July 8, 2011

Book Review: The Old Man and the Swamp


The Old Man and the Swamp: A True Story About My Weird Dad, a Bunch of Snakes, and One Ridiculous Road Trip

By John Sellers

SIMON & SCHUSTER

When music journalist John Sellers was a kid, his dad quit his job as a pastor to scour the wilds of Michigan for snakes. Sellers, a self-proclaimed “furniture potato,” never quite understood the appeal; his father would disappear for weeks on end “and return home looking and smelling like the love child of the Swamp Thing and Ted Kaczynski.” But when he hit his thirties, Sellers grew curious about his old man’s obsession and decided to accompany him on a trip to the swamps in pursuit of the elusive copperbelly. The result is a funny and winning story that is less about snakes than a guy who just wants to understand his singularly eccentric dad.

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