Last Mountain Dancer : Hard-Earned Lessons in Love, Loss, and Honky-Tonk Outlaw Life

by Kinder, Chuck

• ISBN13: 9780786714063
• ISBN10: 0786714069
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-08-30
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group
• More Book Details
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Summary

On sabbatical from his professorship at the University of Pittsburgh, native West Virginian Chuck Kinder (portrayed as Grady Tripp in Michael Chabon's Wonder Boys and played by Michael Douglas in the film) makes a midlife pilgrimage to his homeland to re-imagine and reconnect with that fabled, fantastic country. Confronting the regrets and heartaches of his past, present, and future, Kinder seeks solace in the funny and raunchy family stories, lies, legends, and history that reside in West Virginia's haunted hills and the hollows of his memory. But more than anything, Kinder wants to live it up hillbilly style. Immersing himself among the lives of mountaineer characters, both the quick and the dead, the bad-boy author bears holy witness to the triumphs and misdeeds of the loafers and misfits, winos and oddball characters of his homeland. Readers will be astonished by tales of bloody mine wars, outlaws on the run, roadhouse romance, barroom brawlers, beer-joint ballerinas, and a man who calls himself the last mountain dancer. With mothmen, moonshiners, and family feudists, it's Planet West Virginia. Chuck Kinder's wild-ride rediscovery of his West Virginian roots is sure to quicken all of our hillbilly hearts.

Author Biography

Born and raised in West Virginia, Chuck Kinder has worked as a coal miner, bartender, bouncer, bandit, cook, and college professor. As a young itinerant professor he taught at Stanford University, the University of California at Davis, and the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa

Table of Contents

prologue: PLANET WEST VIRGINIA	xi
book one: FAMOUS OLD DADDY
The Girl With No Face	3	(8)
Town Boy	11	(9)
Scientific Boy	20	(4)
Shadow Boy	24	(12)
Outlaw Boy	36	(9)
The Real Beginning of My Famous Life	45	(7)
The Highest Traditions of the American Soldier	52	(6)
Belt of Orion	58	(3)
book two: FAMOUS LITTLE SISTER
The Sweet Safety of the Rest of Our Lives	61	(7)
That Place Luck Goes When It Is Finished with Us	68	(5)
Blind Dog	73	(6)
Ugly Baby	79	(6)
Body Parts	85	(6)
Pulling Up Aces	91	(7)
Crippled Flasher	98	(5)
A Multitude of Bills	103	(4)
Delivering the Body of the Dead Star	107	(3)
Stalking the Story	110	(4)
My Bad Side	114	(6)
Beerjoint Ballerinas	120	(5)
Bogeymen in Love	125	(8)
book three: FAMOUS FEUDISTS
Sweet Suicide	133	(8)
Hillbilly History	141	(10)
Goddamned Rhododendron	151	(4)
That Sweet Anarchy We Call Youth	155	(8)
Mountain Law	163	(9)
Blind Tourist	172	(8)
A Dead-End Town Named Romance	180	(6)
Big Iron	186	(5)
book four: FAMOUS ANCIENT INDIANS & MOTHMEN MOMMA
Land of the Sky People	191	(6)
Ghost of the Indian Under the Tree	197	(5)
Pictures of the Dead	202	(10)
The Story of My Mother's Life in Her Own Words	212	(6)
Girl on the Red Bike	218	(6)
Mystery Midgets and Other Bizarre Beings	224	(6)
Body in the Woods	230	(6)
Girl by the Road in the Rain	236	(7)
book five: FAMOUS DANCING OUTLAW
Shot Through the Heart	243	(5)
The Preacher's Porch	248	(7)
Elvis in the Land of Shadow Men	255	(7)
The Secret Lives of Elvis	262	(6)
Stranger Stew	268	(9)
Tell Me About It	277	(6)
The King is Back	283	(3)
That Bright New Skin We Call Fame	286	(11)
book six: FAMOUS FAMILY LIFE
Ghost Rock	297	(5)
Road-Kill Cafe	302	(6)
Carrot Boy	308	(3)
Total Wreck	311	(3)
The Right to Stand with Men	314	(8)
Hotel Angel	322	(6)
King of Pork	328	(5)
Bear in the Woods	333	(10)
book seven: FAMOUS LOST LOVE
Lost World	343	(8)
The Unknown Confederate Dead	351	(6)
Sixteen Tons	357	(6)
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do	363	(5)
The Secret Inner Life of West Virginia	368	(5)
book eight: FAMOUS MYSTERY TOUR
Knocked Up	373	(8)
Interiors Impossible to Speak Of	381	(6)
Wishbone	387	(6)
Point of Honor	393	(6)
Missing Angels	399	(4)
Mystery Hole	403	(6)
Store-Bought Angel	409	(10)
book nine: FAMOUS LAST DANCE
Ghosts of the Headless Coeds	419	(7)
Ghost Mayor	426	(5)
Different Creek	431	(3)
Ghost Geography	434	(7)
Stars and Bars	441	(7)
A Part of This World and A Part of Another	448	(7)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	455	(4)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR	459