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The Hard Way On Purpose: Essays And Dispatches From The Rust Belt (2014)

by David Giffels(Favorite Author)

3.94 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1451692757 (ISBN13: 9781451692754)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Scribner

review 1: I think you have to be an Akron lifer, someone who stays in a place everyone leaves, to truly appreciate this book. Giffels is about 10 years older than me, so some of the references (like the bank) were lost while other things that make Akron Akron (like the Black Keys) were glaringly absent. This is a must read for anyone who is familiar with the area - loved the trip down memory lane (Gold Circle!) plus history lesson (bowling balls?) plus name recognition (Mullets of Holmes county!!!!!)
review 2: The Hard Way on Purpose is a book about persistence, loyalty and standing one's ground when your friends and family leave, in this case Akron, Ohio, but it could be any industrial midwestern city - or any city in America's interior, with a bit of imagination, perha... moreps. Giffels is at his best writing about how nostalgia shapes how we live in the present and perceive our surroundings, and he brilliantly discusses how people in Rust Belt cities (myself included) valorize triumphs long past to maintain their hope that their hometown can shine once again. As the book proceeds, it narrows into a more personal tale, but the first half, especially the chapters on LeBron James and the Cleveland Browns, crackle with the mix of pride and resignation that I recognize in Milwaukee as surely as Giffels describes it in Akron. less

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