Moonshine, Monster Catfish and Other Southern Comforts by Burkhard Bilger is an exploration of the folklore traditions in the Southern states of the USA. The author travels to where events are happening and meets the participants. He then talks about how these traditions have grown up and what might happen in the future. The people involved in these activities are usually ordinary working people with a family history and an extensive network of friends who also participate. Some of the activities are legal, but others are not.
I have no idea where I got this book from but it has a sticky label showing that it was purchased second hand, probably from a charity shop. I suspect that I picked it up when I was reading more travel books than I do now.
The traditions that the author explores in this book include making moonshine (untaxed homebrew), cock fighting, frog catching, playing marbles, hunting with coon dogs, eating squirrel brains, cooking pig intestines, and catching fish with bare hands. All of these are activities currently undertaken in some American states and the author describes them and the people for whom they are important. He considers that they all have a future, although it may differ from their past.
Don’t read this book if you are a vegetarian. In fact, although I am not, I found the treatment of animals and the way that the author described how they were treated quite unsettling – just because something is a tradition doesn’t make it humane or right. To be fair, he attempts to tackle this issue in places but I don’t think that he resolves it. Much too much of this book, for my liking, was centred around animals.
The narrative is engaging and the people that the author meets are interesting. I thought that the book opened up for the reader a way of living that is traditional but perhaps less known in the UK. In the end, however, the animal issue was too unsettling for me and this book will be passed on, via Oxfam, to someone who maybe won’t have the same problems as I did.
Anne Is Reading 