Invasion of the Bastard Cannibals: And Other True stories from a Southerner Beyond the Mason-Dixon

This book is part memoir and part stand-up act, and Weathington’s comedic shtick largely relies on the old fish-out-of-water formula. He is a Southerner who married a Canadian and moved to hippie-infested British Columbia; many of the book’s jokes involve Weathington getting confused by yoga, “alternative medicine,” male-hugging, and other affronts to his Dixie-fried manhood. As a writer, he favors a junior-high crudeness about things such as body parts because “jokes supersede everything—good taste, political correctness, even reality.” In the first part of the book, Weathington presents clichéd setups in which he contrasts his “real” manliness with that of British Columbia’s pot-smoking, metrosexual vegans. He asserts that “real men” chug Michelob, shoot stuff, and eat pigs while the weird Canadian men eat “porridge” and do hot yoga in tight underwear. In the second and third sections, Weathington recounts good times in the South, such as the time he helped an Atlanta yuppie catch a raccoon, and his years spent boozing in Florida. Weathington (Where the Hell Were Your Parents?) treads well-worn comedic paths, but he is still very funny, and his work is recommended for “real men” and vegans alike. (Sept.)