American Rust
Registered by 4evagreen of Furness Vale, Derbyshire United Kingdom on 6/1/2020
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
Received as a BookMooch.
Journal Entry 2 by 4evagreen at Furness Vale, Derbyshire United Kingdom on Thursday, October 8, 2020
“You ought to be able to grow up in a place and not have to get the hell out of it when you turn eighteen.”
American Rust is set in a small Pennsylvania steel town named Buell, a place that had been a wealthy steel town but since the closure of the mills is a place where jobs are scarce and foreclosures are on the rise, where older residents feel trapped and younger ones are eager to take wing and flee. Buell is the underbelly of the 'American Dream'.
I grew up in Cornwall, a beautiful part of the country but also one with limited job opportunities, so on leaving school moved away to find employment, as did many of my contemporaries, so can certainly appreciate with the tough choices made here, by those who chose to leave and those who opted to remain. There are certainly elements of Salinger within this book but I also saw a touch of Moby Dick's Ishmail in Isaac, a young man struggling to cope in an alien environment.
It seems strange to be reading this whilst there is a Presidential election going on in America. As an outsider I struggled to see the attraction of Trump the first time around but having read this I feel that I have a little more insight into the hopelessness that many in the country's so called 'Rust Belt' must have felt and how how they feel discarded by conventional politicians. Here we get glimpses into some of the town's local politics and it isn't particularly pleasant reading.
Overall a very enjoyable read that deserves to be on the 1001 list.
American Rust is set in a small Pennsylvania steel town named Buell, a place that had been a wealthy steel town but since the closure of the mills is a place where jobs are scarce and foreclosures are on the rise, where older residents feel trapped and younger ones are eager to take wing and flee. Buell is the underbelly of the 'American Dream'.
I grew up in Cornwall, a beautiful part of the country but also one with limited job opportunities, so on leaving school moved away to find employment, as did many of my contemporaries, so can certainly appreciate with the tough choices made here, by those who chose to leave and those who opted to remain. There are certainly elements of Salinger within this book but I also saw a touch of Moby Dick's Ishmail in Isaac, a young man struggling to cope in an alien environment.
It seems strange to be reading this whilst there is a Presidential election going on in America. As an outsider I struggled to see the attraction of Trump the first time around but having read this I feel that I have a little more insight into the hopelessness that many in the country's so called 'Rust Belt' must have felt and how how they feel discarded by conventional politicians. Here we get glimpses into some of the town's local politics and it isn't particularly pleasant reading.
Overall a very enjoyable read that deserves to be on the 1001 list.
Journal Entry 3 by 4evagreen at Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire United Kingdom on Saturday, October 10, 2020
Released 3 yrs ago (10/10/2020 UTC) at Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire United Kingdom
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Spotted this on a Wishlist so going out to hopefully make a new friend. Enjoy!
Journal Entry 4 by kingfan30 at Somewhere in Lincs 🤷♂️, Lincolnshire United Kingdom on Monday, October 12, 2020
Thank you so much for the book off my wish list
27 March 23 - In some ways this felt like it was based a long time ago, but in fact it is in more modern times. I like the format of the chapters focusing on different characters, it felt right for the story and wasn’t confusing at all. I can’t say I really liked any of the characters and yet it was incredibly readable. I felt it dipped a bit in the middle and became a bit repetitive, but it did pick back up. The ending for me let it down a bit though.
27 March 23 - In some ways this felt like it was based a long time ago, but in fact it is in more modern times. I like the format of the chapters focusing on different characters, it felt right for the story and wasn’t confusing at all. I can’t say I really liked any of the characters and yet it was incredibly readable. I felt it dipped a bit in the middle and became a bit repetitive, but it did pick back up. The ending for me let it down a bit though.
Journal Entry 5 by kingfan30 at Telephone Box ☎️ in Burton Coggles, Lincolnshire United Kingdom on Monday, March 27, 2023
Released 1 yr ago (3/27/2023 UTC) at Telephone Box ☎️ in Burton Coggles, Lincolnshire United Kingdom
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Left in the telephone box library for someone else to enjoy
