A Pilgrim's Portrait of a Uniquely Southern Place
January 1, 2021
It was an unlikely place for an urbane, cultured, globe-trotting journalist to call home after living in Manhattan and writing for the Village Voice, but Marion, Alabama, seemed to have just what Tipmore was looking for: serenity, history, gentility, and maybe just a few existential challenges. Committing to Marion's population of just a few thousand people, Tipmore hoped he could both blend in and stand out, but Yankees don't assimilate into Rebel territory any easier in the twenty-first century than they did during the nineteenth. In short chapters devoted to such quotidian topics as "Conversation," "Chicken Salad," and "Women's Clubs," as well as weightier issues regarding "Race," "Religion," and "Politics," Tipmore distills the essence of contemporary Southern culture into sharp, succinct vignettes. Tipmore's degree in cultural anthropology pays off, for he manages to insinuate himself into the town's bedrock institutions while maintaining the healthy reserve necessary for objective observation. A poignant homage to a way of life that is slowly disappearing despite considerable efforts to hang on to its heritage.
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