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    Crapalachia: A Biography of Place
    Crapalachia: A Biography of Place
    Crapalachia: A Biography of Place
    Audiobook5 hours

    Crapalachia: A Biography of Place

    Written by Scott McClanahan

    Narrated by Scott Sowers

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    "McClanahan's prose is miasmic, dizzying, repetitive. A rushing river of words that reflects the chaos and humanity of the place from which he hails. [McClanahan] aims to lasso the moon... He is not a writer of half-measures. The man has purpose. This is his symphony, every note designed to resonate, to linger." -- New York Times Book Review " Crapalachia is the genuine article: intelligent, atmospheric, raucously funny and utterly wrenching. McClanahan joins Daniel Woodrell and Tom Franklin as a master chronicler of backwoods rural America." -- The Washington Post "The book that took Scott McClanahan from indie cult writer to critical darling is a series of tales that read like an Appalachian Proust all doped up on sugary soft drinks, and has made a fan of everybody who has opened it up." -- Flavorwire "McClanahan' s deep loyalty to his place and his people gives his story wings: 'So now I put the dirt from my home in my pockets and I travel. I am making the world my mountain.' And so he is." -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution "[ Crapalachia is] a wild and inventive book, unquestionably fresh of spirit, and totally unafraid to break formalisms to tell it like it was." -- Vice "Part memoir, part hillbilly history, part dream, McClanahan embraces humanity with all its grit, writing tenderly of criminals and outcasts, family and the blood ties that bind us." -- Interview Magazine "A brilliant, unnerving, beautiful curse of a book that will both haunt and charmingly engage readers for years and years and years." -- The Nervous Breakdown "McClanahan's style is as seductive as a circuit preacher's. Crapalachia is both an homage and a eulogy for a place where, through the sorcery of McClanahan's storytelling, we can all pull up a chair and find ourselves at home." -- San Diego City Beat "Epic. McClanahan' s prose is straightforward, casual, and enjoyable to read, reminiscent at times of Kurt Vonnegut. Crapalachia is one of the rare books that, after you reach the end, you don' t get up to check your e-mail or Facebook or watch TV. You just sit quietly and think about the people of the book and how they remind you of people you used to know. You feel lucky to have known them, and you feel grateful to McClanahan for the reminder." -- Rain Taxi Review of Books When Scott McClanahan was fourteen he went to live with his Grandma Ruby and his Uncle Nathan, who suffered from cerebral palsy. Crapalachia is a portrait of these formative years, coming-of-age in rural West Virginia. Peopled by colorful characters and their quirky stories, Crapalachia interweaves oral folklore and area history, providing an ambitious and powerful snapshot of overlooked Americana. Scott McClanahan is the author of Stories II and Stories V! His fiction has appeared in BOMB , Vice , and New York Tyrant . His novel Hill William is forthcoming from Tyrant Books.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJan 10, 2014
    ISBN9781470390990
    Crapalachia: A Biography of Place

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    Reviews for Crapalachia

    3.5/5

    58 ratings11 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 1/5
      Terrible, not funny not interesting. Worse than a really really boring book
    • 4/5
      Alternately hilarious and sad, this heartfelt, somewhat fictionalized autobiography of growing up in West Virginia is short and well worth reading (or listening to the audiobook--after a while, you'll think you're hearing the author himself.) In our lives, we have probably all encountered a few people like those in this book, but to encounter them all in one lifetime seems like too much. Luckily, McClanahan has writing for an outlet. This book is a very hard to define hybrid of West Virginia history, including several notable disasters and other stories, and family history. What is lacking in the end, is a sense of the author himself. His role in the stories is generally that of an onlooker, and we end up with no idea of how he ended up as a teacher and writer. Still, this is an unusual experience and well worth diving into.
    • 3/5
      It was OK. I read it in part because I'm waiting for McClanahan's newest book, The Sarah Book, to become available at my library (I'm on the hold list for it), and I was curious enough about his writing to read this one, since it was immediately available. I appreciate the unorthodox style and tone of the book, in part because some of what I write does not necessarily fit any mold. My interest in the story and the people McClanahan grew as I read, but I didn't feel particularly moved by most of it. Oddly, I found the Appendix, where McClanahan sets the record straight about what liberties he took with facts in the rest of book, to be the most intriguing chapter of the book. I will still read The Sarah Book when my turn comes, though. Maybe I'll get more out of his fiction than I did out of this.
    • 4/5
      Phenomenal.
    • 5/5
      Really great book, surprisingly gentle and touching portrait of a complex culture. Particularly enjoyable if you have ever lived in Appalachia, however it's not a pre-requisite to enjoying Scott McClanahan's storytelling.
    • 3/5
      I would really give it a 3.5 if I could. It wasn't what I expected. I thought I was going to be reading about growing up in WV not far from where I grew up. At first, I felt it was a bit crude and could use some refinement. But, there were moments of expressiveness and eloquence. All in all, a quick read with some funny bits, some shocking bits, some crude bits, and some poignant bits.
    • 1/5
      I knew before I read the book that the language was going to be a bit rough for my liking. One look at the title and the back cover tells you that. Still I am a country girl at heart and I wanted to read about the place. However like other reviewers have said before me (either here or on Amazon I don't remember) this is a dark story. I think it's supposed to be funny, but the humor got lost on me.

      Looking at other reviews some people obviously really enjoyed this book, but it just wasn't for me. If you like lots of "f...." "sh.." etc, and stories about people killing themselves and doing stupid things then this just might be the book for you.
    • 4/5
      Really unique, touching, and funny writing. He uses a combination of memoir and mythologization to write about his past growing up in West Virginia.The concept of writing about something to make sure that places, memories and faces don't fade really resonated, and the unique writing style kept it from being at all schlocky, overwrought or anything but completely its own thing. Can't wait to read more by him.
    • 4/5
      Wasn't hooked immediately, but worth sticking with. An easy, funny, interesting read.
    • 5/5
      ouch.. this book hurts. He is telling all his feelings in this book about the place... crapalachia... I must admit I picked it up because of the title. Let's take a nice place and make it crap -- and the book is about that. It is about family and friends trying to survive in appalachia.It has some shockers that made me somewhat unsympathetic but understanding of what is going on here.It is a book about class -- the underclass that is.Crap can be family "treasures", or it can be something stuck in a desk drawer or left if a pair of drawers.It reminds me of the Ani Difranco song -- can't recall the name of it -- but we are all poor except some of us have playstations.... yeah -- that is this book.This book can be read more than once.
    • 5/5
      Rating: 4.5* of fiveThe Publisher Says: When Scott McClanahan was fourteen he went to live with his Grandma Ruby and his Uncle Nathan, who suffered from cerebral palsy. Crapalachia is a portrait of these formative years, coming-of-age in rural West Virginia.Peopled by colorful characters and their quirky stories, Crapalachia interweaves oral folklore and area history, providing an ambitious and powerful snapshot of overlooked Americana.My Review: Memoir...I remember...that's what makes this book so damn good, Scott remembers and he tells us that he remembers, wants us to remember with him. I've never lived in West Virginia, I've only driven through it in my expensive car and thought, "ye gods and little fishes, is this for real?!" and pressed a little harder on the gas to get the fuck out of there. I've never even spent a night there. I drove an extra hour out of my comfort zone (6 hours behind the wheel is enough for me) so I wouldn't have to.But I remember with Scott McClanahan. I'm 20 years older than he is. I've lived the entirety of my life in upper-middle-class assurance of comfort and joy. When I haven't had any money, I've had friends and loved ones and even random strangers who shared with me. And it never, ever looked like the pictures Scott paints in my head.It's beautiful, this picture, these pictures, but it's not pretty. It's warty and cold and shaped funny. But oh how much there is to celebrate in the life of a kid who knows where home is and what his family is made of and scoops up the mud he's standing on to make something new of something old.She hobbled along some more and I walked behind her.She said: "This is the grave I wanted to see. This is the grave."I asked: "Whose grave is it?"I walked in front of the stone and I saw it was her grave. It was the grave of Ruby Irene McClanahan, born 1917 died...Then there was a blank space--the space where they would put the date of her death.She touched the shiny stone and explained...her really good deal on the tombstone. She told me I should start saving. It was a good investment.The tales of this Crapalachian boy are muddled and mixed, of course, as all memories are, and as honest as they are, they aren't always factual. In the appendix to the book, Scott tells us the places he knows he mashed things up and rearranged them, since after all he was writing a story and stories have their own needs. But he never violates, not once in this book, the one Commandment of Memoir: Condescend not, lest ye be caught and pilloried. (See: James Frey.) I wouldn't write about how people stared at {Uncle Nathan} when I pushed him down the road. They stared and shook their heads....I knew I would never write about Nathan's light-blue eyes--eyes as blue as Christmas tree lights.I knew I would never write about his soft heart. The softest heart I have ever known.I knew he believed in something that none of us ever do anymore. He believed in the nastiest word in the world. He believed in KINDNESS. Please tell me you remember kindness. Please tell me you remember kindness and joy, you cool motherfuckers.Why read some thirtysomething kid's memoirs? What kind of philosophical point can someone that young make? I wonder, is it even necessary to make a point? Can it be enough to read a book like this, about a young life seen from middle age (can't be much under 35, this kid, and that's spang in the middle of life), and eat the textures and smell the regrets of someone new to the idea that The End applies to him, too? He has children, he tells us so. He tells us that he went from place to place in the world leaving dirt from West Virginia there, giving the dirt to strangers and leaving it in the soil of New York City and Seattle and suchlike. So his children, no matter their wanderings, would have something of their, his, his grandmother's home waiting.I don't know that I believe him. "Oh lordie, I'm feeling horrible," she said. Then she clutched her chest. "I'm having chest pains." I kissed her cheek and I said, "I'll see you next week." She told me my grandfather Elgie used to have nightmares begging for the whistle to stop.She wasn't dying.She was lonely.So I left and I heard Ruby shouting again, "Oh lordie, I'm dying." I didn't turn back. I wasn't sure we were even born yet. We were all inside of a giant mother right then and we were waiting to be born. Just like tomorrow, at dawn, we will be held in the arms of a giant mother. We will find warmth and maybe even war there.I want us all to be ready.Ready? We're none of us ready, ever. As his kids grow up he'll find that out.And then there's the story of the little girl and the locket. It's near the end of the book, it's a memory from adulthood. It made me cry for a half-hour, angry and hurting and so so sad, helpless in the face of a world we've made with action, inaction, consent, and indifference (driving faster to escape someone else's reality ring a bell?). But hey, Scott? I remember. I'm with you.