Jerry Deriso

Save Me a Place in Heaven Jerry Deriso

His father's death prompted him to preserve his family memories for his descendents, but the writing quickly grew into a life essay on farm life, Southern cooking, dogs, small-town life in the 1950s, and the demise of our current culture. The book is written in the author's voice and evokes feelings of Sams, Grizzard, and Rooney. He believes our culture is being slowly destroyed from within by small dogs, cats, bad barbecue, kudzu, fat-free ice cream, cell phones, e-mail, the Internet, childproof lids, hard plastic security packaging, iPods, video players in automobiles, kids not being raised right, rudeness, fast food, moms who don't cook, high school graduates who can't read, long-winded preachers, the disappearance of real Southern cooking, and the popularity of instant grits, Diet Pepsi, and unsweetened tea. His family's history is a goldmine of great food, quirky characters, outlandish actions, and bodacious behavior; he has mined it shamelessly and offers no apologies.