Tales of two Americas : stories of inequality in a divided nation

Author

John Freeman

Call Number

• FICTION TALE (OSH)

Publication Information

New York : Penguin Books, 2017.

Physical Description

xviii, 330 pages ; 21 cm

Summary

America is broken. You don?t need a fistful of statistics to know this. Visit any city, and evidence of our shattered social compact will present itself. From Appalachia to the Rust Belt and down to rural Texas, the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest stretches across gaping chasms. Whether the cause of this inequality is systemic injustice, the entrenchment of racism in our culture, the long war on drugs, or immigration policies, it endangers not only the American Dream but our very lives. In Tales of Two Americas, some of the literary world?s most exciting writers look beyond numbers and wages to convey what it feels like to live in this divided nation. Their extraordinarily powerful stories, essays, and poems demonstrate how boundaries break down when experiences are shared, and that in sharing our stories we can help to alleviate a suffering that touches so many people.

Contents

• Death by gentrification / I'm sick of pretending to give a shit about what whypeepo think / Notes of a native daugther / Dosas / American work / Fieldwork / For the ones who put their names on the wall / Trash food / Some houses (various stages of dissolve) / Mobility / Youth from every quarter / Outside / White debt / Leander / Fault lines / We share the rain, and not much else / Blood brother / Hillsides and flatlands / Invisible wounds / How / Enough to lose / To the man asleep in our driveway who might be named Phil / Soup kitchen / Howlin' wolf / Looking for a home / Visible City / Portion / Apartment 1G / Happy / Good neighbor is hard to find / Here in a state of tectonic tension / Once there was a spot / Hurray for losers / Ciudad magica / American arithmetic / Worthless servant