What do you think?
Rate this book
Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta
In Dispatches from Pluto, adventure writer Richard Grant takes on “the most American place on Earth”—the enigmatic, beautiful, often derided Mississippi Delta.
Richard Grant and his girlfriend were living in a shoebox apartment in New York City when they decided on a whim to buy an old plantation house in the Mississippi Delta. Dispatches from Pluto is their journey of discovery into this strange and wonderful American place. Imagine A Year In Provence with alligators and assassins, or Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil with hunting scenes and swamp-to-table dining.
On a remote, isolated strip of land, three miles beyond the tiny community of Pluto, Richard and his girlfriend, Mariah, embark on a new life. They learn to hunt, grow their own food, and fend off alligators, snakes, and varmints galore. They befriend an array of unforgettable local characters—blues legend T-Model Ford, cookbook maven Martha Foose, catfish farmers, eccentric millionaires, and the actor Morgan Freeman. Grant brings an adept, empathetic eye to the fascinating people he meets, capturing the rich, extraordinary culture of the Delta, while tracking its utterly bizarre and criminal extremes. Reporting from all angles as only an outsider can, Grant also delves deeply into the Delta’s lingering racial tensions. He finds that de facto segregation continues. Yet even as he observes major structural problems, he encounters many close, loving, and interdependent relationships between black and white families—and good reasons for hope.
Dispatches from Pluto is a book as unique as the Delta itself. It’s lively, entertaining, and funny, containing a travel writer’s flair for in-depth reporting alongside insightful reflections on poverty, community, and race. It’s also a love story, as the nomadic Grant learns to settle down. He falls not just for his girlfriend but for the beguiling place they now call home. Mississippi, Grant concludes, is the best-kept secret in America.
Richard Grant and his girlfriend were living in a shoebox apartment in New York City when they decided on a whim to buy an old plantation house in the Mississippi Delta. Dispatches from Pluto is their journey of discovery into this strange and wonderful American place. Imagine A Year In Provence with alligators and assassins, or Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil with hunting scenes and swamp-to-table dining.
On a remote, isolated strip of land, three miles beyond the tiny community of Pluto, Richard and his girlfriend, Mariah, embark on a new life. They learn to hunt, grow their own food, and fend off alligators, snakes, and varmints galore. They befriend an array of unforgettable local characters—blues legend T-Model Ford, cookbook maven Martha Foose, catfish farmers, eccentric millionaires, and the actor Morgan Freeman. Grant brings an adept, empathetic eye to the fascinating people he meets, capturing the rich, extraordinary culture of the Delta, while tracking its utterly bizarre and criminal extremes. Reporting from all angles as only an outsider can, Grant also delves deeply into the Delta’s lingering racial tensions. He finds that de facto segregation continues. Yet even as he observes major structural problems, he encounters many close, loving, and interdependent relationships between black and white families—and good reasons for hope.
Dispatches from Pluto is a book as unique as the Delta itself. It’s lively, entertaining, and funny, containing a travel writer’s flair for in-depth reporting alongside insightful reflections on poverty, community, and race. It’s also a love story, as the nomadic Grant learns to settle down. He falls not just for his girlfriend but for the beguiling place they now call home. Mississippi, Grant concludes, is the best-kept secret in America.
320 pages, Paperback
First published October 13, 2015
938 people are currently reading
6916 people want to read
About the author
Richard Grant
124 books230 followersRichard Grant is a freelance British travel writer based in Arizona. He was born in Malaysia, lived in Kuwait as a boy and then moved to London. He went to school in Hammersmith and received a history degree from University College, London. After graduation he worked as a security guard, a janitor, a house painter and a club DJ before moving to America where he lived a nomadic life in the American West, eventually settling in Tucson, Arizona, as a base from which to travel. He supported himself by writing articles for Men's Journal, Esquire and Details, among others.
His third book Crazy River: Exploration and Folly in East Africa (2011) is about Grant's travels in harrowing situations around East Africa, including an attempt at the first descent of the Malagarasi River in Tanzania.
His third book Crazy River: Exploration and Folly in East Africa (2011) is about Grant's travels in harrowing situations around East Africa, including an attempt at the first descent of the Malagarasi River in Tanzania.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 972 reviews
November 16, 2015
You know a book is outstanding when you feel sadder and sadder that each time you pick it up, there's less and less left to read: this was one of THOSE books for me.
Race in the deep south is a ... complicated issue, so perhaps it's fitting that a British-born writer (though an American citizen when the events took place) did such a masterful job. One might think that it was easier for him to understand where his white friends were coming from, but he's secular, and politically liberal, which they are decidedly NOT (for the most part). Not meaning to belittle that, the gem of the book is that he manages entries into black Delta life for a truly balanced view of the situation there. An African-American journalist with roots in the area might be able to write about that as well, but I highly doubt the local whites would trust that person fully for their side of the story. Grant actually pulls off revealing the incredibly complex (sorry, but the term really fits here!) love-hate dynamics that cover many levels. And ... oh yeah ... the writing's top notch.
Slam Dunk five stars such that I'd be truly puzzled how any of my Goodreads friends wouldn't like it, too? Very Highly Recommended!
Race in the deep south is a ... complicated issue, so perhaps it's fitting that a British-born writer (though an American citizen when the events took place) did such a masterful job. One might think that it was easier for him to understand where his white friends were coming from, but he's secular, and politically liberal, which they are decidedly NOT (for the most part). Not meaning to belittle that, the gem of the book is that he manages entries into black Delta life for a truly balanced view of the situation there. An African-American journalist with roots in the area might be able to write about that as well, but I highly doubt the local whites would trust that person fully for their side of the story. Grant actually pulls off revealing the incredibly complex (sorry, but the term really fits here!) love-hate dynamics that cover many levels. And ... oh yeah ... the writing's top notch.
Slam Dunk five stars such that I'd be truly puzzled how any of my Goodreads friends wouldn't like it, too? Very Highly Recommended!
November 7, 2016
Perhaps being not just a southerner but also having been married to a Mississippi boy for over a quarter of a century sets me up for not particularly caring for this book. Call it a culture clash, but for me it felt as if the author looked me in the face and was stunned to note that not only did I use utensils to eat, but also avoided using my prehensile toes to climb kudzu vines and then rape wild hogs (the author mentions sexual assault on animals - twice - in probably the first 30 pages of the book). Its as if he was writing about Neanderthals and praising their quaint use of stone tools. Bless their hearts.
Maybe non-southerners will enjoy his tales of fire ants, dove hunts, etc but this mostly just annoyed and offended me. We all have our own reactions.
Author M.O. Walsh once said: "there is a difference between writing from the culture and writing about or, at its worst, above it. The southern gothic is, always, from the culture." To me, this came across as it were considered above our culture.
Maybe non-southerners will enjoy his tales of fire ants, dove hunts, etc but this mostly just annoyed and offended me. We all have our own reactions.
Author M.O. Walsh once said: "there is a difference between writing from the culture and writing about or, at its worst, above it. The southern gothic is, always, from the culture." To me, this came across as it were considered above our culture.
October 22, 2015
Just love narrative fiction or a memoir as in this read, when it is done well and takes the reader into the heart and soul of a region, or a person, or even an event. This book does just that . Took me into the Mississippi Delta, a place I know only from reading the books of the many authors that this region has produced. Grant, a travel writer has a little more invested in this book, because here he falls in love with a place, buys an plantation style house where he and his girlfriend Mariah try to settle and learn the area.
At times humorous, huge mosquitos, first adventure with fire ants, learning armadillos are not your lawns friends, and of course the dreaded snake. Tackling weeds that seem to appear overnight, bamboo that can grow ten inches in a day and learning just how cold it can get in winter and the high cost of heating such a large house. Yet, he meets many wonderful people, gets a tour of disappearing towns, learns the particulars of Southern hunting, learns to love the hard drinking, love of partying people that make up the Delta. Learns the ins and out of Southern cooking and has his first taste of a koolickle.
He doesn't shy away from the difficulties still alive in the Delta today. The area is 80% black and many of the old ways still exist between black and white. Poverty is a real concern as are the conditions of the schools, many which receive an F rating, though he does visit a school that has turned itself around, within two years managing a C rating, but not without difficulties. Also is the area that has the most teenage pregnancies and children being raised by only a mother. He tries to understand the many contradiction that make up the Delta and its people. The music, the many, many churches, he visits them all.
A good hard, alternately amusing look at an area that by its very contradictions is a hard one to understand. Yet, the people who live there love it and don't really want to live anywhere else. A very good read.
ARC from Netgalley.
At times humorous, huge mosquitos, first adventure with fire ants, learning armadillos are not your lawns friends, and of course the dreaded snake. Tackling weeds that seem to appear overnight, bamboo that can grow ten inches in a day and learning just how cold it can get in winter and the high cost of heating such a large house. Yet, he meets many wonderful people, gets a tour of disappearing towns, learns the particulars of Southern hunting, learns to love the hard drinking, love of partying people that make up the Delta. Learns the ins and out of Southern cooking and has his first taste of a koolickle.
He doesn't shy away from the difficulties still alive in the Delta today. The area is 80% black and many of the old ways still exist between black and white. Poverty is a real concern as are the conditions of the schools, many which receive an F rating, though he does visit a school that has turned itself around, within two years managing a C rating, but not without difficulties. Also is the area that has the most teenage pregnancies and children being raised by only a mother. He tries to understand the many contradiction that make up the Delta and its people. The music, the many, many churches, he visits them all.
A good hard, alternately amusing look at an area that by its very contradictions is a hard one to understand. Yet, the people who live there love it and don't really want to live anywhere else. A very good read.
ARC from Netgalley.
October 6, 2015
A high 4 stars. I really liked this book. I really liked Richard Grant. I wish Grant would invite me to his house in Mississippi so that I can meet his neighbours, eat some local food, drink some whiskey, see and smell the delta and area, help him fight off all the creatures invading his garden and house, and listen to more of his stories. Richard Grant and his girlfriend Mariah moved from Manhattan to Pluto, Mississippi, where they bought an old plantation house. Grant is an adventure travel writer originally from the UK, and from the get go the plan was to write about the experience. When I first started reading, I felt entertained but uneasy at the thought that my fun was at the expense of some real hardship -- Mississippi has some pretty nasty statistics on poverty, racism, obesity, education, etc... But after a couple of lighter chapters dealing with the process of settling in -- the house turns out to be a bit of a disaster full of interesting critters -- and his introduction to quirky neighbours and their mores, Grant elevates his travelogue of sorts well above mockery or sanctimoniousness. Through the portrayal of the many places he visits and people he meets, Grant does a great job of describing his attempt to understand the intractable subtleties of the racial divide, his observations of decaying and shrinking communities, and his delight at meeting so many interesting and generous people with so many points of view on the world they live in. He visits many places -- jails, bars, gun shops, schools, funeral homes, country clubs, churches, etc.. -- and writes in interesting detail about the people he meets and the stories he hears. He writes about everyone -- even people who express appalling views -- respectfully and without ridiculing and belittling them. At times, given some of what he describes, this felt a bit overly balanced, but I suppose that this comes with the territory of writing about one's neighbours -- these are people who took him into their confidence and part of his point is to try to understand the world from their point of view. In any event, it made for really interesting reading for this Canadian who is unfamiliar with this part of the world. I will say that one thing that really shook up my Canadian sensibility -- besides some of the intractable social, economic and political issues Grant so deftly touches on -- was the prevalence and legality of guns -- every one has them and everyone knows how to use them from an early age. Yikes! This book serves as another confirmation that there's plenty of good non fiction for me to explore out there. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.
March 13, 2016
I really am of two minds about this book. Grant is a great writer. I wanted to keep reading this book- he really gives his readers a good time and attempts to give balanced view of the Delta. He tried really hard. I got really tired, however, of the endless bottles of bourbon (though yes, every Deltan I've ever known could drink me under the table- I don't even try to keep up), the "aren't they comical" tone that crops up repeatedly-and was tiresome. This nagged at me through the entire book. As much as Grant explored race relations, I felt like his interactions with black residents were colored by a rosy glow when they were people he knew, and took the amusing "can you believe this?!" anecdotal tone if the person happened to be a public official or musician. There's so much romance attached to the Delta: the display of wealth and over-the-top hospitality that is the epitome of Southern hospitality; the deep ties to family, land, and community; the untamed nature of the landscape; the music and the subjugation that is so much a part of it. It's hard to leave the romance behind. As much as I loved living in Mississippi and taking trips into the Delta, and as much as Memphis is still a part of the Delta, I don't love all that's romanticized. I don't relish the patina that envelops the land and its citizens. In the end, once the silver plate shine has worn off, you're left with a broken culture disguised as hospitable hoots, great music, and people to fix. I'd hoped for less romance in this Deltan Year in Provence.
book club january 2016
book club january 2016
March 17, 2025
I thought I knew some things about Mississippi. I was mostly mistaken. DISPATCHES FROM PLUTO was interesting and thought-provoking.
May 26, 2016
To natives of the state, Mississippi is simply our home. We tend to forget that it is a place of contradictions; Mississippi has given birth to a population who manifests and embraces those seeming differences. Richard Grant has a keen ear for a good story and the Mississippi Delta has stories in spades. While no single book can tell the whole story of any place (especially a place like Mississippi!), Grant's tales of his meetings with wildlife and with humans and of his travels and adventures around the Delta are humorous, insightful, and well-written.
May 14, 2018
This definitely brings to the fore the dichotomy of the old south and trying to bring Mississippi into the 21st century. There’s no easy answer and no easy solution but fascinating table talk for sure.
February 16, 2017
In the prologue, Grant says: One of my hopes in writing this book is to dissolve these clumsy old stereotypes, and illustrate my conviction that Mississippi is the best-kept secret in America. Nowhere else is so poorly understood by outsiders, so unfairly maligned, so surreal and peculiar, so charming and maddening. Individually, collectively, and above all politically, Mississippians have a kind of genius for charging after phantoms and lost causes. Nowhere else in the world have I met so many fine, generous honorable people, but if you look at the statistics, and read the news stories coming out of Mississippi, the state gives every appearance of being a redneck disaster zone.
After reading Grant’s bold statement about bashing stereotypes, I think I was expecting a lot more than golfing with Morgan Freeman and deer hunting. Did Grant successfully dissolve stereotypes about Mississippi? No. The book is under 300 pages, and I’m pretty sure it would take a lot more than that to change people’s stubborn views.
While race comes up frequently in the book, it isn’t until Chapter 7, aptly titled “Elephant in the Room,” that Grant even attempts to delve more deeply into the complicated topic of race. Up until this chapter, I was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to venture outside his white social circle, and then Grants admits: The black delta was still a closed book to us. What little we knew of it was gleaned from fragments, clues, extrapolations. We were living in the blackest county in the blackest state in America—Holmes County was 82 percent African-American—and we still hadn’t made any black friends. Race is complicated. Race in Mississippi is complicated. Race in the Mississippi Delta is super complicated. There’s absolutely no way Grant could even have a handle on it after living there for just one year. Grant describes it as “grabbing at smoke,” and he’s right.
I hope readers take this for what it is: a small snapshot of one man’s short-lived experience in the Delta. I worry that readers will assume that all of Mississippi is like the Delta. By failing to make this distinction, I think Grant failed to dissolve stereotypes like he set out to do. I’ve lived on the MS Gulf Coast, at Mississippi State University and now in the Jackson Metro Area and each one of these places has been unique. The Delta is its own unique place, too.
That being said, Grant moved to the Delta with an open mind, and I appreciated his willingness to absorb the culture and learn about the people, rather than observe from a distance and make harsh judgments. He never presumes to have the answers, or know how to fix things. So, the tone of the book was pretty lighthearted and I think that has a lot to do with Grant’s flexible, fun-seeking personality.
I visited Grant's website, curious to see if he still lived in the Delta, since the book is open-ended. Turns out that Grant and his wife, Mariah, left the Delta for Jackson, MS. In an essay titled "Sweet Home Mississippi," Grant says: After nearly three years here, it still feels like we’re scratching the surface [...] Sometimes living in Mississippi makes us want to weep and scream and rush back to the familiar. But Mariah has a library job here now, and we have no plans to leave. Mississippi is such a deep, strange, complicated, interesting place that we often feel ruined for living anywhere else.
February 2016 MDEQ Book Club Selection
After reading Grant’s bold statement about bashing stereotypes, I think I was expecting a lot more than golfing with Morgan Freeman and deer hunting. Did Grant successfully dissolve stereotypes about Mississippi? No. The book is under 300 pages, and I’m pretty sure it would take a lot more than that to change people’s stubborn views.
While race comes up frequently in the book, it isn’t until Chapter 7, aptly titled “Elephant in the Room,” that Grant even attempts to delve more deeply into the complicated topic of race. Up until this chapter, I was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to venture outside his white social circle, and then Grants admits: The black delta was still a closed book to us. What little we knew of it was gleaned from fragments, clues, extrapolations. We were living in the blackest county in the blackest state in America—Holmes County was 82 percent African-American—and we still hadn’t made any black friends. Race is complicated. Race in Mississippi is complicated. Race in the Mississippi Delta is super complicated. There’s absolutely no way Grant could even have a handle on it after living there for just one year. Grant describes it as “grabbing at smoke,” and he’s right.
I hope readers take this for what it is: a small snapshot of one man’s short-lived experience in the Delta. I worry that readers will assume that all of Mississippi is like the Delta. By failing to make this distinction, I think Grant failed to dissolve stereotypes like he set out to do. I’ve lived on the MS Gulf Coast, at Mississippi State University and now in the Jackson Metro Area and each one of these places has been unique. The Delta is its own unique place, too.
That being said, Grant moved to the Delta with an open mind, and I appreciated his willingness to absorb the culture and learn about the people, rather than observe from a distance and make harsh judgments. He never presumes to have the answers, or know how to fix things. So, the tone of the book was pretty lighthearted and I think that has a lot to do with Grant’s flexible, fun-seeking personality.
I visited Grant's website, curious to see if he still lived in the Delta, since the book is open-ended. Turns out that Grant and his wife, Mariah, left the Delta for Jackson, MS. In an essay titled "Sweet Home Mississippi," Grant says: After nearly three years here, it still feels like we’re scratching the surface [...] Sometimes living in Mississippi makes us want to weep and scream and rush back to the familiar. But Mariah has a library job here now, and we have no plans to leave. Mississippi is such a deep, strange, complicated, interesting place that we often feel ruined for living anywhere else.
February 2016 MDEQ Book Club Selection
March 28, 2016
This memoir details an Englishman, now an American citizen, who moved from literary and intellectual circles in NYC to the Mississippi Delta with his live-in girl friend, a very metropolitan native of Arizona.
The first few chapters of this book were reasonable in their depiction of our main characters’ bewilderment about the culture and way of life in the Delta. They were confused about the fact that Negro and White citizens can be life long best friends, but not socialize together nor even eat at the same table. Their perplexity was understandable as they had no basis for comprehension since they were outsiders. In this beginning all the characters were treated with compassion and the account promised to be a true one and an enjoyable one: a sympathetic look at the deep South from the eyes of an outsider.
Then the tone changes dramatically. The unique characteristics of not just the people, but of the community become exaggerated and lampooned to the point of absurdity. Also the author’s reported adherence to local customs (hunting, gardening, various repairs, cooking game, canning, etc) are vastly over rated. He “might” have lucked up and killed a dove on his first shoot – his first time to hold a gun – but I doubt it. His girl friend “might” have attempted to make jelly from their garden’s produce the first year, but I seriously doubt that she was as successful as he reported. Having easily convinced the reader that they were both city people and apartment dwellers accustomed to calling the super whenever they had a leaking faucet or any other problem, I had a hard time believing that suddenly they were miraculously endowed with skill and expertise to live off the land and manage their own plumbing and carpentry needs.
And then, not even halfway through the book (chapter 7), he (and his girl friend) decide that everything – and I mean, everything – is racism. From that point in his narrative until the end, he, like so many in the media, screamed racism. And there, again, it was to the point of the ridiculous. No, no, no. This was not funny and it was not enlightening. This was/is not true. He was way off base here.
He started out by saying he didn’t understand the culture of the area and then after spending most of the book demeaning and deriding the people and situations he met as though he had expertly figured it all out, he wrote on page 276, “Mariah and I had been in the Delta for nearly a year, and we still didn’t feel like we understood the place well.”
No Richard, you don’t understand it at all. You merely want to tear down what you can't comprehend.
I do not recommend this book and I will certainly not read anything else from this author.
The first few chapters of this book were reasonable in their depiction of our main characters’ bewilderment about the culture and way of life in the Delta. They were confused about the fact that Negro and White citizens can be life long best friends, but not socialize together nor even eat at the same table. Their perplexity was understandable as they had no basis for comprehension since they were outsiders. In this beginning all the characters were treated with compassion and the account promised to be a true one and an enjoyable one: a sympathetic look at the deep South from the eyes of an outsider.
Then the tone changes dramatically. The unique characteristics of not just the people, but of the community become exaggerated and lampooned to the point of absurdity. Also the author’s reported adherence to local customs (hunting, gardening, various repairs, cooking game, canning, etc) are vastly over rated. He “might” have lucked up and killed a dove on his first shoot – his first time to hold a gun – but I doubt it. His girl friend “might” have attempted to make jelly from their garden’s produce the first year, but I seriously doubt that she was as successful as he reported. Having easily convinced the reader that they were both city people and apartment dwellers accustomed to calling the super whenever they had a leaking faucet or any other problem, I had a hard time believing that suddenly they were miraculously endowed with skill and expertise to live off the land and manage their own plumbing and carpentry needs.
And then, not even halfway through the book (chapter 7), he (and his girl friend) decide that everything – and I mean, everything – is racism. From that point in his narrative until the end, he, like so many in the media, screamed racism. And there, again, it was to the point of the ridiculous. No, no, no. This was not funny and it was not enlightening. This was/is not true. He was way off base here.
He started out by saying he didn’t understand the culture of the area and then after spending most of the book demeaning and deriding the people and situations he met as though he had expertly figured it all out, he wrote on page 276, “Mariah and I had been in the Delta for nearly a year, and we still didn’t feel like we understood the place well.”
No Richard, you don’t understand it at all. You merely want to tear down what you can't comprehend.
I do not recommend this book and I will certainly not read anything else from this author.
January 1, 2018
I took my time with this book, so much in fact that I waited two months before finishing the last five pages. I did not want it to end. Richard Grant, an adventure writer, bought a house in the Mississippi Delta with his then girlfriend and now wife, and recorded his experiences. I've read lots of reviews that are angered by things Grant spoke about. I get it, who wants to admit that Mississippi is in some ways drastically different from how people believe and in some ways still the same? How fair is it for an outsider to make commentary on a state from a limited experience? I see these viewpoints but I also believe that this book is a combination of his experience and the things he was told by people who have lived in Mississippi their entire lives. Does it make up all of Mississippi or give a clear picture of the state of the state? Likely not. Every book, writing, is just a piece of the whole, one individual experience. For that, I loved this book. I felt he captured what Mississippi was like for me very well. I moved to Mississippi from Dallas and to a tiny town of about 2000. Talk about culture shock. But I love and miss Mississippi. Pretty much daily. It is so much more than people think or understand. I highly recommend this book. I would say it was my favorite book of 2017 but I was too sick to read the last few pages last night so hooray for a great start to 2018.
October 15, 2015
Dispatches from Pluto – Richard Grant
Dispatches from Pluto (Simon & Schuster, 2015, 320 pages, $16.00/11.99) is simply the best book on race in America I've ever read. Things we say and don't say, relationships we have and don't have, long-held misunderstandings and new insights grown from distance and proximity. By moving from his comfortable liberalism in New York to the poorest town in the poorest region, in the poorest and blackest state in America, Richard Grant learns, explains, and helps bridge gaps that persist in every level of society and region of the country. By doing so in an engaging, often humorous, and always involved, deeply compassionate memoir from the depths of the Mississippi Delta, Grant has provided an invaluable service presented within the confines of a highly readable and ultimately important book.
Grant's introduction to Mississippi had been through his writing in the 1990's about aging Delta Blues musicians. At a book party in William Faulkner's home town of Oxford, Mississippi, he met famed cookbook writer Martha Foose at a book reading and was invited to visit her Mississippi, the Mississippi Delta. Eventually, he decides to move to the small town of Pluto, MS, and buy a former plantation mansion from Foose's father, a local lawyer. Soon, he moves to Pluto with his partner Mariah, where they begin to learn to live in the South. Early in his stay, Foose tells Grant “There's a secret to living here....Compartmentalize, compartmentalize, and then compartmentalize some more. If someone tells you that the Muslims are plotting to destroy America, or Obama is the Antichrist, you just seal that away in its own separate compartment and carry on till you find their good side. There's no sense in arguing with them. Folks around here are stubborn as they come.” By this, she means that unless people are capable of taking beliefs, attitudes, and behavior they disapprove or even that horrifies them and putting them away, they never can discover the true charm, depth, complexity, wisdom and value of people and life in the South.
Grant and Mariah purchase the plantation house and move into it. They encounter snakes, alligators, armadillos, and insects without count as they live in their new home and learn to cope with its idiosyncrasies. They meet people from all walks of life while living in an area that once was rich in farming and plantations, but has now become increasingly poor as factory farms have come to dominate. They observe and become part of the rich web of relationships that characterize the region such as families where children are still raised, nurtured, suckled by the descendants of those their own ancestors once owned. Grant visits blues bars where marijuana and crack cocaine are openly consumed and distributed and plays golf with the white sons of the former plantation society as well as black actor Morgan Freeman. We hear about and meet an angry lawyer and a crazy doctor locked in a battle of wills and politics. We learn about the hunting and gun culture in ways that defy the stereotypes suggested by both NRA propagandists and gun-control advocates. We visit black churches at times of grief and joy. We attend marriages and funerals. We visit in the homes of the poor and downtrodden as well as the rich and privileged while we learn of the intricate relationships between and amongst these families. Along the way we learn that race and racism as both more and less pervasive than an outsider can know or understand. And all this is presented in narrative form with gentle humor, compassionate insight, deep understanding gained more through experience than sociology.
Richard Grant is a freelance British travel writer based in Mississippi. He was born in Malaysia, lived in Kuwait as a boy and then moved to London. He went to school in Hammersmith and received a history degree from University College, London, After graduation he worked as a security guard, a janitor, a house painter and a club DJ before moving to America where he lived a nomadic life in the American West eventually settling in Tucson, Arizona, as a base from which to travel. He supported himself by writing articles for Men's Journal,Esquire and Details, among others. Grant and now wife, Mariah, moved to New York City briefly, before relocation to Pluto, Mississippi. (Wikipedia Profile)
During the past fifteen or so years, my wife, Irene, and I have spent significant portions of our life living in various parts of the South. We've toured, lived for several months at a time, and nearly settled in several different places. Along the way we discovered bluegrass music and have been both captured and embraced by much of the warmth, generosity of spirit, and friendliness that Grant describes. We, too, have found the need to compartmentalize those elements of southern culture with which we have deep disagreements in order to recognize and treasure the components making the region and its people a treasured part of our experience. Needless to say, they, too, have been able to put aside their stereotypes and misunderstandings of northern (Yankee) attitudes that often conflict with their own. By coming better to understand this region's strengths and peculiarities, our lives have been enriched and expanded beyond measure. Reading Richard Grant's Dispatches from Pluto has succeeded in giving this experience greater depth and nuance to my own experience. Who could ask for more from a book?
Dispatches from Pluto by Richard Grant (Simon & Schuster, 2015, 320 pages, $16.00/11.99) with gentle good humor and deep insight portrays a year in the life of a young couple coming to terms with life's realities in the deepest place in the deep South, the Mississippi Delta region, laying along the Mississippi river from Tupelo to Vickeburg. This memoir provides the opportunity, for those willing to open their eyes and hearts, to understand the strengths and enduring problems of life in one of most impoverished and damaged parts of the United States, which, nevertheless, represents some of the most engaging elements of our life in America. Dispatches from Pluto is must reading in order to deepen understanding of race relations, their sources and outcomes, in this small corner of a much bigger picture. Dispatches from Pluto was supplied to me as an electronic galley by the publisher through Edelweiss. I read it on my Kindle app. If you decide to purchase this book, please consider doing so from the Amazon portal on my blog at www.tedlehmann.blogspot.com
Dispatches from Pluto (Simon & Schuster, 2015, 320 pages, $16.00/11.99) is simply the best book on race in America I've ever read. Things we say and don't say, relationships we have and don't have, long-held misunderstandings and new insights grown from distance and proximity. By moving from his comfortable liberalism in New York to the poorest town in the poorest region, in the poorest and blackest state in America, Richard Grant learns, explains, and helps bridge gaps that persist in every level of society and region of the country. By doing so in an engaging, often humorous, and always involved, deeply compassionate memoir from the depths of the Mississippi Delta, Grant has provided an invaluable service presented within the confines of a highly readable and ultimately important book.
Grant's introduction to Mississippi had been through his writing in the 1990's about aging Delta Blues musicians. At a book party in William Faulkner's home town of Oxford, Mississippi, he met famed cookbook writer Martha Foose at a book reading and was invited to visit her Mississippi, the Mississippi Delta. Eventually, he decides to move to the small town of Pluto, MS, and buy a former plantation mansion from Foose's father, a local lawyer. Soon, he moves to Pluto with his partner Mariah, where they begin to learn to live in the South. Early in his stay, Foose tells Grant “There's a secret to living here....Compartmentalize, compartmentalize, and then compartmentalize some more. If someone tells you that the Muslims are plotting to destroy America, or Obama is the Antichrist, you just seal that away in its own separate compartment and carry on till you find their good side. There's no sense in arguing with them. Folks around here are stubborn as they come.” By this, she means that unless people are capable of taking beliefs, attitudes, and behavior they disapprove or even that horrifies them and putting them away, they never can discover the true charm, depth, complexity, wisdom and value of people and life in the South.
Grant and Mariah purchase the plantation house and move into it. They encounter snakes, alligators, armadillos, and insects without count as they live in their new home and learn to cope with its idiosyncrasies. They meet people from all walks of life while living in an area that once was rich in farming and plantations, but has now become increasingly poor as factory farms have come to dominate. They observe and become part of the rich web of relationships that characterize the region such as families where children are still raised, nurtured, suckled by the descendants of those their own ancestors once owned. Grant visits blues bars where marijuana and crack cocaine are openly consumed and distributed and plays golf with the white sons of the former plantation society as well as black actor Morgan Freeman. We hear about and meet an angry lawyer and a crazy doctor locked in a battle of wills and politics. We learn about the hunting and gun culture in ways that defy the stereotypes suggested by both NRA propagandists and gun-control advocates. We visit black churches at times of grief and joy. We attend marriages and funerals. We visit in the homes of the poor and downtrodden as well as the rich and privileged while we learn of the intricate relationships between and amongst these families. Along the way we learn that race and racism as both more and less pervasive than an outsider can know or understand. And all this is presented in narrative form with gentle humor, compassionate insight, deep understanding gained more through experience than sociology.
Richard Grant is a freelance British travel writer based in Mississippi. He was born in Malaysia, lived in Kuwait as a boy and then moved to London. He went to school in Hammersmith and received a history degree from University College, London, After graduation he worked as a security guard, a janitor, a house painter and a club DJ before moving to America where he lived a nomadic life in the American West eventually settling in Tucson, Arizona, as a base from which to travel. He supported himself by writing articles for Men's Journal,Esquire and Details, among others. Grant and now wife, Mariah, moved to New York City briefly, before relocation to Pluto, Mississippi. (Wikipedia Profile)
During the past fifteen or so years, my wife, Irene, and I have spent significant portions of our life living in various parts of the South. We've toured, lived for several months at a time, and nearly settled in several different places. Along the way we discovered bluegrass music and have been both captured and embraced by much of the warmth, generosity of spirit, and friendliness that Grant describes. We, too, have found the need to compartmentalize those elements of southern culture with which we have deep disagreements in order to recognize and treasure the components making the region and its people a treasured part of our experience. Needless to say, they, too, have been able to put aside their stereotypes and misunderstandings of northern (Yankee) attitudes that often conflict with their own. By coming better to understand this region's strengths and peculiarities, our lives have been enriched and expanded beyond measure. Reading Richard Grant's Dispatches from Pluto has succeeded in giving this experience greater depth and nuance to my own experience. Who could ask for more from a book?
Dispatches from Pluto by Richard Grant (Simon & Schuster, 2015, 320 pages, $16.00/11.99) with gentle good humor and deep insight portrays a year in the life of a young couple coming to terms with life's realities in the deepest place in the deep South, the Mississippi Delta region, laying along the Mississippi river from Tupelo to Vickeburg. This memoir provides the opportunity, for those willing to open their eyes and hearts, to understand the strengths and enduring problems of life in one of most impoverished and damaged parts of the United States, which, nevertheless, represents some of the most engaging elements of our life in America. Dispatches from Pluto is must reading in order to deepen understanding of race relations, their sources and outcomes, in this small corner of a much bigger picture. Dispatches from Pluto was supplied to me as an electronic galley by the publisher through Edelweiss. I read it on my Kindle app. If you decide to purchase this book, please consider doing so from the Amazon portal on my blog at www.tedlehmann.blogspot.com
Read
June 29, 2024As a Mississippi transplant I’m really thankful I read this book. Even though I live in Jackson and not the Delta, I think some of Grant’s insight is helpful in understanding the culture. I am SO thankful that while he was honest about some of the idiosyncrasies/ issues of Mississippi he did not try to offer some frivolous solutions to them.
March 23, 2016
I was very torn between giving this book 3 or 4 stars, but for the tone of it decided four. I enjoyed it, read it quickly, and found it honest and genuine from the author's perspective. As a Yankee who called the Delta home for four years, many of the sentiments had me nodding and laughing, or gritting my teeth in shame or the feeling that important secrets were being let out.
I appreciate that Grant tackles the issues of race and income inequality but wish he had done it with a bit more sensitivity- his casual use of "hustler" and similar words I think could be misread or work to further many stereotypes I think he works to avoid.
The book was definitely entertaining, but read like a series of essays that sometimes didn't mesh well- some chapters would have stories that seemed to not fit in the book, just being told for the shock value.
Overall enjoyable and relatable- just hope it makes audiences appreciate the delta we love, not laugh and point fingers feeling it's okay because they read a book by someone they might feel credible. This is definitely the delta from a foreigners perspective.
I appreciate that Grant tackles the issues of race and income inequality but wish he had done it with a bit more sensitivity- his casual use of "hustler" and similar words I think could be misread or work to further many stereotypes I think he works to avoid.
The book was definitely entertaining, but read like a series of essays that sometimes didn't mesh well- some chapters would have stories that seemed to not fit in the book, just being told for the shock value.
Overall enjoyable and relatable- just hope it makes audiences appreciate the delta we love, not laugh and point fingers feeling it's okay because they read a book by someone they might feel credible. This is definitely the delta from a foreigners perspective.
April 3, 2024
I laughed, I related, I felt proud to be a Mississippi resident even as an outsider. I appreciated his honesty and grace. It lost a star only because it felt a bit repetitive by the end and the chapter breakage and titles stopped making sense. Would recommend!!!
August 1, 2023
a glimpse into a part of mississippi i know nothing about. loved the way he wrote - hermine said it best it sounds like a diary entry and made it so easy to visual his house and friends.
August 27, 2024
A Brit living in NYC buys a ramshackle house in the MS Delta and moves there with his girlfriend. This book tells of rampant poverty, racism, corruption and violence—not to mention mosquitoes, snakes and alligators. Grant does not gloss over this but finds much to appreciate in what is to him an alien environment. He becomes part of a community, experiences astonishing hospitality, revels in the wildness of nature and comes to love a culture he never quite understands. Despite some seriously grim sections, I enjoyed this book though it does not inspire me to visit the delta.
March 13, 2017
What a delightful book! Mr. Grant, a well-traveled Englishman, ends up buying a home in a part of the Mississippi delta that even many from Mississippi were unfamiliar with. Through that experience, and his wonderful chronicling of it, he introduces us to a whole host of fascinating (generous beyond measure, conflicted, brilliant, flawed, and sometimes insane) people and a social structure far more complex and perplexing than most of us would have imagined. He simultaneously busts and confirms the stereotypes typically applied to the people of the delta. And he simultaneously points out all that makes it a physically, financially and emotionally difficult place in which to live while painting a picture so romantic and idyllic that it is tempting to just pick up and move there tomorrow. Because he is not from there and is a curiosity with that funny accent of his, Mr. Grant is able to delve into the race and class issues in ways a local might not be able to and is able to get people to speak openly to him in a way they might not to someone closer to home. We, the readers, are the beneficiaries of this. There were so many wonderful scenes in this book -- times when people from vastly different backgrounds discovered just how much fun they could have together (one particular party comes to mind); meetings with people whose erudition and accomplishments are at odds with the author's (and, I suspect, many readers') preconceived notions of who might reside in the smallest of rural towns; and characters who are so off-the-wall that the only reason you believe they must be real is because no one could make up someone that truly weird. I loved the respect the author showed for his subject while at the same time not holding back on the uglier aspects of life in the delta. And I loved the way he was able to bring us along on the roller coaster of emotions he experienced as he threw himself headlong into a way of living so totally unfamiliar to him.
March 21, 2023
The Mississippi Delta is like NO PLACE I have ever visited. It is like a trip to the outer reaches of our solar system.
This amusing travelogue explores the Mississippi Delta region, located around Pluto, Mississippi. It is the story of two urbanites transplanted to the bayou from NYC. They buy a house. They live among, and learn from, the local and neighborly folks in the small towns of the Delta. Keep an eye out for alligators, armadillos, cottonmouth snakes, and . . . Morgan Freeman.
AND, PLEASE, DO NOT GET ME STARTED about the relentless mosquitoes!
While the book confirms the genuineness of Southern Hospitality, it also shatters all stereotypes about (for example) the unfixable "Red" and "Blue" divide; or the belief that racism is a one way street (and that it is always virulent). Racism, it turns out, is neither.
There is much, much, much, nuance in this world that is swept under the rug of the oh-too-simple, black or white, social media sound bite slogans, rants and raves. "Dispatches From Pluto" lives in, even revels in, the nuance, in the grey area of ordinary life. And it is a hopeful story. 5 Stars.
This amusing travelogue explores the Mississippi Delta region, located around Pluto, Mississippi. It is the story of two urbanites transplanted to the bayou from NYC. They buy a house. They live among, and learn from, the local and neighborly folks in the small towns of the Delta. Keep an eye out for alligators, armadillos, cottonmouth snakes, and . . . Morgan Freeman.
AND, PLEASE, DO NOT GET ME STARTED about the relentless mosquitoes!
While the book confirms the genuineness of Southern Hospitality, it also shatters all stereotypes about (for example) the unfixable "Red" and "Blue" divide; or the belief that racism is a one way street (and that it is always virulent). Racism, it turns out, is neither.
There is much, much, much, nuance in this world that is swept under the rug of the oh-too-simple, black or white, social media sound bite slogans, rants and raves. "Dispatches From Pluto" lives in, even revels in, the nuance, in the grey area of ordinary life. And it is a hopeful story. 5 Stars.
December 7, 2022
"One of my hopes in writing this book is to dissolve these clumsy old stereotypes, and illustrate my conviction that Mississippi is the best-kept secret in America. Nowhere else is so poorly understood by outsiders, so unfairly maligned, so surreal and peculiar, so charming and maddening."
This perfectly encapsulates how living in Mississippi feels. Well-worth my time. If you live in Mississippi, or if you're one of those basics who thinks Mississippi sucks, you should read this.
This perfectly encapsulates how living in Mississippi feels. Well-worth my time. If you live in Mississippi, or if you're one of those basics who thinks Mississippi sucks, you should read this.
April 8, 2025
“…my conviction [is] that Mississippi is the best kept secret in America. Nowhere else is so poorly understood by outsiders, so unfairly maligned, so surreal and peculiar, so charming and maddening.”
I don’t think there’s a better statement that could sum up my home state than this one.^^
Growing up I always hated the bad rep that Mississippi always gets. I think I’ve always known that it’s a special and unique place. Yet not without its large share of brokenness. For the people who don’t understand, I’ll always say you’ve just got to experience it.
I love reading this book from Richard Grant who decided to do just that. A guy from way far away who took a chance to move to the Mississippi delta and experience its completely unique culture. Coming from an outsider’s point of view, I think he did a pretty incredible job at painting a picture of life in Mississippi for us.
My hope is that everyone would read this book just to get a tiny glimpse of what my home state is really like.
I don’t think there’s a better statement that could sum up my home state than this one.^^
Growing up I always hated the bad rep that Mississippi always gets. I think I’ve always known that it’s a special and unique place. Yet not without its large share of brokenness. For the people who don’t understand, I’ll always say you’ve just got to experience it.
I love reading this book from Richard Grant who decided to do just that. A guy from way far away who took a chance to move to the Mississippi delta and experience its completely unique culture. Coming from an outsider’s point of view, I think he did a pretty incredible job at painting a picture of life in Mississippi for us.
My hope is that everyone would read this book just to get a tiny glimpse of what my home state is really like.
September 1, 2024
Being born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, I believe this gives a great outside observation of the rich culture of the area. Further, in my opinion, the best kept secret of the South.
April 9, 2019
Such an interesting dive into the culture of the Mississippi delta! Explores corruption, gun policy, and race relations, among many other things -- all from the perspective of an ex pat Englishman who has nomadic tendencies. Well written and filled with enough interesting stories to keep the reader engaged, I would recommend this to anyone in the South or anyone who wants to develop a better understanding of southern culture.
April 17, 2020
I rarely write book reviews - this is definitely the first one for public knowledge - and it should be noted that I skew high when rating things. But, I felt the need to add a little bit of context to my usually wordless rating because, to my great surprise, I loved this book.
It’s hard to document the place where I grew up. It’s especially difficult to explain to someone who’s not from there, and as someone who has moved away, I spend a lot of timing thinking about and trying to explain what makes the delta so special. Richard Grant, however, did a surprisingly great job. While Dispatches from Pluto is set in Mississippi, the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River Delta is essentially the same place - I recognized each one of those characters from my childhood. The book leans heavily into the conversation of race in Mississippi (how can a book about the delta not?), but I thought it was one of the most honest observations I’ve read, making an effort to bring in and understand different viewpoints. He observes the good and the bad and the always quirky, and he paints a charming and refreshing portrait of life in the Mississippi River Delta.
It’s hard to document the place where I grew up. It’s especially difficult to explain to someone who’s not from there, and as someone who has moved away, I spend a lot of timing thinking about and trying to explain what makes the delta so special. Richard Grant, however, did a surprisingly great job. While Dispatches from Pluto is set in Mississippi, the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River Delta is essentially the same place - I recognized each one of those characters from my childhood. The book leans heavily into the conversation of race in Mississippi (how can a book about the delta not?), but I thought it was one of the most honest observations I’ve read, making an effort to bring in and understand different viewpoints. He observes the good and the bad and the always quirky, and he paints a charming and refreshing portrait of life in the Mississippi River Delta.
September 10, 2016
Where was Cleveland?
By Darden North | September 5, 2016 (Audiobook)
I guess Grant never reached Cleveland during his tour of the Delta, that vibrant community an antithesis of this liberal discourse on Mississippi race relations, overall poverty, and crumbling education. Regarding the English narrator's cadence in the audio book, it was often repetitious, and he sometimes mispronounced words including names of Mississippi counties, such as Bolivar. The narrator could have spent a little time on research in that regard. Of course, I grew up in Cleveland and Bolivar County, so I guess I'm partial. Grant's own hours spent in research and with live interviews of his subjects sets the memoir apart. His description of race relations is clear and accurate, showing that we Mississippians may actually be very high on that positive list. I envy Grant's knack to describe physical appearances and settings so beautifully although in this well-written, wonderful piece (unlike in fiction), he has the advantage of looking across the table at his real characters and breathing the true air of each setting. While the treatise on race does get long and deep, a happy ending is always a relief.
By Darden North | September 5, 2016 (Audiobook)
I guess Grant never reached Cleveland during his tour of the Delta, that vibrant community an antithesis of this liberal discourse on Mississippi race relations, overall poverty, and crumbling education. Regarding the English narrator's cadence in the audio book, it was often repetitious, and he sometimes mispronounced words including names of Mississippi counties, such as Bolivar. The narrator could have spent a little time on research in that regard. Of course, I grew up in Cleveland and Bolivar County, so I guess I'm partial. Grant's own hours spent in research and with live interviews of his subjects sets the memoir apart. His description of race relations is clear and accurate, showing that we Mississippians may actually be very high on that positive list. I envy Grant's knack to describe physical appearances and settings so beautifully although in this well-written, wonderful piece (unlike in fiction), he has the advantage of looking across the table at his real characters and breathing the true air of each setting. While the treatise on race does get long and deep, a happy ending is always a relief.
Read
May 16, 2016Mississippi Delta=it's complicated
Enjoyed the stories of "home" and see glimpses of "my" Delta but hope that others see that they are wonderful stories about moments. Not the whole picture and not meant to further stereotypes. Because while I have been to Labor Day dove hunts, taken bloodies to tailgate parties, and been to pretty much every Delta town mentioned.. I do not own camo, a confederate flag, eat raccoon and did not grow up on a plantation. There are some of the most wonderful people in the Delta. Many of whom I love dearly and shaped me into the person I am today (lover of tomatoes, monograms, family silver, thank you notes and porches). People who sent me into the world understanding the meaning of hospitality. But there are some huge issues too including poverty which is suffocating the area.
Enjoyed the stories of "home" and see glimpses of "my" Delta but hope that others see that they are wonderful stories about moments. Not the whole picture and not meant to further stereotypes. Because while I have been to Labor Day dove hunts, taken bloodies to tailgate parties, and been to pretty much every Delta town mentioned.. I do not own camo, a confederate flag, eat raccoon and did not grow up on a plantation. There are some of the most wonderful people in the Delta. Many of whom I love dearly and shaped me into the person I am today (lover of tomatoes, monograms, family silver, thank you notes and porches). People who sent me into the world understanding the meaning of hospitality. But there are some huge issues too including poverty which is suffocating the area.
December 19, 2016
There have been plenty of books about city folks moving to the country, but Richard Grant provides a unique and insightful perspective in his new book “Dispatches From Pluto.” As Grant and his girlfriend embark on a new life in the unknown and sometimes strange land of the Mississippi Delta, they meet and befriend many colorful characters. Grant’s relationships with these characters is always conducted with an eye to understanding, not ridiculing or marginalizing them. At the heart of the book is an important and enlightening look at rural poverty and racial tensions as well as racial harmony. A funny, wise, informative, and fascinating book.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.
Read
May 18, 2018An interesting story of a journalist/world traveler based in NYC who buys an old plantation house in the Mississippi Delta. Sometimes an outsider can illuminate the world we're accustomed to better than we can ourselves, which is one reason I'm drawn to these fish-out-of-water stories.
Some chapters were brilliant and compelling; others were less memorable and bordered on repetitive.
All in all, an interesting read.
Some chapters were brilliant and compelling; others were less memorable and bordered on repetitive.
All in all, an interesting read.
August 25, 2016
Parts of this book are problematic and made me hate the author.
That being said, the delta is a weird as hell place that I'm super happy I was able to call home (well. I was 100% an outsider. But something like home) for three years. This book captured a lot of what made it wonderful, dumbfounding, infuriating, and completely unique.
That being said, the delta is a weird as hell place that I'm super happy I was able to call home (well. I was 100% an outsider. But something like home) for three years. This book captured a lot of what made it wonderful, dumbfounding, infuriating, and completely unique.
February 19, 2019
Meh. Classic yankee city boy comes to rural south, points out obvious and marvels at natives, a la the podcast "s*** town." But, it did have some interesting delta blues stories. I wonder what his new delta friends of both races felt about his perceptions of them and their home state.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 972 reviews