‘George Singleton is a very funny man. He could write about a tootsie roll and keep me reading, ‘ says Abigail Thomas, author of Safekeeping and A Three Dog Life, about Singleton’s new collection of personal essays.
Readers of his celebrated short story collections (The Half-Mammals of Dixie, You Want More, and The Curious Lives of Non-Profit Martyrs, among others) know just what a master storyteller Singleton can be. Yet in this collection of essays, readers will discover Singleton’s best kept secret: he also has a keen eye for the well-told and hilarious truth.
His subjects range widely: dogs, food, restaurants, jobs, music, family, and the benefits and challenges of, as he puts it, ‘a questionable upbringing.’
Frequently published in magazines like Oxford American and Garden and Gun, Singleton explains in these essays how he came to be a writer (he blames barbecue), why he still writes his first draft by hand (someone stole his typewriter), and why he ran marathons (his father gave him beer.) He also will tell you why Aristotle would have been a failed philosopher had he grown up in South Carolina, how Laugh-In’s Henry Gibson is to blame for his education in literature, and what was in the most delicious soup he has ever eaten.
Readers are invited to join George Singleton as he gets his dogs to promise they won’t use his new garden as a Porta-Potty, learns about his not so famous relations, and generally charms anyone sensible enough to read this delightful book.
Table of Content
Foreword by Abigail Thomas
Apology/Preface by the author
Refuse
Seven Protective Popeyes
Fifth Cousins, Twice Removed
I Thank the Church for Teaching Me How to Lie
Acting Squirrelly
Field Trips for the Unsuspecting
The Sex Symbol of the South
Back from the Grave
Chains
Nu-Way Lounge and Restaurant
Moon Pie
Marking Territory
Why I Fear Guns, Butcher Blocks, and Non-Unionized Manual Labor
Why We Don’t Play Chess
The Real Value of Book Reports
Gar
The Great Singletini
An Ode to Hangover Cures
How to Write Stories, Lose Weight, Clean up the Environment, and Make $1, 000, 000
The Daily Grind
Where I Discovered Narrative Possibilities, Possibly
A Fine Restaurant in Nowhere, South Carolina, Run by a Man Named Xue
from Writing in a Room that Once Displayed Jesus, Inside a Zoo, Inside a Botanical Garden
Why I Write First Drafts by Hand
My Writing Mentor
Strange Love in a Small Pasture
Aristotle and South Carolina
Thanksgiving
Publications
Acknowledgments
About the Author
About the author
George Singleton has published ten collections of stories, two novels, and one book of writing advice. His short stories have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Playboy, Story, One Story, Zoetrope, The Georgia Review, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, New Stories from the South, and elsewhere. His nonfiction has appeared in Garden and Gun, Oxford American, Bark, Best American Food Writing, and elsewhere. He’s received a Guggenheim fellowship and is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers.
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