Boyles (Vile France
), who now lives in France, comments on contemporary American politics, using his childhood stomping grounds in rural Nebraska and Kansas as his touchstone. Boyles is more partial to Republicans than Democrats largely because he identifies Democrats with dysfunctional urban areas and condescension toward rural residents. Offended by Thomas Frank's 2004 book What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America
, he dismisses the argument that rural Republicans frequently vote against their own interests in the name of social conservatism, such as opposition to abortion. Yet Boyles covers much of the same ground as Brian Mann's better-reasoned and more skillfully written 2006 response to Frank, Welcome to the Homeland: A Journey to the Rural Heart of America's Conservative Revolution
. Still, Boyles shares memorable character sketches, and his diatribes against alleged elites can be both amusing and piercing: “There's a reason why even smart people voted for George Bush, a man whose rhetorical style is best suited to a pickup truck window, instead of John Kerry, a man who was clear and erudite in most of what he had to say. They simply liked what Bush said badly more than what Kerry said well.” Mostly, however, Boyles treats those he disagrees with as condescendingly as they supposedly treat rural sages. (Oct.)
