The Hard Way on Purpose: Essays and Dispatches from the Rust Belt
“Give us something to root for,” Akron, Ohio, writer and professor Giffels says near the beginning of this collection of personal essays about his embattled home state. Ohio once was home to manufacturing plants, industry, prosperity. That began to change in the 1960s, when factories began to close, and the dismantling of the state—and of Akron specifically—continues to this day. And it’s not just a figurative dismantling: one of the most moving essays here describes the author’s thoughts as he watched an old Firestone smokestack being literally dismantled, brick by brick, on a summer’s day. Giffels’ essays put a human face on daily life in today’s Ohio, while reminding readers of all the things Ohio has given the world: from the Converse Chuck Taylor sneaker to rockers Devo and Chrissie Hynde, to the hamburger (well, probably not, but Ohio’s claim to the burger makes a heck of a good story). An interesting and occasionally moving portrait of a place that, despite its decades-long downward slide, remains, for many, a pretty good place to live. --David Pitt