The Distance from Slaughter County

Lessons from Flyover Country

Steven Moore

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2023
• ISBN:
  9781469673967
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

As a soldier and civilian, Steven Moore has traveled from the American Midwest to Afghanistan and beyond. In those travels, he's seen what place can mean, specifically rural places, and how it follows us, changes us. What Moore has to say about rural places speaks to anyone who has driven a lonely road at night, with nothing but darkness as a cushion between them and the emptiness that surrounds. Place and how we define it—and how it defines us—is a through line throughout the collection of eleven essays. Moore writes about where we come from and the disconnection we often feel between each other: between veterans and nonveterans, between people of different political beliefs, between regions, between eras. These pieces build into a contemplative whole, one that is a powerful meditation on why where we come from means something and how we'll always bring where we are with us, no matter where we go.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• CONTENTS
• Halftitle Page
• Where I Was From
• The Problem of Landing
• Central Crossings
• True North
• The Frontier
• Distance from the Question, or Notes on Being Asked about a War
• Of Prerogative!
• And Grinding Cry of Disaster, or Notes on Home Improvement
• The Last Video Store Essay
• Chelydra Serpentina
• Indefatigable Zeal
• Acknowledgments
• WORKS CITED