Reviews

The Hard Way on Purpose: Essays and Dispatches from the Rust Belt by David Giffels

sandrinepal's review against another edition

3.0

This book was a true mixed bag. There were whole sections that I found truly enlightening, as well as big chunks that I wished would just go away. Some of it feels true and has changed my understanding of my adoptive community, but other passages felt needlessly pompous and even, at times, poorly written. I think Mr. Giffels accurately portrays Northeast Ohio because he struggles with being someone who stayed, rather than someone who came back. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book to anyone, but I might recommend some of the chapters.

tonythep's review against another edition

4.0

What does it mean when the place you call home is a place that everybody leaves? With humor and insight David Giffels explores the faded glory of the Rust Belt and his hometown of Akron, Ohio in particular. He describes coming of age amidst the crumbling smokestacks of the once great rubber companies, the perennial heartbreak of the Cleveland Browns, the promise of Lebron James, and ultimately, trying to define yourself through a place that the rest of the world views as the butt of a joke. Not as wonderful as his previous book "All the Way Home," but still pretty great stuff.

heyitslauren's review against another edition

2.0

A lot of Midwestern folks enjoyed this book, but after giving it a good try, I'll concede that it wasn't quite my cup of tea. This has little to do with the writer and his ability. I just couldn't get into sports stories and the waxing nostalgia for a history I'm well aware of and appreciate but isn't mine or my families. I do believe these stories have a place with certain Midwesterners. Just not me.

sdbecque's review

4.0

If it's not clear from reading my reviews, I am fascinated by place and home, and how we understand these things. As someone who grew up in Southern Illinois (not officially Rust Belt, but with it's own post-industrial issues) left as soon as she was able, and grudgingly returned, I got immediately what Giffels means when he calls it "the hard way on purpose."

These essays are mostly about Giffels growing up in Akron, and certain themes (and lines) circulate through the whole thing. This isn't a bad thing, it feels like a meditation on what it feels like to stay in a place everyone else desperately wants to leave. As Giffels describes, when people announce they are moving to Akron, people ask "why?" and when people announce they are leaving, no one is surprised.

For my money, the best story is the very first one, where he traces the history of Lebron James alongside Giffels own history (they went to the same high school, though at different times.) There's also this line:

"A lifetime, one might say, of loss, but we here recognize something much different, more nuanced, more full of shadows. A lifetime of hope. And anyone who's done both - hoped and lost - knows that in many ways, hoping is worse....As I grew into early adulthood and observed a larger pattern of hope and loss and hope and loss and hope and loss, and the concurrent resilience thereof, I came to a begrudging conclusion: neither of these things - hope and loss - can exist without the other, and yet at every turn it is necessary to believe that at some point one will ultimately conquer. And that will be our legacy."

If you can get your hands on a copy and you've spent any time living in a carved out shell of a town, it will ring true.

katethekitcat's review

2.0

I tried so hard to like these essays - but when you catch yourself trying to enjoy a book and yet dreading having to pick it up to start reading, it's time to give up. Although certainly an interesting subject - what places are when the things that defined them leave - this book was filled with short snippets of mundane observations struggling to convey deeper meaning than they really had.

naonao's review

5.0

There are some books that, despite their flaws, you enjoy so much the pleasure is akin to eating them. This is one of them. It's a Valentine to Rust Belt-ers like myself, whose maniacal love for the broken beauty of the ruined American Dream finds a mate in this writer.

There are some things every Rust Belt baby of a certain age recalls, with mixed anger, happiness, hope, and longing, and David touches on all of them. At times veering into the self conscious or precious (but only a bit), this book is nonetheless a delight. There are a few "writing class" overworked phrases or ideas, but on the whole this book is just so damn good.