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If Crackers reveals an overarching thesis, it is that contemporary America, like its President, is too emotionally constrained, too given to artifice, too Northern. "Hey: we are in a time when the most sweeping program is Laverne and Shirley," complains Blount. "When you can buy artificial gravy entailing 'beef-style' granules. When 'comparison shopping' is not considered redundant . . . when the dollar is funnier than the zloty, and when Fudgsicles and tomatoes taste about the same." A familiar granule-style beef, but seldom so wittily or exuberantly expressed. It hardly matters that other writers have spoken cantankerously with spoonbread accents and loony inspirations. After all, as Georgians like to inquire, why not the best? —By Donald Morrison