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Paperboy: Confessions of a Future Engineer
Henry petroski has been called “the poet laureate of technology.” He is one of the most eloquent and inquisitive science and engineering writers of our time, illuminating with new clarity such familiar objects as pencils, books, and bridges. In Paperboy , he turns his intellectual curiosity inward, on his own past.
Petroski grew up in the Cambria Heights section of New York City’s borough of Queens during the 1950s, in the midst of a close and loving family. Educated at local Catholic schools, he worked as a delivery boy for the Long Island Press. The job taught him lessons about diligence, labor, commitment, and community-mindedness, lessons that this successful student could not learn at school. From his vantage point as a professor, engineer, and writer, Petroski reflects fondly on these lessons, and on his near-idyllic boyhood.
Paperboy is also the story of the intellectual maturation of an engineer. Petroski’s curiosity about how things work—from bicycles to Press-books to newspaper delivery routes—was evident even in his youth. He writes with clear-eyed passion about the physical surroundings of his world, the same attitude he has brought to examining the quotidian objects of our world.
Paperboy is a delightful memoir, telling the dual story of an admirable family in a more innocent, bygone America, and the making of an engineer and writer. This is a book to cherish and reread.
Petroski grew up in the Cambria Heights section of New York City’s borough of Queens during the 1950s, in the midst of a close and loving family. Educated at local Catholic schools, he worked as a delivery boy for the Long Island Press. The job taught him lessons about diligence, labor, commitment, and community-mindedness, lessons that this successful student could not learn at school. From his vantage point as a professor, engineer, and writer, Petroski reflects fondly on these lessons, and on his near-idyllic boyhood.
Paperboy is also the story of the intellectual maturation of an engineer. Petroski’s curiosity about how things work—from bicycles to Press-books to newspaper delivery routes—was evident even in his youth. He writes with clear-eyed passion about the physical surroundings of his world, the same attitude he has brought to examining the quotidian objects of our world.
Paperboy is a delightful memoir, telling the dual story of an admirable family in a more innocent, bygone America, and the making of an engineer and writer. This is a book to cherish and reread.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
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About the author
Henry Petroski
35 books261 followersHenry Petroski was an American engineer specializing in failure analysis. A professor both of civil engineering and history at Duke University, he was also a prolific author.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 1, 2020
Read this because I, like the author, grew up in Cambria Heights 11411.
His experiences led me to places I remember but he alludes to but skirts many issues.
Cambria Heights is no longer a white lower to middle, middle class neighbourhood but is now completely a black lower to middle, middle class area. This change began around 1964.
My family like the author's moved further out onto the Island.
I also attended PS 147 and Sacred Heart School and much of what is recorded about this is near true.
Some of what I remember is very cruel in regards to rigid conformity of the late 1950's.
As a gay person in Cambria Heights aware of myself in the 1960's I would say my experiences were quite different from his. I realize these are his experiences and impressions a few years before mine.
I don't remember any comradery regarding bars. But I do remember playing stick ball in the street. I also lived in the same streets around the same time as the author 1958-1966.
Most of the priests he refers to played a part in my life also. Monsignor Hanrahan was central to Cambria Heights.
Overall the book in regards to neighbourhood description is not very vivid but in essence it is near descriptive. It doesn't evoke time and place very accurately.
Some of the analogies I found lame.
It was very slow in parts.
I think I would have enjoyed a more thoughtful approach. And a more honest description of race as it existed back then as a barrier to any relationships.
There were gay people even in 1962 and I saw them around the neighbourhood. In fact one of the author's generation older than me who lived next door had a gay lover and danced on stage on Broadway. There is reference to a gay man in a very preachy style. Another neighbour on my other side had a son who had died in WWII and had kept his room exactly as it was when he had left. It was shone to me in 1958 or 9. He died in the War. His father was the neighbourhood pharmacist. Those kinds of things broaden perspective for the reader. Perhaps his own experiences of this sort could have been included.
Overall I would say this is a lame book.
His experiences led me to places I remember but he alludes to but skirts many issues.
Cambria Heights is no longer a white lower to middle, middle class neighbourhood but is now completely a black lower to middle, middle class area. This change began around 1964.
My family like the author's moved further out onto the Island.
I also attended PS 147 and Sacred Heart School and much of what is recorded about this is near true.
Some of what I remember is very cruel in regards to rigid conformity of the late 1950's.
As a gay person in Cambria Heights aware of myself in the 1960's I would say my experiences were quite different from his. I realize these are his experiences and impressions a few years before mine.
I don't remember any comradery regarding bars. But I do remember playing stick ball in the street. I also lived in the same streets around the same time as the author 1958-1966.
Most of the priests he refers to played a part in my life also. Monsignor Hanrahan was central to Cambria Heights.
Overall the book in regards to neighbourhood description is not very vivid but in essence it is near descriptive. It doesn't evoke time and place very accurately.
Some of the analogies I found lame.
It was very slow in parts.
I think I would have enjoyed a more thoughtful approach. And a more honest description of race as it existed back then as a barrier to any relationships.
There were gay people even in 1962 and I saw them around the neighbourhood. In fact one of the author's generation older than me who lived next door had a gay lover and danced on stage on Broadway. There is reference to a gay man in a very preachy style. Another neighbour on my other side had a son who had died in WWII and had kept his room exactly as it was when he had left. It was shone to me in 1958 or 9. He died in the War. His father was the neighbourhood pharmacist. Those kinds of things broaden perspective for the reader. Perhaps his own experiences of this sort could have been included.
Overall I would say this is a lame book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 24, 2015
Possibly the best book by this author. Definitely the most biographical. Petroski does a great job of describing the minutiae involved in working a 1950s paper route and then tying those skills back to his future career as an engineer. Not everything is about the paper route, however. Petroski also loves to reminisce about the era's technology and the daily struggles a Catholic high school student and his family faces.
Want to read
February 11, 2008BIO Petroski, H 2002 -- read other books by author
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews