The Real America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My friend, Michael O'Neil, in Perth, wants to know what is a good novel to introduce him to America? When Kris and I went to South Africa, I thought\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/07\/28\/the-real-america\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Real America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My friend, Michael O'Neil, in Perth, wants to know what is a good novel to introduce him to America? 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{"id":30587,"date":"2012-07-28T11:55:54","date_gmt":"2012-07-28T16:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?p=30587"},"modified":"2012-07-27T18:40:45","modified_gmt":"2012-07-27T23:40:45","slug":"the-real-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/07\/28\/the-real-america\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

We\u2019ve been painting the house recently, and I have been listening to and enjoying Wendell Berry\u2019s\u00a0That Distant Land<\/em><\/a>. For me, it is a window into another time and place, and seems to evoke a particular vision of a \u201creal\u201d America. Part of the book\u2019s burden is that this America has largely passed into history. Last year I read Marilynn Robinson\u2019s\u00a0Gilead<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Home<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and had a similar experience of being transported into a bygone rural\/small town USA.<\/p>\n

In one sense, of course, there are as many \u201creal\u201d Americas as there are Americans. But, as someone who has never visited the US\u2014something I hope to rectify one day, God-willing\u2014I wonder if there are particular novels\u2014or movies perhaps\u2014which evoke \u201ccontemporary America\u201d in the same deeply and profoundly human way in which Berry and Robinson have portrayed their characters and landscapes\/environments.<\/p>\n

Any recommendations?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"