Author:Geert Mak,Liz Waters
In 1960 John Steinbeck and his dog Charley set out in their green pickup truck to rediscover the soul of America, visiting small towns and cities from New York to New Orleans.The trip became Travels With Charley, one of his best-loved books.
Half a century on, Geert Mak sets off from Steinbeck’s home. Mile after mile, as he retraces Steinbeck’s footsteps through the potato fields of Maine to the endless prairies of the Midwest and stumbles across glistening suburbs and boarded-up stores, Mak searches for the roots of America and what remains of the world Steinbeck describes. How has America changed in the last fifty years; what remains of the American dream; and what do Europe and America now have in common?
Where Steinbeck generally avoided the hubbub of big cities, Mak balances descriptions of the rural plains and towns that symbolize the country's early origins with fascinating sections on urban growth and decay... An ambitious and enjoyable take on America's story
—— Times Literary SupplementRambling, thoughtful, often funny... Wonderful
—— Guardian[A] smart, deep-rooted state of the nation report from Main Street, USA
—— The TimesPerfect for armchair travellers
—— Choice MagazineThe lyrical story of two journeys interwoven with a broad history and witty observations about the changes of place and people over the past 50 years
—— Julia Richardson , Daily MailThe vividness of life is also superbly drawn with exchanges between Mak, and many of the people that he meets on the journey. There are also copious notes and research used to back up many of the points that Mak makes, and how they relate to both Steinbeck’s times, and how things are now.
—— Ben Macnair , NudgeWinner of the National Book Award
—— Prizes and awardsWith his usual meticulous research, Ferguson is master of all his work surveys. At least as important, he writes in an unobtrusive but compelling style that carries the reader along with unforced ease. Even on its own, the first volume of Ferguson's life of Kissinger is a great work about a great man by - it has to be admitted - a great historian. It should be read, and enjoyed, by every serious student of the history of our times
—— Sherard Cowper-Coles , SpectatorFor big, bold and compelling, it is impossible to ignore Kissinger - 1923-1968: the idealist (Allen Lane), the first volume of Niall Ferguson's biography of Henry Kissinger, which asks us to reconsider America's best-known "realist" as more Kantian than Machiavellian, more Castlereagh than Meternich, at least up to 1968, when President Nixon first granted the Harvard academic high office.
—— John Bew , New StatesmanSome might question whether Ferguson really needs 1000 pages to tell half of Kissinger's life. Other will revel in the wealth of detail on this most controversial of American statesman
—— Bee Wilson , Sunday Timesa formidably detailed, closely argued study of the making of one of the giants of 20th-century foreign policy
—— Gideon Rachman , FTMark Binelli has succeeded in synthesizing the tragedy and absurdity that Detroiters face each and every day in America’s fastest shrinking city. Yes, things are dire in Motor City, but Binelli refuses to perform an autopsy on a place that still radiates rage, pride, hustle, and hope. Detroit, he discovers, is very much alive
—— Heidi Ewing, director of DetropiaBefore turning the buffalo (or the artists) loose on the haunted prairie that was once Detroit, we should ponder why a great American metropolis was allowed to die. Mark Binelli, Motor City native returned, provides a picaresque but unflinchingly honest look at the crime scene. Like Richard Pryor, he has the rare talent to make you laugh and cry at the same time
—— Mike Davis, author of Ecology of Fear[The Last Days of Detroit] is a brilliant kaleidoscope of everything that is great, broken, inspiring, heart-breaking, and ultimately remarkable about Detroit. Mark Binelli has turned the story of the city, and by extension America, into a glorious, unforgettable work of art
—— Dinaw Mengestu, author of How to Read the AirAt once hilarious and sharp, sweeping and intimate, [The Last Days of Detroit] is an oddly delighted warning from the recent future. With the tender scrutiny of a returning exile, Mark Binelli has written a non-fiction novel about our American experiment, and it’s the most entertaining and persuasive book about this country I’ve read in a very long time
—— Gideon Lewis-Kraus, author of A Sense of DirectionMark Binelli is a first-rate reporter, gifted with the ability to get almost anybody to open up. [The Last Days of Detroit] is searching, wide-angle, honest, deeply moving, and unshakably dark. It is a vivid slice of our time and implies a disquieting prophecy of the future
—— Luc Sante, author of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New YorkAn encounter with a longstanding black resident reveals underlying tensions “Detroit isn't some kind of abstract art project." Binelli's achievement is to make that vividly apparent
—— Andy Beckett , GuardianMark Binelli’s The Last Days of Detroit is a magnificent anthem to one of America’s most significant cities. He takes you on a tour into the dark heart of this once vibrant city, the home of the Ford car. This is a beautiful prose poem to a fascinating city and to post-industrial America
—— Patrick Neale , The BooksellerSucceeds in bringing out angles on Detroit that at least this casual observer hadn’t heard before
—— Rose Jacobs , FTBoth a history and a thoughtful travelogue… British readers might wonder what Detroit has to do with them, but the collapse of manufacturing, its yawning unemployed, the tension generated by a usually white liberal class who seize on gentrification possibilities (and the desire to turn dereliction into abstract art) are universal modern concerns
Mark Binelli’s surprisingly joyful book
—— Ed Caesar , Sunday TimesA remarkable trawl through the sorry and tragic recent history of a city that was once heralded as the future of the United States
—— Doug Johnstone , Big IssueBinellis shows us that a brighter economic future may be possible even in the most benighted of cities
—— Rohan Silva , ProspectThe value of this book lies not just in its compelling story, but in its lessons for all the West
—— Robert Chesshyre , Literary ReviewNow the city and above all its people have been brilliantly captured
—— David Goldblatt , Independent[A] wry, inquisitive survey of Detroit's troubled past and present... Surprisingly joyful
—— Sunday TimesThis journalistic account tells an enthralling, balanced story
—— Daily Telegraph