Mark Lee’s Summer Reading Club
Redneck Boy In The Promised Land: The Confessions of “Crazy Cooter” by Ben Jones
This is one of those books that you see on the shelf and buy it thinking it’s going to be mostly about the “famous” part of that person’s life. Everyone knows who “Cooter” is on “Dukes of Hazzard” right? Well, that’s what I thought too. But that very part that made Ben Jones famous is only a fraction of what real life was all about for him. He delves into childhood abuse, addiction to alcohol, broken marriages, struggling to make ends meet as an actor and the successes of a hit TV show and two congressional terms. It is a “slow read” but filled with loads of Southern culture, humor, and anecdotes.
It just so happens that this past weekend Atlanta Motor Speedway hosted the 2008 version of “DukesFest” that Ben Jones writes about being so proud to be a part of each year. For anyone that sat like me as a kid on Friday nights at 8 o’clock watching the “Dukes”, then this one is for you! Yee Haw!
Edit: This review was written June 30 and that is when the “DukesFest” was held that weekend!
Quotes from the book are below:
