Hella Nation by Evan Wright

Copyright: 2009
Publisher: Putnam (part of Penguin Group)
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 338
Challenges: The Pub Challenge,
New-to-me author? Yes
Author’s website

Simple Description
On the cover of the book, under the title Hella Nation, it shows this: Looking for Happy Meals in Kandahar, Rocking the Side Pipe, Wingnut’s War Against the GAP, and Other Adventures with the Totally Lost Tribes of America.

This book is a collection of short stories or reports that the author has investigated. Some were more interesting than others. Several of them kinda bothered me with how women were portrayed, more as objects than people, and it was kinda crude (in my opinion of course). I know he was expressing the view points of those he was investigating and not his own views though. I tended to like the stories that didn’t do that better.

One of the stories was on a young man who was part of the Seattle riots in the late 1990’s that centered on being environmentally friendly. It was interesting to get the young man’s view point, even if I thought differently. I was hoping I would finish reading that story and say ok, now I understand where they are coming from. But, I still don’t get it. Haha!
One of the more interesting stories was on the Aryan Nation. Unfortunately this was also one of the shortest stories. He gets the views of some of the members and how they came to be a Nazi or part of the Aryan nation.

One of the other stories that I found interesting was regarding the murder of Diane Whipple. She was mauled by a dog owned by Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel. I remember hearing about this on the news so was glad to read more info on it. The story was rather interesting because it explained how the owners came to have that dog and who was really behind it.

Other stories focused on the UFC, porn stars, Motley Crue, some guys who were con artists, etc. So there is a wide range of stories.

Why did I read this book?
I was offered the book for review and had read a summary about it before and thought it sounded very interesting.

What I liked most:
I liked the informative nature of the stories. It wasn’t a fiction book, they were shot stories on real people and real things that happen.

Was there something I didn’t like?
Some of the stories I didn’t like. I kinda mentioned why above. I also thought the part that said “Totally lost tribes of America” was a bit off. I was expecting more stories on, I don’t know, teenagers maybe? People in their 20’s and 30’s? I was expecting more stories on groups or types of people instead of on individuals. Such as, the punk or goth scene. Sure, a skate boarder was covered at one point, but it was such a different story than what I was expecting. I was part of the skater group in highschool and most of us weren’t like that. So it was just stuff like that that I didn’t like.

Do I recommend the book?
For those who like non-fiction and like this kind of thing, yeah, I do recommend it. Over-all I thought the book was good and most of the stories were interesting. It’s kinda fun to read about people who are totally out there and messed up, makes me feel better about my life. Haha!

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