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Sto caricando le informazioni... Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing Citydi Gordon Young
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. If there's a book about Flint, I am eventually going to read it. And if there were a category for people feeling conflicted between their hometowns and wherever else they end up, that would overlap pretty thoroughly with my bookshelf. This author is a youngish guy trying to buy a house with his wife in already too expensive San Francisco, while at the same time wishing to somehow keep a presence in his hometown of Flint. As an admittedly indecisive person, I liked his forays into the city and what didn't work. What he could have done better, though, was to distinguish between the relatively local (like the ghastly but tidy subdivision where he crashed with a friend) and distinctly global (like the auto industry and thriving cities that attract Michiganders away) phenomena that Flint has to fight against. ( ) This book was entertaining, informative, depressing, and hopeful. It was interesting to learn about the history and politics of Flint, and the important role that race relations have played. A few times I found myself laughing out loud at Gordon Young's account of his visits. At the same time, his nostalgia for his hometown was deeply moving. I could relate to that because though my hometown is a rather drab Detroit suburb as opposed to a once-great city, I recently felt the desire to live there again. Only later did I realize that the desire stemmed from a longing to return to a time when I was young and anything was possible. In other words, it was a mid-life crisis. In the end, the author found ways to support Flint without getting into even greater debt and risking his relationship with his girlfriend, Traci. All around, it was a satisfying read. nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
Elenchi di rilievo
After living in San Francisco for 15 years, journalist Gordon Young found himself yearning for his Rust Belt hometown: Flint, Michigan, the birthplace of General Motors and "star" of the Michael Moore documentary Roger & Me. Hoping to rediscover and help a place that once boasted one of the world's highest per capita income levels, but is now one of the country's most impoverished and dangerous cities, he returned to Flint with the intention of buying a house. What he found was a place of stark contrasts and dramatic stories, where an exotic dancer can afford a lavish mansion, speculators scoop up cheap houses by the dozen on eBay, and arson is often the quickest route to neighborhood beautification. Skillfully blending personal memoir, historical inquiry, and interviews with Flint residents, Young constructs a vibrant tale of a once-thriving city still fighting-despite overwhelming odds-to rise from the ashes. He befriends a rag-tag collection of urban homesteaders and die-hard locals who refuse to give up as they try to transform Flint into a smaller, greener town that offers lessons for cities all over the world. Hard-hitting, insightful, and often painfully funny, Teardown reminds us that cities are ultimately defined by people, not politics or economics. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)307.3Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Communities StructureClassificazione LCVotoMedia:
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