Description

John Jeremiah Sullivan takes us on a funhouse hall-of-mirrors ride through the other side of America – to the Ozarks for a Christian rock festival; to Florida to meet the straggling refugees of MTV’s Real World; to Indiana to investigate the formative years of Michael Jackson and Axl Rose and then to the Gulf Coast in the wake of Katrina – and back again as its residents confront the BP oil spill. Simultaneously channeling the gonzo energy of Hunter S. Thompson and the wit and insight of Joan Didion, Sullivan – with a laidback, erudite Southern charm that’s all his own – shows us how America really (no, really) lives now.

Publisher Review

The ghost of Mark Twain is evoked in this outstanding collection of essays * Sunday Times * Pulphead is a big, fat, frequently exhilarating collection * Guardian * Pulphead has a ramshackle loquacity, a down-home hyper-eloquence and an off-the-wallishness that is quite distinct - and highly addictive -- Goeff Dyer The best, and most important collection of magazine writing since David Foster Wallace's A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again * New York Times Book Review * From prehistoric caves to Axl Rose's oxygen chamber, Sullivan's generous, witty voice lights up every page -- Joe Dunthorne