Looking for Hogeye

by Roy Reed

In the always compelling yet simple style that made Roy Reed one of the country's foremost journalists, he shows us--as we share with him delightful moments and rich insights on the way to Hogeye, Arkansas--Southerners still different for being Southerners, and country Southerners who are even more so. This book is a special admission into those hills, to Vacation Bible School, tent meetings, sale barns, back roads and pool halls, to dog days--to the special place that Reed calls home.

144 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1986

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though I was not born in Arkansas, as was Reed, I've lived and worked in the state on and off for 34 years. I find his descriptions of Arkansas folk and attitudes familiar. He is a master stylist; I love his similes and metaphors ("A winter storm in the mountains comes stiffly, moving as an old man comes up a rocky trail. It takes its time. It creeps into every corner of every house and barn. ") I love his observations of country life and his experiences of dog days, wood cutting, steer killing, etc., on his farm near the town of Hogeye. Reed wrote his University of Missouri master's thesis about the establishment of the Malden (Mo.) Press. I often wished that I could have talked with him about that since I, working as a printer in Senath, Mo., made up the first front page of that paper. Unfortunately he died Dec. 10, 2017.

[Cam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I believe we found it.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This had been on my to-read list for a long time, and I only wish that I'd gotten to it sooner. After my family moved to Arkansas when I was 9, Reed was a neighbor of ours, two dirt driveways over. I remember him as a farmer, and the nice old man who organized the roadside cleanup program. From reading this book, I think he'd be okay with that. After different stops around the country and globe, it's what he'd chosen. In college, I heard a bit more of his background as a journalist, enough to mentally shelve this book. From my apartment in Chicago 20-plus years later, these vignettes describing the familiar names and rhythms of Hogeye and other corners of the South reminded me of where I'm from, and how I've reckoned with it, as Reed did himself.