Alabama Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff

U.S. State Curiosities

by Andy Duncan

Discover Alabama's curious underside with this oddly entertaining little guide! Travelers with a taste for the bizarre, tacky, and hilarious can visit the Coon Dog Cemetery, learn about the cattle-mutilation mystery, view the world's largest boll weevil, and feast on Drunken Chicken (marinated in Schlitz). Only a true Southerner could capture the essence of these and other authentic Alabama phenomena, and Andy Duncan does his home state proud.

Genres: History, Travel, Nonfiction

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Andy Duncan is the award-winning author of two novellas—The Night Cache (2009) and Wakulla Springs (with Ellen Klages, 2013, 2018)—and three short fiction collections: Beluthahatchie and Other Stories (2000), The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories (2012) and An Agent of Utopia: New and Selected Stories (2018). He is also the author of non-fiction book Alabama Curiosities (2005, 2009), and co-editor (with F. Brett Cox) of Crossroads: Tales of the Southern Literary Fantastic (2004). He has won the 2002 Theodore Sturgeon Award for "The Chief Designer", the 2012 Nebula Award for "Close Encounters", and three World Fantasy Awards. Born in Batesburg, South Carolina, Duncan currently lives with his wife Sydney in Frostburg, Maryland, where he he has taught English as an Assistant Professor at Frostburg State University since 2008.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun book with descriptions of odd places and people and events from across the state of Alabama. It's over twenty years old now, so many of the people and places are surely no longer extant in the way they're described, but I thought it was still a worthwhile read for the historical tidbits and amusing trivia. I've never lived in Alabama, but my oldest daughter lived there for a bit and showed us a few of the places mentioned around Birmingham. The rocket center in Huntsville was one of my favorite vacation stops, but it's not covered in the book; I guess it's not quirky, odd, or offbeat enough. I've stopped at the rest area with the rocket on I-65 many times, was amazed and amused to read about the proposed science fiction tax of 2002, and never knew that Jefferson Davis proposed that the Confederacy keep the Union flag rather than adopting their own. The book is filled with many such fun and interesting bits and pieces.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This travel guide gave me lots of ideas for places to visit. Very interesting.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very amused to find out that Edgar Cayce was a school photographer in Gadsden for a couple of years before moving to Selma...as a photographer.