellow pages, there will be few Georgia natives who aren't educated or amused by some portion of it, and outsiders will find here a road map not only to the county seats but to the soul of Georgia."--Melissa Fay Greene, author of Praying for Sheetrock
Review
"A thick, literate guide to the state."--Publishers Weekly
Review
"Exhaustive . . . The New Georgia Guide is full of the campy Americana often missed by readers of Frommer's and Fodor's, the sort of information that can mean the difference between a mere trip and an adventure."--New York Times
Review
"A timely literary roadmap to the soul of that southern state. Part history, part folklore, 100 percent informative and entertaining, this guidebook (an updated version of the WPA guide to Georgia) offers roadmaps, driving tours, trivia, photos, and an intimate look at the best places to eat, explore, and enjoy.and#8221;--New York Post
Review
"A real reader's book . . . written by fine writers with a feel for their place, and including tips on touring the state."--Georgia Times-Union
Review
"No nook or cranny of this fascinating state escapes highlighting in this vastly comprehensive guide."--Booklist
Review
"Yes, go buy a copy of The New Georgia Guide. . . . It is a bargain, and you will be diverted, amused, challenged and informed by a book that is not only travelogue, but history and social commentary."--Athens Magazine
Synopsis
The New Georgia Guide reveals as never before Georgia's remarkable array of people and places and its rich heritage and culture.
Completely current and arranged in a region-by-region format, The Guide is filled with tours, essays, and more. Beckoning you to slow your pace and set aside your preconceptions, the Guide welcomes you to a Georgia not found in travel guides that cater to southern stereotypes and often amount to little more than a numbing recitation of facts, figures, and phone numbers.
An entertaining and informative volume, The Guide was years in the making and involved some of the state's best writers, journalists, naturalists, and historians, as well as countless other Georgians at the local level across the state.
Combining history and contemporary observation, The Guide gives you a "then-and-now" feel for such locales as the Appalachian foothills, the site of America's first gold rush in 1829 and now a renowned area for fall foliage and local crafts, or the sea islands, where wealthy northern industrialists and financiers built spectacular winter retreats along the same beaches invaded long ago by conquistadors.
A clear-eyed view of yesterday's and today's Georgians also emerges from The Guide, giving you an intimate sense of who they are, what they believe, and what their connections are to each other and to the places where they live and work.
Whether you want to stroll down Peachtree Street, tour Savannah's historic homes, visit a civil war battlefield, canoe in the Okefenokee Swamp- or just enjoy some good barbecue and listen to some bluegrass or rock, there is no better place to start exploring Georgia than in the pages of the New Georgia Guide.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 703-715) and index.
About the Author
"The New Georgia Guide is a yarn-spinning, gallus-snapping, barbecue-sniffing, language-loving, gator-wrestling, backroad-exploring travel companion. Part history, part folklore, part recipe book, part yellow pages, there will be few Georgia natives who aren't educated or amused by some portion of it, and outsiders will find here a road map not only to the county seats but to the soul of Georgia."--Melissa Fay Greene, author of Praying for Sheetrock"A thick, literate guide to the state."--Publishers Weekly"Exhaustive . . . The New Georgia Guide is full of the campy Americana often missed by readers of Frommer's and Fodor's, the sort of information that can mean the difference between a mere trip and an adventure."--New York Times"A timely literary roadmap to the soul of that southern state. Part history, part folklore, 100 percent informative and entertaining, this guidebook (an updated version of the WPA guide to Georgia) offers roadmaps, driving tours, trivia, photos, and an intimate look at the best places to eat, explore, and enjoy.”--New York Post"A real reader's book . . . written by fine writers with a feel for their place, and including tips on touring the state."--Georgia Times-Union"No nook or cranny of this fascinating state escapes highlighting in this vastly comprehensive guide."--Booklist"Yes, go buy a copy of The New Georgia Guide. . . . It is a bargain, and you will be diverted, amused, challenged and informed by a book that is not only travelogue, but history and social commentary."--Athens Magazine