A Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter traces his cross-country investigation of the character and quality of the American man, a journey during which he participated in a Bacchanalian Burning Man festival, led a cavalry charge down the Little Bighorn River, infiltrated a fighting biker gang, and more. 150,000 first printing.
Charlie LeDuff is a writer, filmmaker and a multimedia reporter for The Detroit News. He is a former national correspondent for The New York Times.
He covered the war in Iraq, crossed the desert with a group of migrant Mexicans and worked inside a North Carolina slaughterhouse as part of The Times series “How Race Is Lived in America,” which was awarded the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.
In 2005 LeDuff was host and writer of “Only In America” – a 10-part television show of participatory journalism for the Discovery Times Channel. Among other things he brawled at a fight party held by an Oakland motorcycle gang, rode a bull at a gay rodeo, became a trapeze clown in a traveling circus of immigrants.
LeDuff also hosted and co-produced “United Gates of America” for the BBC in 2006 where he moved into a gated city at the edge of the Los Angeles sprawl. There, he encounters Nazi youth, a porno director, a Christian housewife, the town good-time girl, the angry Mexican gardener and other all-stars of American life.
He is the author of two books: “Work and Other Sins: Life in New York City and Thereabouts” (Penguin Press) “US Guys: The True and Twisted Mind of the American Man” (Penguin Press)
Previously, LeDuff, 42, has worked as a carpenter, middle school teacher and gang counselor in Detroit, a bartender in Australia and a baker in Denmark. He lived in a tree house in Alaska and slept on the Great Wall of China. He speaks decent Spanish and bad Russian.
LeDuff received a bachelor of arts degree in political science from the University of Michigan and a master of journalism degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
He lives with his wife and daughter near Detroit, Michigan.
I went into this book expecting something rather different from what it actually is, but came out the other end much happier for having read it than I expected to be.
Unlike the new paperback's cover of a beer-swilling dumb-looking white guy might suggest, this book is not actually about "regular" American dudes and their lives in the way that our stereotype suggests. Rather, the material that LeDuff chooses works effectively to support the argument that he sets up at the beginning in a rhetorical way: there is a certain unrealistic image of what American men are and should be, and this image does not exist in reality as any one man.
Again, I expected LeDuff to focus more on how the men (and women) that he talks to, and writes about and thinks about, do or don't live up to that unrealistic image that he eloquently describes at the outset. He doesn't do this much at all, in fact. Instead, he focuses in a totally engaging and empathetic way on the people themselves, on what I'd call the weird of America. In this way, and also in the way of his wording, he reminded me strongly of Hunter Thompson, but as a person he is quite different and I don't mean to suggest that he's simply a derivative or pale imitation of Thompson. But if you like the latter, you will like this book.
What sticks with me most profoundly was, in fact, LeDuff's unceasing sensitivity and his empathy for the people around him, his willingness to reexamine himself while also looking at what's in front of his face. His confrontation of a participant in a battle reenactment, and his frustrated aside about the inherent value and worth of individual life in the chapter on Detroit, still stand out to me as moments when something clicked: yeah, this guy is all right.
I've heard an interview with him on the radio, and I remember thinking then, "this guy is really good at dealing with people, at getting people to think he is on their side, getting people to like him and feel comfortable with him." Reading this book afterward, I realize that this is why he is able to do what he does. And through reading the book, it worked on me too.
The only shortcoming of this book for me was the feeling that some of the chapters weren't quite as long or compelling as the really great ones. But this could also have been my being in a reading mood with some of them, and tired or distracted with others. Even in the weaker chapters, there was always something compelling that kept me wanting to read more.
The preface hooked me with its discussion of the confusion and contradiction of what it is to be a man in the United States. For example:
"...While it is better to avoid a fight, he should have been in a fight; that honor cannot always be defended with reason. He should never admit fear. He should strive to put the blade in his adversary's chest, not his back."
The preface prepared me for a different book. I was disappointed that LeDuff was often not open to the men he documented. He writes from a perch of superiority and disdain for his subjects painting the men in his tales as sad sack losers instead of letting them express their various answers about manhood without judgment.
Two chapters veered more into the territory the preface alluded to: the Detroit homicide detectives and the snake-handling, tent revival preachers.
The homicide detectives had a Steinbeck quality. Fighting evil in a decaying city without the resources to make much difference and yet they plugged away at their mission anyway.
In the tent revival chapter, LeDuff looks inward to see how he and a particular preacher are the same. He has an epiphany about how he could be living his life more in line with his own morals.
While LeDuff is a skilled writer and, at times, funny, his jaded attitude tarnished what could have been a fascinating book.
I really want to like Charlie LeDuff. I really do. His books always look like good ideas, and then he writes in a way that just makes you want to punch him in the groin, with all the "I'm such a badass, allow me to share with you the greatness of the mighty Charlie LeDuff" crap. This book could be a good collection of experiential essays about interesting things he did, or it could be an interesting investigation of the concept of masculinity in modern America. It claims to be both. But it tries to be both, and fails to be either. Another waste of a good opportunity by the mighty Charlie LeDuff.
I picked up this book thinking it would be an interesting study into how men in America think today. The author traveled all over the country, living and working with different groups of people, trying to assimilate himself into their way of lives.
Instead, this book is a freak circus. NONE of the essays were about men with whom I could identify. He worked with (I'm not joking here): a gay rodeo cowboy and his lover, a circus family of Russian immigrants, an uber-violent motorcycle gang, male models in New York city, and on and on. These were not "guys," these were parodies of male society.
LeDuff's writing is horribly self-serving and pretentious. He acts as if, after living with these people for a week, he "understands" their way of life and thinks he's one of them. He treats himself as an embedded journalist, taking on the lives of those around him. Charlie, you can't say you're living a new lifestyle after one week. Even his writing style is annoying - full of cursing and foul language, he masks his shortcomings by trying too hard to be "edgy."
But there is a lesson in this book. Easily half of the bizarre lifestyles portrayed in this book can be related to a single thing: bad family situations when they were children. The author himself describes the hideous family cicumstances he grew up in. So here's the lesson: Dad, love your kids. You don't have to be smart or athletic or necessarily even a "cool" dad. Just be with them. Talk to them. Listen to them. Cause it'll be your fault if they grow up to be a gay rodeo cowboy.
"Life has no meaning, baby. You're dead the minute you are born."
Which book makes better read during relaxing vacation than grim story of world going down the drain? If story is about US of A and you, dear reader, are not an American - this one fits the bill.
Having read previous book of Mr LeDuff (during another vacation) I got to appreciate his ironic, self-distanced and catchy writing style, so was looking forward for this one.
While some reviews I read were negative, mostly scolding the… odd choice of individuals depicted in each story (ranging from Detroit homicide cop, through Appalachian snake-handling preacher, all the way to bogus gay rodeo bull rider (real gay, not really bull rider), I found it cool - maybe interviewing "regular" Joes would make for a better journalism, it would unlikely make a better read.
If there is a common denominator between all those stories, it would be collapse of middle working class - factories have closed and/or moved to Mexico or China, all the available jobs are dead-end frying pans in fast food joints, there is no hope, no money and abundance of booze and drugs - while not really relatable from my personal bubble, it does reassure me in my personal belief I would rather be shot in the head than live in US.
What I struggled with was Charlie's attempts to blend in - not sure if he really attempted to join biker gang and get his face pummeled during one if their "rite de passages" or took part in rodeo or attempted to be a claun in circus - if he did all the things he described, that's commendable (apart from part where he kept trying to get beaten up during multiple occasions, that part spoke… something about him). If not - that's a load of bullshit.
Either way, it's a good read (and nice way for non-native English speaker to learn some less-than-common English words) - word play is strong in this one. If you want to be grateful you are not living in US - step this way and enjoy. If you are living there - good luck, y'all.
Charlie LeDuff might just be the Hunter S. Thompson of our times. A writer and journalist with a knack for misadventure, LeDuff provides a few vignettes of his travels around the US that illuminate what it means to be a man in today’s America. These entertaining, comical yet serious stories include parts of LeDuff’s life woven in, as in the Custer re-enactment story as well as pretty biting criticism of American society, evident in the Burning Man section and the Amarillo football team portion. LeDuff is in tune with the plight of left-behind America, and sections of this book seem very prescient. He’s attracted criticism for always covering the down-and-out, but LeDuff’s straightforward depiction of life in disadvantaged America has made me a fan.
Wow WOWOWOWOWOWOW A great collection of essays and journalism combined with great prose. This took me AGES to read it because it is a collection where you read one then put it down for a while to fully appreciate the language and story telling that Charlie is quite obviously adept at. Not an easy read in parts, can be quite confrontational but one of the best books I've read in a VERY long time. Will be looking into more of his works.
There are a number of sections in the book in which LeDuff seems to trade in his particular special brand of eliciting empathy for the most broken of people to instead write in a style that mirrors his particular subjects. For instance, when writing about a fight club his narrative sounds like a chauvinistically hyped-up Tyler Durden. I get the reasoning, but the overall effect doesn’t distinguish this as his best work.
One man’s journey through the U.S. Charlie found several very obscure occupations to follow. This book is a brief insight on the weird, strange, odd life that some of us live. It gets real at some points, but it is a very good read. I don’t agree with some of the other reviews, in that, yea, Charlie acts tough, but I believe he was in the moment and his raw emotion came out. It’s a fun read for what it is: a snapshot of the many places he visited.
This book is about guys across the US but the only real interesting guy in the book is the author Charlie LeDuff. Two good chapters highlight Burning Man and homicide detectives in Detroit.
This book is a quick read and not terrible but if you want to read a better book by LeDuff check out his book: Detroit.
Interesting profiles, but with too much first-person narrative in my opinion. Collectively, the essays don't live up to the name of the book - how can "the American Man" be summed up in 150 pages, when as the profiles themselves show, there is such a variety of rich description available across the country?
I read this book awhile ago, so my memory/review might be a little hazy on it, but recent enough that I remember the gist of it and how I felt about the book. And that was that “Us Guys” felt like an interesting time capsule of Men in America in the late aughts albeit nothing completely groundbreaking.
At first, I was a bit hesitant to open “Us Guys”. I thought it was going to be some sort of Conservative think piece describing the “loss of masculinity” in today’s America. But I didn’t realize that the book was first published in 2007. In reading it, I found it more of a snapshot of various different men in a post-9/11 America. The author goes around the United States talking to various men with specialized occupations in unique settings. There are: homicide detectives, gay rodeo clowns, an underground fight club, and Burning man attendees… just to name a few. In other words, the book is a sort of a collection of interviews with alternative Average Joes.
I enjoyed how the author interviewed each person at face value. I don’t recall him really trying to push any agenda or narrative with the book, but I could be misremembering that. It’s an interesting read to lookback on the America of almost two decades ago and to see how much things have changed - and how they haven’t - but overall I really don’t remember all that much specifically about the book.
It is safe to say that I dnf this book. It’s been 3 months and I only made it to page 98. This book drags on I just can’t. I am not in the mindset to read anything right now. It’s over.
Le Duff, a former NYT reporter, takes a vaguely gonzo approach to journalism, playing on a minor-league football team, learning a few stunts as a circus trapeze artist, reenacting Little Big Horn with a bunch of aging battle enthusiasts. While some of the stories are touching and show a real, perceptive glimpse at a fading piece of the American landscape, other stories feel gimmicky and his rendering of certain characters feels sly and almost spiteful. The saying in journalism is that you're always selling someone out, but in some stories(like ones on gay rodeo circuits and male modeling), it seems LeDuff takes a little too much pleasure in doing so. In addition, LeDuff worships the "vanishing American male" and the cult of masculinity a little to enthusiastically. The trouble is, that material has been exhaustively mined for the last 100 years and it seems like this type of American male has been vanishing ever since he first emerged, simply because he is ill-suited to living in the modern world. So we get yet another set of portraits of carnies and sad clowns, washed-up football players, insular Appalachian God-fearing folk, hardened homicide detectives in Detroit, and other well-worn characters.
I picked this one up because I was an instant fan of Charlie LeDuff--NYT reporter, Iraq correspondent, contributor to Pulitzer-winning pieces, and from the same native Detroit as me. He wrote this from notes accumulated while working on a TV show, and he personally involves himself in the narrative in a sometimes gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson-esque way, getting personally involved in each activity he covers.
Each story is a quick, easily-digestible vignette: Detroit homicide cops, gay rodeo cowboys, snake-handling preachers, football players, NY male models, Burning Man, and more. I like that he admits when he's wrong, or embarrassed, or ashamed. I like objective journalism, but I like this immersion too.
http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/commen... Also this. He investigates Meals on Wheels and finds a lot of stupid bullshit that led to its cutbacks and eats cat food for a story.
A smattering of gonzo-like journalism about the insane goings-ons going on in this country that has a good amount of humanity and self loathing coming form the author, with the right amount of pride and outlook on it. Many times when just the perverted crazy oddness of it all is happening, you tend to agree with the author and what going and when you don't, it's because you've walked away with your idea form it. Some stories make you want to put a gun in your mouth with how depressing and shitty it is, but others give you some hope or at least, perspective in some niche of humanity that you may have glanced over at one time or another. I dug it, it's the sort of writing and journalism that made me fall in love with Hunter S. Thompson or Kurt Vonnegut, because ti wasn't about impressing you, it was about communicating with you.
LeDuff is a reporter for the New York Times, and this book was an outgrowth of a collaborative project between the Times and the Discovery Channel. It follows LeDuff across the country as he participates in various experiences of the lower-class male in America. He plays semi-pro football, joins a biker gang/fight club, and performs in a gay rodeo, among other things. There are some interesting stories as he interacts with a broad variety of people, but nothing really amazing or revelatory as LeDuff's nihilism infects every experience he has with a complete lack of meaning.
I don’t think that the men he researched were representative of American men, clowns and jockeys and gamblers and fight club idiots, but it was insight into a guy (him) and his responses to people on the outskirts of “mainstream.” Not sure how this stuff gets written, and I hope there is a better book somewhere that tells more of the complete story, otherwise this is now immortalized as the only story.
The writing is ok and I get what the writer's aiming for, but something's missing and despite reading a few chapters twice, I can't identify what that is. Stories about ordinary people's weirdness are not new, and it's an art to make them interesting, rather than simply observing these characters and writing about them.
This was a very good book. I loved his book about Detroit and this was no disappointment either. Not quite as good but still enjoyable. LeDuff is an excellent author. I really enjoy how he writes about the blue collar middle class of America. His writing style is very easy to read and follow. I'd recommend this to a friend.
this is only so funny and entertaining because I know a few of the subjects first hand. Otherwise, he's a decent writer but has delusions of grandeur that he does not come close to reaching yet. Hunter Thompson did it first and better so far
Great one liners throughough. His prose is kind of rambling, similar to Hunter Thompson. The book lacks a certain cohesiveness but it's unlike anything I've read in awhile. Finished it in two days.
Somehow, Charlie's never as good when he's putting himself in the stories. If you want to read his writing at its best, try "Work and Other Sins," which is a masterpiece of narrative journalism.