Mr. Dobrian’s exercise in, as the foreword puts it, ‘verbal ecdysiasm’ is a success in its intention. Each of his conveniently serving-sized essays provides a few minutes of his enthusiastically opening up on any one of a wide variety of topics. His style is extremely conversational without being remotely sloppy (if there are cases where the diction is jarring, then it is generally done with intent; the accessibility of the language leaves no lack of vocabulary). His opinions are made completely clear whether the reader is convinced of them or not.
In the truest of iconoclastic forms, not even the icons of common ‘iconoclasts’ are safe. This book is intent on expressing genuine viewpoints without regard for the interconnected pigeonholes that most assume are supposed to go together. It makes for an interesting read.
And, of course, it’s good to see any non-Southerner able to properly understand and analyze the use and value of the word ‘yall’.