Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War / What's the Matter with Kansas

Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War and What's the Matter with Kansas? ask approximately the same question -- why does a large group of Americans vote against their own self-interest by voting Republican?

Kansas, published years ago, takes a balanced serious look at the question.

Deer Hunting, which was just published, comes to many of the same conclusions but is a much easier, though not less serious, read that is laugh-out-loud hilarious every couple of pages. As Deer Hunting careens from double-wide mortgage scams, to manufacturing jobs, to right-wing religiosity, the voices of Mark Twain, Hunter S. Thompson, and J.G. Ballard are alive and well. Sobering, straight-talk from the trailer park in a brilliantly funny going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket kinda way.

Thanks for this comparison. I've read a lot of reviews of What's the Matter with Kansas and found them very interesting without feeling quite compelled enough to read the book. But Deer Hunting with Jesus just might make it onto my list. Politics has gotten so depressing lately, humor seems like a needed antidote to all the grim intensity.