Brunetsky Explores Humor of Relocation in 'Real Country'

By Joel Frady

Leslie Brunetski loves the mountains. Every since childhood, when the New Jersey native sold Girl Scout

cookies to win a scholarship to Scout camp, she knew that she loved the mountains and someday wanted to live there. After years of living and working in big cities, Brunetsky decided to retire to Ashe County after a vacation to the area. But while Brunetsky was ready for the move geographically, she found that it was going to take some time to adjust culturally.

This adjustment was the inspiration for Brunetsky's new book, Real Country: From the Fast Track to Appalachia. In the book, she has compiled letters that detail her adjustment from the hustle and bustle of the marketing business in Washington, DC, to the simple life in the mountains of North Carolina.

"Anybody who has relocated here from an urban area probably has had similar experiences to mine," she said. "I was a fish out of water here. As much as I had tried to learn about local customs and so forth, I found when I moved here that I really didn't know much at all about mountain life."

So, to "get more comfortable" with the mistakes she was making - such as improperly putting out the mail and the trash - Brunetsky began to send letters to friends telling them about her experiences.

"It was therapeutic for me," she said. "Many of the people to whom I sent these letters said 'You really ought to put these into a book, they're really funny'." I thought about it and thought about it, and eventually enough of them said it often enough that I decided to do it."

The undertaking was new for Brunetsky, who had previously written chapters but never an entire book. Real Country took her approximately three years to write, on and off, as she widdled 130 letters down to the 50 that appear in the book.

"The biggest issue was trying to decide what to leave out and what to include," she said, noting that she picked the ones "that would be of greater interest to a larger number of readers." And while the book is about moving from an urban setting to a rural one, she thinks the book will offer some insights that everyone can enjoy.

"For people like myself who have moved here, particularly from urban areas, they will identify with this," Brunetsky said. She quickly noticed how different people interacted with each other.

"The norm in cities was to be as anonymous as you could," she said. "That meant when you walked down the street you did not make eye contact with other people, because in many urban areas that's taken as a challenge. So you stayed by yourself and to yourself."

But in Ashe County, "you don't go anywhere without having a conversation with people," she said. "I had to learn to look at people, to talk to total strangers. I had to think of what to talk about. These are major, major changes for people who come from city areas." She was also confused by the interactions she saw in everyday life, such as the day she realized that "the dump is not just a place where you take your trash, it's a place where people socialize."

Brunetsky noted that her sense of humor "was honed in the Northeast, in New Jersey mainly," but that the book may still be insightful for those who have lived in the mountains their entire life.

"I think that people who have lived in this area all of their lives certainly have some set views of people like myself, who come in from somewhere else," she said. "I don't know that they see through their eyes the way it looks to some of us who come into the area.

So for people who have lived here all their lives, I think they will find a different perspective," she continued. "They may not agree with the perceptions that I had, but they laugh at us - we know that. Sometimes we're very laughable. The things that we don't know that they have known since they were born stand out all over the place."

Brunetsky also wants those who might not pick up on her humor to know that she "certainly didn't want to offend any of the local people" with the book, adding that she has "learned the greatest respect and admiration for the mountain people while living here."

Real Country: From the Fast Track to Appalachia is available at SkyLand Books in West Jefferson or directly from Brunetsky. To find out more about Real Country, click to www.lesliesrealcountry.com.