{"product_id":"fire-ants-9781622882922","title":"Fire Ants","description":"\u003cp\u003eThat's your first lesson in East Texas-where words stretch like summer days and stories run deeper than the Red River itself. In Fire Ants, O'Banion delivers a witty, unvarnished portrait of growing up in that forgotten corner of the map where Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana blur together-Texarkana, the town that can't quite decide which state it belongs to, or if it even wants to.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBorn from the ashes of an offhand remark about \"a man from nowhere,\" these essays took root and refused to die-like the stubborn \"far aints\" of their title. What began as a detour from a stalled novel became a vibrant, darkly funny, and deeply human collection about small-town oddities, family legacies, fried turkeys gone wrong, four-wheeler flips dubbed \"903ers,\" and the peculiar beauty of a place that exists halfway between myth and memory.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese aren't stories of oil barons or tumbleweeds. They're stories of dirt bikes, church picnics, and the subtle heartbreak of realizing your hometown will never make Garden \u0026amp; Gun. From chicken magnates to high school beauty queens, from ER nurses to backyard philosophers, the voices in Fire Ants hum with regional humor, contradiction, and tenderness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Stephen F. Austin University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/31\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781622882922\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 166\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.51lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.38d","brand":"Cason E. O'Banion","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51991053369525,"sku":"9781622882922","price":18.7,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_ca74e95e-7c9c-42b2-a63a-34f6ee8315d2.jpg?v=1762838912","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/fire-ants-9781622882922","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}