In the Land of Good Living

Ten years ago, Noah was fresh out of the Marine Corps and I was his college-boy neighbor at a run-down apartment complex near the University of Florida named, what else, the Ritz. The Ritz was a favorite haunt of junkies and armed robbers. It also was dirt cheap and had rooms to rent month to month. Most importantly, it s where Noah and I became fast friends. Though seemingly different as different can be, the two of us discovered we were complementary. Noah was a standoffish loner and a tough guy, a legitimate one, having finished more bar fights than he d started. I was less dweeby bookworm than incautious Kerouac wannabe; this half observer, half shit-stirrer who hovered between worlds while dwelling for the most part in the one of my own fashioning.

Noah grew fond of me in the manner of a big brother. Whereas he to me represented this original source I d been too long and too far removed from. We fit together and dangerously so, like a motorcycle and its sidecar. What kept us connected was the ability to articulate self- and world-loathing in a way that made the other laugh. So we d crack wise over old horror movies or while tossing around a football. Some nights, we d have what you might call adventures. Other nights, we d sit in silence in front of the Xbox as Noah cultivated the remote and private air of a man who had seen some shit. Midweek, we d suffer through our Wednesday Night Throwdown, wherein we housed suitcases of beers before squaring off in the courtyard and charging one another like rival rams, shouting Defend yourself! all the while, Noah slap-boxing as if hoping to knock the timidity out of me like dust from a rug.

Fast-forward to 2014, when I was hosting Noah in my Brooklyn apartment. Hosting being maybe too euphemistic a word.


Noah was deep in student-loan debt and without a place to stay after (1) graduating from a criminal-justice master s program in Manhattan, but (2) breaking up with the girlfriend he d moved to New York to be

KENT RUSSELL's essays have appeared in The New Republic, Harper's Magazine, GQ, n+1, The Believer, and Grantland. He is the author of I Am Sorry to Think I Have Raised A Timid Son. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

"Sharp... Brilliant... I ve never read an account of our gorgeous and messed-up state that is a more appropriate match of form and function... The spirit of Don Quixote presides over this buddy-trip plotline... this feels like both the real and the true story of Florida."
--Lauren Groff, The Atlantic

"A riotous account of an odyssey through the land of Florida Man, appropriately populated with drug dealers, gun nuts and gators. Their adventures are punctuated with hilarious snippets of conversation between the three friends as they trudge down the road pushing a shopping cart of camera equipment."
--Atlanta Journal Constitution

"Energetic and insightful... If Hunter Thompson and Joan Didion had produced a literary offspring, a young man whose older brother was Bill Bryson, his writing might sound something like Kent Russell's."
--Shelf Awareness

"Breathtaking... Fascinating... Russell is not just a native but a student of Florida history. At each stop, along with their encounters with contemporary Floridians, he fills in details about everything from oystering in Apalachicola Bay (and why you re unlikely to get a real Apalachicola oyster anyplace else), to the shady origin story of Disney World and its astonishing impact on the state s economy."
--Tampa Bay Times

"Far more than a travelogue, it highlights the people, past and present, and things for which the state is well known. You will learn trivia galore. Russell s language often reminds this reader of the best of Bill Bryson, scrambled. Witty language shines throughout; it s a great book with an unusual style of writing for people who love this state, love fishing and love adventure stories.
For those who are somewhat baffled by the mystique that is called Florida will find this an amusing read. Not a lot of alligators were harmed in the writing of this book."
--The Florida Times Union

"Epic... A humorous, heartfelt tribute to