Last night I dined with SNAPPER scholar Ian Berlin, his wife Kim, and their dog G. Over an exquisite sausage casserole, Kim said:
“To me, SNAPPER is a love song in a country mode. The pickup truck breaks down, the dog won’t shut up, and the leading lady keeps running around. The object or muse or beloved of this song is the state of Indiana, and if she’s insulted on every other page, that’s just a convention of the form. The author can’t really be held responsible for that.”
brian kimberling 
“Back home again in Indiana…”. Grew up in Floyds Knobs, left in 1970 due to father’s transfer. Skulked about NJ and NYC and back to NJ. Went back to New Albany last fall for a funeral. Very sweet people there but it was disconcerting to find the tableau a strange brew of Don Draper pathology and Darrin Stephens bewilderment. Looking forward to SNAPPER.
Just finished Snapper, an excellent book. As a fellow Hoosier I can vouch for the accuracy of the descriptions, the heat, the mud, the ticks, the strip pits. In fact I live next to a strip pit in Warrick county. My kids went to IU Bloomington, one of them, an earnest young liberal, still lives there. I found the book touching, it filled me with nostalgia for my unairconditioned southern Indiana childhood.
I will say this to Mr. Kimberling, my 10 acres south of Boonville are filled with bluebirds, Prothonotary warblers abound, Mississippi kites nest nearby and a scissor tailed fly catcher is nesting just across the river in Ky. I see kids I don’t know speed down the pit in john boats, on their way to swimming and fishing spots. Yeah, we have problems but things aren’t all bad.
Enjoyed this book very much. As a transplant to Newburgh, Indiana more than 12 years ago now, I found one sentence in the book that is especially insightful about this Southernmost part of Indiana. “There’s a week in May and about two in October when Indiana slips on a nice dress and calls you sweetheart for no good reason.” Brilliant!!