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1 of 1 copy available
With stark poignancy and political dispassion, Tightrope draws us deep into an "other America." The authors tell this story, in part, through the lives of some of the children with whom Kristof grew up, in rural Yamhill, Oregon, an area that prospered for much of the twentieth century but has been devastated in the last few decades as blue-collar jobs disappeared. About one-quarter of the children on Kristof's old school bus died in adulthood from drugs, alcohol, suicide, or reckless accidents. And while these particular stories unfolded in one corner of the country, they are representative of many places the authors write about, ranging from the Dakotas and Oklahoma to New York and Virginia. But here too are stories about resurgence, among them: Annette Dove, who has devoted her life to helping the teenagers of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, as they navigate the chaotic reality of growing up poor; Daniel McDowell, of Baltimore, whose tale of opioid addiction and recovery suggests that there are viable ways to solve our nation's drug epidemic. These accounts provide a picture of working-class families needlessly but profoundly damaged as a result of decades of policy mistakes. With their superb, nuanced reportage, Kristof and WuDunn have given us a book that is both riveting and impossible to ignore.
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Release date
January 14, 2020 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593169766
- File size: 279860 KB
- Duration: 09:43:02
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Actress Jennifer Garner narrates with finesse and restraint as she delivers harrowing scenes of poor Americans acting rashly and sometimes violently in the face of their daily struggles. Her tempo and cadence are also just right for the parts of this work that are a more sociological approach in detailing the harsh economic realities of America's rural poor. This audiobook focuses on the problems of small-town and rural Americans--particularly lack of educational opportunity, obesity, and drug addiction--through the lens of journalist Kristof and his wife and writing partner, WuDunn. Kristof hails from tiny Yamhill, Oregon, where he still helps run his family's farm. Many of the moving stories in this work concern people he grew up with, so their problems hit home. This fine audiobook matters. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine -
November 4, 2019
Husband and wife journalists Kristof and WuDunn (A Path Appears) turn a compassionate lens on the failed state of working-class American communities in this stark, fluidly written portrait. In profiling residents of Baltimore, Md., and Pine Bluff, Ark., as well as Kristof’s classmates from rural Yamhill, Ore., the authors seek to counteract the “cruel narrative that working-class struggle is about bad choices, laziness, and vices.” They urge readers to reflect not only on “individual irresponsibility” but on the “collective irresponsibility” of American society, especially in comparison to other first-world countries where the social safety net is stronger. The authors highlight the successes of local nonprofits, including a Pine Bluff after-school program, but contend that pockets of individual charity cannot solve the nation’s systemic problems. Threaded throughout are policy suggestions emphasizing the importance of early childhood education, universal health coverage, fair tax rates, commonsense drug policy, affordable housing, and strong worker protections. Kristof and WuDunn avoid pity while creating empathy for their subjects, and effectively advocate for a “morality of grace” to which readers should hold policy makers accountable. This essential, clear-eyed account provides worthy solutions to some of America’s most complex socioeconomic problems.
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