The Prince of Frogtown » (Bargain)

A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter formerly with The New York Times, Rick Bragg hit the bestseller charts with his first book, All Over but the Shoutin , his account of breaking free from the poverty of his youth and finding success at the pinnacle of American journalism.

In this final volume of the beloved American saga that began with ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTIN and continued with AVA S MAN, Rick Bragg closes his circle of family stories with an unforgettable tale about fathers and sons inspired by his own relationship with his ten-year-old stepson.

He learns, right from the start, that a man who chases a woman with a child is like a dog who chases a car and wins. He discovers that he is unsuited to fatherhood, unsuited to fathering this boy in particular, a boy who does not know how to throw a punch and doesn t need to; a boy accustomed to love and affection rather than violence and neglect; in short, a boy wholly unlike the child Rick once was, and who longs for a relationship with Rick that Rick hasn t the first inkling of how to embark on. With the weight of this new boy tugging at his clothes, Rick sets out to understand his father, his son, and himself.

THE PRINCE OF FROGTOWN documents a mesmerizing journey back in time to the lush...

Publishers Weekly

Bragg (All Over but the Shoutin' ) continues to mine his East Alabama family history for stories, this time focusing on the life of his alcoholic father. Unlike his previous two memoirs, Bragg merges his father's history of severe hardships and simple joys with a tale from the present: his own relationship with his 10-year-old stepson. Bragg crafts flowing sentences that vividly describe the southern Appalachian landscape and ways of life both old and new. The title comes from his father, who grew up in the mill village in Jacksonville, Ala., a dirt-poor neighborhood known as Frogtown, a place where they didn't bother to name the streets, but simply assigned letters. His father's story walks the line between humorous and heartbreaking, mixing tales of tipping over outhouses as a child and stealing an alligator from a roadside show in Florida with the stark tragedies of drunkenness, brawling, dog fighting, chain gangs, meanness and his early death from tuberculosis. Juxtaposed with vignettes about Bragg's stepson, this memoir has great perspective as the reader sees Bragg, the son of a dysfunctional father who grew up very poor, grapple with becoming the father of a modern-day mama's boy. This book, much like his previous two memoirs, is lush with narratives about manhood, fathers and sons, families and the changing face of the rural South. (May)

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Prologue: The Stream 3

The Boy 14

Ch. 1 In a Cloud of Smoke 20

The Boy 35

Ch. 2 The Village 39

The Boy 57

Ch. 3 Bob 61

The Boy 72

Ch. 4 Fearless 76

The Boy 89

Ch. 5 The Bootlegger's Rhythm 92

The Boy 103

Ch. 6 Flying Jenny 106

The Boy 117

Ch. 7 My Fair Orvalene 120

The Boy 123

Ch. 8 The Hanging 128

The Boy 135

Ch. 9 Settin' the World on Fire 137

The Boy 150

Ch. 10 What You're Supposed to Do 154

The Boy 158

Ch. 11 At Least a Hundred Dollars Then 161

The Boy 173

Ch. 12 Ross 175

The Boy 195

Ch. 13 Dallas 197

The Boy 205

Ch. 14 Ride 208

The Boy 222

Ch. 15 One Friend 226

The Boy 233

Ch. 16 Amen 236

The Boy 238

Ch. 17 The Circle 242

The Boy 250

Acknowledgments 253