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Tag Archives: poverty
Troubled
Selected Quotations Imagine that your first memory is that of being three years old and seeing your mother, a drug addict who ties you to chairs to get high without interruption, being arrested. Imagine being bounced around ten different foster … Continue reading
The Four Winds
When the clerk at my local diner coughed at me to remind me that I was standing in front of her cash register, bill and money in hand, but ignoring her to finish the chapter I’d walked up reading, I … Continue reading
Posted in historical fiction, Reviews
Tagged 1930s, American West, California, labor, poverty, Texas, women
4 Comments
America’s untouchables and baseball
Shortly after the financial implosion of the late 2000s and the beginning of the ‘great recession’, physicist & banker Chris Arnade began long walks around New York City to contemplate the ramifications of his and his ‘industry’s’ reckless speculation and … Continue reading
Posted in history, Reviews, Society and Culture
Tagged 1940s, 1950s, 2010s, audiobook, baseball, crime, drugs-alcohol-pharmaceuticals, mental health-illness, poverty, sports and outdoors
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A southern trilogy: Rick Bragg’s folks
All Over but the Shoutin’ is perhaps Rick Bragg’s most well-known work, beginning a trilogy that, in its focus on one family in the early and mid-20th century, takes readers into the generally ignored territory of the poor white working class of the South. … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews
Tagged Alabama, American South, biography, Of Boys and Men, poverty, Rick Bragg, Southern Literature
2 Comments
Quotes from Rick Bragg’s family trilogy
ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTIN’ “I know how silly and paranoid that sounds, especially coming from a man who gets a perverse thrill from taking chances. But it is a common condition of being poor white trash: you are always … Continue reading
Nomadland
Nomadland: Surviving America in the 21st Century© 2017 Jessica Bruder273 pages America has always been a nation on the move, but some people take that more literally than others. Nomadland takes us into the aftermath of the great recession, as … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews, Society and Culture
Tagged 2000s, 2010s, American Southwest, poverty, simple living, travel
6 Comments
Of blowholes, blowhards, and blowing money
I’ve been studying for the CompTia A+ certification and entertaining a new lady friend in recent weeks, so my reading and reviewing has gotten a bit…torpid, shall we say. I haven’t been totally absorbed in specs and dates, though: Make … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews
Tagged 2000s, business, economics, humor, politics, poverty, science, whales-seals-etc
6 Comments
The Jungle
The Jungle © 1906 Upton Sinclair 475 pages Welcome to The Jungle, but we don’t have fun and games. We have despair, ruin, and death. The Jungle begins as the story of the Rudkus-Lukoszaite family, who have arrived in America … Continue reading
Down and Out in Paris and London
Down and Out in Paris and London© 1933 George Orwell224 pages “Have they no refuge or resource?” cried Scrooge. “Are there no prisons?” said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. “Are there no … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews
Tagged Britain, Classics Club, Classics Club Challenge, France, George Orwell, London, poverty
8 Comments
Hillbilly Elegy
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis© 2016 J.D. Vance272 pages Imagine a childhood in which the most stable person in your life once methodically marinated her passed-out drunken husband with lighter fluid, then set him … Continue reading
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