Leo T. reviewed The Good Hand: A Memoir of Work, Brotherhood, and Transformation in an American Boomtown on + 1775 more book reviews
Books actually written by working folk are uncommon ("Rivethead") and while this is the memoir of a guy who was earning a living in a big city office and writing on the side, he did go and work as a swamper. They moved oil rigs to new sites, and this is dirty, hard work. "Smith stayed on for nine months, a fair bit longer than the proverbial jounralistic parachute jump, and his pre-Trump-era mission was more personal than anthropological. Still his most important contributions are not musings about what the experience met to him but vivid descriptions of the experience itself."
I have not yet seen the book but Sarah Smarsh wrote an informative review in The Atlantic Monthly, May 2021, p. 78 ('The Human Side of Fracking'). The title refers also to the other book reviewed in the essay: "Up To Heaven and Down To Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town" by Colin Jerolmack.
Young guys used to take hard jobs that paid relatively well, so-called 'men's work' and a few years ago Don Lupe and I were laughing kindly about how young dudes nowadays often had to shuffle papers or whatever. Don Lupe worked construction and I was a firefighter with the Cal. Division of Forestry.....
I have not yet seen the book but Sarah Smarsh wrote an informative review in The Atlantic Monthly, May 2021, p. 78 ('The Human Side of Fracking'). The title refers also to the other book reviewed in the essay: "Up To Heaven and Down To Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town" by Colin Jerolmack.
Young guys used to take hard jobs that paid relatively well, so-called 'men's work' and a few years ago Don Lupe and I were laughing kindly about how young dudes nowadays often had to shuffle papers or whatever. Don Lupe worked construction and I was a firefighter with the Cal. Division of Forestry.....
