US Guys: The True and Twisted Mind of the American Man - Hardcover

LeDuff, Charlie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1594201064 ISBN 13: 9781594201066

Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The, 2007

Synopsis

A Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter traces his cross-country investigation of the character and quality of the American man, a journey during which he participated in a Bacchanalian Burning Man festival, led a cavalry charge down the Little Bighorn River, infiltrated a fighting biker gang, and more. 150,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author:

Charlie LeDuff is a Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist, formerly at the New York Times and the Detroit News, and currently on Detroits Fox 2 News. He was one of several reporters who worked on The New York Times series "How Race Is Lived in America," which was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2001. He alsoproduced a ten-part television series of participatory journalism called O" for Discovery Times. LeDuff has covered the war in Iraq, crossed the border with Mexican migrants, and chronicled a Brooklyn fire house in the aftermath of 9/11. The author of Detroit, US Guys, and Work and Other Sins, he lives near Detroit.

From Publishers Weekly:

Whether fighting the biggest guy at an Oakland biker club, talking race with a semipro Texas football team or riding shotgun with Detroit homicide, LeDuff's gonzo exploits in this book are nothing short of inspired. The New York Times reporter is a big-game hunter, with plenty of ability to sniff out, ensnare and lovingly stuff and mount his subjects. Less an analytic discourse than an "American travelogue," the book searches out "the angry forgotten middling America"—rendering a complex array of American wildlife, from gay rodeo star wannabes to Little Big Horn re-enactors. Though LeDuff's writing often comes off as aggressive and unfiltered, there are many moments when it feels self-consciously stylized, eclipsing an otherwise keen eye for detail. Authenticity surfaces in astute observations ("self-expression is dangerous when too much expression is mixed with too little sense of self"). But LeDuff's quest for edginess sometimes overwhelms his insights, through overuse of words like "cheap" ("cheap booze," "cheap-looking girl," "cheap chromium tanning salons"). His pronouncements on American life (e.g., "meaning is invented in America through new sink faucets and car waxes and aluminum siding in pastel colors") can also miss the mark. Like the hard-luck stories he chronicles, the book is angry, touching, entertaining and flawed—a prologue, one hopes, to greater things down the road. (Feb. 5)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1594201064
• ISBN 13: 9781594201066
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256