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The Cliff Walk: A Memoir of a Job Lost and a Life Found
Snyder's account of temporarily losing his way in life "confronts the not-so-secret fear that haunts every American who works for a living" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution).
275 pages, Paperback
First published July 20, 1998
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May 1, 2019
Don J. Synder- image from Amazon
A boomer falls from grace and finds peace and happiness in an unexpected place. Don Snyder was a much-loved professor of English at Colgate University. He had a happy home life, with a loving, supportive wife and several young children. His students admired and appreciated him. He was very good at what he did and had every reason to expect that this charmed life would go on forever. Then he got fired. And finding a way back to that idyllic existence proved impossible. This is the story of his fall-from-grace experience, what he learned and where he wound up.
The author sounds like a real jerk in many ways. His inclination to wallow in denial led him to make many, many bad decisions. It is a wonder his wife put up with him at all. Still, it is an interesting tale of being cast out of Eden. What does it take to disabuse people, us, you and me, of our false notions about the world, about ourselves? Having been through an experience much like Snyder’s (also with an incredibly supportive wife) I am sympathetic. I too was driven from the middle class work world. I am sure there are those who would consider some of my decisions just as foolish as Snyder’s.
Do we stop and look closer when we see ourselves in a mirror or do we recoil in horror? It was a little of both for me here. I related to Snyder’s desire to believe that something would work out eventually; something would appear to allow a restoration of a way of life that had been lost. I know I believed that for at least two years after my personal fall. Sometimes the mirror aspect of this tale caused me to cringe. I could see my arrogance in his, my stupid hopefulness in his.
The book is a fast read, with engaging scenes, interesting details and what sounds at times like a twelve-point alcoholic’s honesty. For those of you who have been spared Snyder’s (and my) particular nightmare it is an informative read and is being repeated thousands, hundreds of thousands of times in our nation right now, hopefully not by you.
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal, GR, Wiki and FB pages
December 27, 2020
Baby Boomer Bust
This is a religious tale, a tale of white, privileged, presumptuous, self-serving religion. That it doesn’t appear overtly religious is a consequence only of its vocabulary; it wants us to believe. The religion it represents is one of a certain kind of middle class order in the universe, a force which ensures that the righteous - that is, those who worship and serve this force - will be vindicated. This is the religion of the Boomer Generation, those who rode the wave from working class to professional status in the latter half of the 20th century. Like most religions, this one often eats its adherents.
The biblical book of Job is Snyder’s template. Success is achieved, lost, and recovered. And like the book of Job, someone (probably at an editor’s insistence) messed it about by adding a prologue and an epilogue that ensure its devotion to cosmic orderliness despite the intermediate humiliation and suffering. The world is just and beneficent; we simply have to await it’s working out. Blessed be the name of the force.
Snyder’s fast track academic career is cut short by what he portrays as bureaucratic incompetence. His prayers to the force go unanswered. He rages; he demands justice; finally he seeks the inner wisdom, the hidden logic of his situation. One door closes, another opens, you make your own luck, when the going gets tough... etc. What he has lost in professional prospects, he more than gains in familial intimacy. Order has been restored.
Here’s the truth of the matter: there is no assured connection between competence and achievement, between integrity and reputation, between virtue and happiness. This is so as a matter of principle and is not dependent on the structures of organisation, sociology, psychology, or spirituality we might establish. It matters not whether one is engaged in the pursuit of corporate advancement, entrepreneurial innovation, or merely a quiet life. Life does not conform to the promises of the religion of orderliness.
Disorderliness, chaos, entropy, the unforeseen always get us. This is empirically observable. Yet according to the religion of orderliness, these are manifestly evil. They are also universally apparent. So, paradoxically, the religious beliefs we hold most dear are precisely those which prove the irrationality of those very beliefs. The presumption that the world is benign and wants to be understood, even in our very small part of it, is a conceit which disappoints everyone from the most eminent scientist to the newest infant.
Snyder’s religion is based on the anthropic principle, that is, that we have evolved to understand the cosmos, essentially that it is our rightful home and that we can expect certain privileges as a consequence. Entitled to a secure job; entitled to have children, as many as we want; entitled to respect for our superior intellect or wealth or unremitting drive; entitled to feel sympathetic solidarity with those who have failed to benefit from advanced education and a continuously expanding economy.
As I said: white, privileged, self-righteous. Also deluded. It is the realisation of the delusion of entitlement not the reality of life itself that causes anger, resentment, and the various neuroses of modern society. One of those neuroses is sentimentality. Sentimentality, too, is an entitlement. When the rest of life goes down the tubes, I’ve still got my family, or my self-respect, or my memories, or some image of an idealised past. Nope. That may be the cruellest part of the delusion, that relationships, including the relationship with oneself and one’s history, are inviolable.
In any case, even if you win, you lose. There are an infinite number of cares, duties, goals, and responsibilities that one could have attended to but didn’t. So regret is inevitable. Human life involves zero-sum economics - doing more of X means doing less of Y. But the Boomer faith is in the free lunch. Everything is possible. The force will provide; it is on our side. Like Job, we just have to rail at it enough until fortune is restored.
But as I mentioned at the outset, the epilogue of the book of Job is probably fraudulent, added by some editor concerned with establishing the fairy-tale nature of divine concern. Literature, too, is part of Boomer religion. For some, it is the religion’s central tenet. It gives comfort and hope and, most important, reasons for why things are as they are. But literature, including the biblical, is just another name for the delusional redemptive force.
Snyder thinks he’s found another name for the force - hard physical work, work with hammers and nails and saws. Manly work. One of my younger brothers tried that religion. High steel and wilderness house-building. It worked really well for him. But physical work has physical cost. He died on site of a heart attack aged 43. No free lunch.
Postscript: For more on the peculiar psychology of Boomers, see: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is a religious tale, a tale of white, privileged, presumptuous, self-serving religion. That it doesn’t appear overtly religious is a consequence only of its vocabulary; it wants us to believe. The religion it represents is one of a certain kind of middle class order in the universe, a force which ensures that the righteous - that is, those who worship and serve this force - will be vindicated. This is the religion of the Boomer Generation, those who rode the wave from working class to professional status in the latter half of the 20th century. Like most religions, this one often eats its adherents.
The biblical book of Job is Snyder’s template. Success is achieved, lost, and recovered. And like the book of Job, someone (probably at an editor’s insistence) messed it about by adding a prologue and an epilogue that ensure its devotion to cosmic orderliness despite the intermediate humiliation and suffering. The world is just and beneficent; we simply have to await it’s working out. Blessed be the name of the force.
Snyder’s fast track academic career is cut short by what he portrays as bureaucratic incompetence. His prayers to the force go unanswered. He rages; he demands justice; finally he seeks the inner wisdom, the hidden logic of his situation. One door closes, another opens, you make your own luck, when the going gets tough... etc. What he has lost in professional prospects, he more than gains in familial intimacy. Order has been restored.
Here’s the truth of the matter: there is no assured connection between competence and achievement, between integrity and reputation, between virtue and happiness. This is so as a matter of principle and is not dependent on the structures of organisation, sociology, psychology, or spirituality we might establish. It matters not whether one is engaged in the pursuit of corporate advancement, entrepreneurial innovation, or merely a quiet life. Life does not conform to the promises of the religion of orderliness.
Disorderliness, chaos, entropy, the unforeseen always get us. This is empirically observable. Yet according to the religion of orderliness, these are manifestly evil. They are also universally apparent. So, paradoxically, the religious beliefs we hold most dear are precisely those which prove the irrationality of those very beliefs. The presumption that the world is benign and wants to be understood, even in our very small part of it, is a conceit which disappoints everyone from the most eminent scientist to the newest infant.
Snyder’s religion is based on the anthropic principle, that is, that we have evolved to understand the cosmos, essentially that it is our rightful home and that we can expect certain privileges as a consequence. Entitled to a secure job; entitled to have children, as many as we want; entitled to respect for our superior intellect or wealth or unremitting drive; entitled to feel sympathetic solidarity with those who have failed to benefit from advanced education and a continuously expanding economy.
As I said: white, privileged, self-righteous. Also deluded. It is the realisation of the delusion of entitlement not the reality of life itself that causes anger, resentment, and the various neuroses of modern society. One of those neuroses is sentimentality. Sentimentality, too, is an entitlement. When the rest of life goes down the tubes, I’ve still got my family, or my self-respect, or my memories, or some image of an idealised past. Nope. That may be the cruellest part of the delusion, that relationships, including the relationship with oneself and one’s history, are inviolable.
In any case, even if you win, you lose. There are an infinite number of cares, duties, goals, and responsibilities that one could have attended to but didn’t. So regret is inevitable. Human life involves zero-sum economics - doing more of X means doing less of Y. But the Boomer faith is in the free lunch. Everything is possible. The force will provide; it is on our side. Like Job, we just have to rail at it enough until fortune is restored.
But as I mentioned at the outset, the epilogue of the book of Job is probably fraudulent, added by some editor concerned with establishing the fairy-tale nature of divine concern. Literature, too, is part of Boomer religion. For some, it is the religion’s central tenet. It gives comfort and hope and, most important, reasons for why things are as they are. But literature, including the biblical, is just another name for the delusional redemptive force.
Snyder thinks he’s found another name for the force - hard physical work, work with hammers and nails and saws. Manly work. One of my younger brothers tried that religion. High steel and wilderness house-building. It worked really well for him. But physical work has physical cost. He died on site of a heart attack aged 43. No free lunch.
Postscript: For more on the peculiar psychology of Boomers, see: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
September 5, 2008
One of my biggest failures as a reader is that I generally forget a book, even one I liked, within weeks after reading it. I forget the plot, the characters, even the general feel. This book is different. I read it about eight years ago, and various scenes have stayed vivid in my mind. I hate to say it, but unless you are a breadwinner for a family, it will probably be hard to relate to this guy's story. You can call him a privledged whiner, but unless you have performed the balancing act of work and family, you can't relate to the scary, unstable feeling of keeping above water with your financial affairs and career. Snyder perfectly captures the common daydream many breadwinners have: what if my whole plan went belly and I had to grab work where I could find it? Could I overcome my vanity and rise to the occasion? This is a memoir that has only become more relevant in the desperation economy that George W. Bush has wrought.
July 12, 2020
I would give this memoir 2.5 stars (rounded up to the 3 stars).
The author worked as a university English professor out East, who enjoyed the perks and privileges of his position. He assumed that his contract would be renewed, and he would continue on with his good life in academia. Life does not always go as planned and his contract was not renewed (i.e. he was pink slipped). Having attained entry into the privileged world in academia, he was unable to accept any level of rejection-he felt was deserving of his job, he was "better" than his colleagues, he would be a welcome addition to any other university, etc. His arrogance contributed to his miscalculation and unrealistic understanding of the current day workplace requirements (i.e. what sets you apart from others, how have you advanced your skill sets). When he contacts one university after his application was rejected, he is informed there were other more qualified applicants.
Needless to say, he receives many rejections (well over 50), and still holds out for a college level position, though he is now open to even a community college position. During this period of time (~2 years), there is no income to support his family (wife and 4 children-God bless his wife for hanging in there), spending what little monies left because it makes him "feel good", while reluctant to apply for food stamps, unemployment or a lesser job. Reading this, I kept thinking, "OMG, get a clue. You have a family to support-any job is better than nothing until your "dream" job comes along.
Eventually he has an epiphany and accepts his loss of "entitlement/grandeur" working various odd jobs (groundskeeper, construction laborer, house painter, etc.)-embracing the work he had felt was beneath him and ultimatley finding fulfillment.
The author worked as a university English professor out East, who enjoyed the perks and privileges of his position. He assumed that his contract would be renewed, and he would continue on with his good life in academia. Life does not always go as planned and his contract was not renewed (i.e. he was pink slipped). Having attained entry into the privileged world in academia, he was unable to accept any level of rejection-he felt was deserving of his job, he was "better" than his colleagues, he would be a welcome addition to any other university, etc. His arrogance contributed to his miscalculation and unrealistic understanding of the current day workplace requirements (i.e. what sets you apart from others, how have you advanced your skill sets). When he contacts one university after his application was rejected, he is informed there were other more qualified applicants.
Needless to say, he receives many rejections (well over 50), and still holds out for a college level position, though he is now open to even a community college position. During this period of time (~2 years), there is no income to support his family (wife and 4 children-God bless his wife for hanging in there), spending what little monies left because it makes him "feel good", while reluctant to apply for food stamps, unemployment or a lesser job. Reading this, I kept thinking, "OMG, get a clue. You have a family to support-any job is better than nothing until your "dream" job comes along.
Eventually he has an epiphany and accepts his loss of "entitlement/grandeur" working various odd jobs (groundskeeper, construction laborer, house painter, etc.)-embracing the work he had felt was beneath him and ultimatley finding fulfillment.
August 11, 2017
I really don't know how I feel about this book. The author is a good writer, and does a good job of describing the turmoil going on inside his head. But, through most of the book, he comes across as a self-absorbed jerk, who points fingers rather than attempting real solutions. 3/4 through the book, I was just angry at a guy who could just let his family devolve into poverty while he continued to spend money they didn't have, and continued to be too proud to ask for help and just find any freaking job. God, I could only hope I could handle unemployment better than he did!
November 29, 2009
I've long admired people who can work with their hands, particularly in trades such as carpentry that require not only visual-spatial intelligence but also creativity, fine craftmanship skills and the ability to improvise and improve upon. I had also read a similarly-themed book last year called 'Fat, Forty & Fired' by Nigel Marsh about his experience of being fired. It was so well written, laugh-out-loud funny and a genuinely great story that I passed it around at work begging the other book lovers to read it. So when I read The Cliff Walk's back flap, about a college professor who fired from his job but discovers carpentry, I guess I started reading the book with high expectations.
I was warned at the first 2 pages, where Snyder mentions "rich people" three times in a way in which it's obvious that this man's motive for becoming an English professor was mainly to distance himself from his working class roots, and that he envies and resents rich people as much as he wants to be just like them. Not even a quarter of the way through, I found myself disliking Synder so much that I didn't really want to read any further, but I wanted to get to the bit about how he discovered carpentry.
Snyder is not only pompous and self-important, believing any other work besides a professorship below him, but also goes to some length to portray himself in a noble and positive light while denigrating others. He talks of leaving his childhood behind through a football scholarship to a private college leaving behind his "low-wage, no-ambition" relatives. He boasts that at one job, he was paid more than the combined income of both his uncles when they retired. He makes sure that his readers know how much his students loved him; how he was the best teacher they'd ever had; how he rushed to the aid of a former student who'd had a nervous breakdown(very commendable - but why feel the need to mention it? - and when is he going to stop whining and start his manual labour job?) No, not yet, because Snyder wants to tell us about renting a holiday house in Maine with his wife's money. His wife is written as an Irish stereotype: long-suffering, endlessly patient, loving and sweet-natured. By this stage, any other Irishwoman would have kicked him up the arse and demanded he shape up or ship out. Endless passages are given to describing how good and beautiful she is, but meanwhile he's content to sleeping his days away while she looks after other people's children and organises and cares for the family with minimal contribution from his part.
When he finally starts working for a construction firm, there are only a few pages left in the book. I felt like laughing outloud. A whole book on how miserable he feels, how depressed he is, how low down he has had to fall, how a smart man like him has to work with his hands. As he has no trade skills, his main job is cleaning up the site. He still can't resist phoning his wife from the construction site during a rare spell away from his cleaning duties where he has been given the job of hammering on top of a ladder, and asking her to drive the family past so that his children can think he's one of the builders of the house instead of the person doing the cleanups. Even in this job he must categorise it into a hierarchy and pretend he's something that he's not.
If you haven't figured it out by now - I really disliked this book and thought it could have been so much more. The plot was so promising but the author's self-pity and self-absorption and total lack of courage and spine become more and more revolting as the book progressed. People change jobs all the time, but Snyder wants to dramatise it and likens his situation throughout the book to Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. All I wanted to say to Snyder was what his wife probably should have said right from the start - stop your whining and grow a spine, man.
I was warned at the first 2 pages, where Snyder mentions "rich people" three times in a way in which it's obvious that this man's motive for becoming an English professor was mainly to distance himself from his working class roots, and that he envies and resents rich people as much as he wants to be just like them. Not even a quarter of the way through, I found myself disliking Synder so much that I didn't really want to read any further, but I wanted to get to the bit about how he discovered carpentry.
Snyder is not only pompous and self-important, believing any other work besides a professorship below him, but also goes to some length to portray himself in a noble and positive light while denigrating others. He talks of leaving his childhood behind through a football scholarship to a private college leaving behind his "low-wage, no-ambition" relatives. He boasts that at one job, he was paid more than the combined income of both his uncles when they retired. He makes sure that his readers know how much his students loved him; how he was the best teacher they'd ever had; how he rushed to the aid of a former student who'd had a nervous breakdown(very commendable - but why feel the need to mention it? - and when is he going to stop whining and start his manual labour job?) No, not yet, because Snyder wants to tell us about renting a holiday house in Maine with his wife's money. His wife is written as an Irish stereotype: long-suffering, endlessly patient, loving and sweet-natured. By this stage, any other Irishwoman would have kicked him up the arse and demanded he shape up or ship out. Endless passages are given to describing how good and beautiful she is, but meanwhile he's content to sleeping his days away while she looks after other people's children and organises and cares for the family with minimal contribution from his part.
When he finally starts working for a construction firm, there are only a few pages left in the book. I felt like laughing outloud. A whole book on how miserable he feels, how depressed he is, how low down he has had to fall, how a smart man like him has to work with his hands. As he has no trade skills, his main job is cleaning up the site. He still can't resist phoning his wife from the construction site during a rare spell away from his cleaning duties where he has been given the job of hammering on top of a ladder, and asking her to drive the family past so that his children can think he's one of the builders of the house instead of the person doing the cleanups. Even in this job he must categorise it into a hierarchy and pretend he's something that he's not.
If you haven't figured it out by now - I really disliked this book and thought it could have been so much more. The plot was so promising but the author's self-pity and self-absorption and total lack of courage and spine become more and more revolting as the book progressed. People change jobs all the time, but Snyder wants to dramatise it and likens his situation throughout the book to Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. All I wanted to say to Snyder was what his wife probably should have said right from the start - stop your whining and grow a spine, man.
July 6, 2014
I recommend this book to anyone who thinks that going through the proper channels will get you where you want to go. This book sends home the message that life is uncertain. I recommend this book to anyone who looks down on any profession and who has the tendency to elevate himself/herself in any way. Don Snyder learned the hard way that the people he least longed to emulate were highly skilled in ways he could barely comprehend. He learned the sad truth that while he looked down on others, there were others who also looked down on and pitied him.
This is a great book for any of us who tend to lean towards arrogance. Many readers cannot see past Snyder's prideful approach to life, but I'm thankful for his honesty and vulnerability in recording for public scrutiny what most certainly is his ugliest side. It provides a refreshing and honest look in the mirror for those of us who insist on being proud of ourselves. Snyder was forced into a state of humility, and he arose victorious.
Maybe Don Snyder was an arrogant snob according to many people, but he improved because of or in spite of his disappointing circumstances. So, say what you will, but I believe that anyone who improves in the face of challenges shows some measure of strength of character. This is encouraging.
Frankly, I think this book should be required reading for every college student.
This is a great book for any of us who tend to lean towards arrogance. Many readers cannot see past Snyder's prideful approach to life, but I'm thankful for his honesty and vulnerability in recording for public scrutiny what most certainly is his ugliest side. It provides a refreshing and honest look in the mirror for those of us who insist on being proud of ourselves. Snyder was forced into a state of humility, and he arose victorious.
Maybe Don Snyder was an arrogant snob according to many people, but he improved because of or in spite of his disappointing circumstances. So, say what you will, but I believe that anyone who improves in the face of challenges shows some measure of strength of character. This is encouraging.
Frankly, I think this book should be required reading for every college student.
May 11, 2010
This man writes about his anger and sense of importance like it's the only thing in the world that matters. For him, for so long, it is. It's a confusing, puzzling read, but he stays true to the book he started to write and the finish is worth getting to, but like me, you may not rejoice. I want to see where he's gone since this book and how his wife and children are doing, as they bore the brunt of his behavior.
Having been through job loss myself and with my husband, I am so glad neither of us invested ALL of our ego and personality in our jobs. Maybe I should have given this book another star, but it's a tough read.
Having been through job loss myself and with my husband, I am so glad neither of us invested ALL of our ego and personality in our jobs. Maybe I should have given this book another star, but it's a tough read.
February 18, 2009
Loved this book. Central theme was about job loss and finding something you LOVE to do, regardless of salary or status. Good lessons in this read....
June 13, 2016
Bizarrely intriguing. Drives home the point that you can get so caught up in defining yourself by your job that when you lose that job/career, you can lose yourself. Certainly an exposure of the soul that I would never be brave enough to do. During this train wreck of job loss where each decision he makes seems to be bringing him to a horrible end, you are sure he will never "get it" but miraculously he does. The VIP in this story is his wife.
June 17, 2009
liked this book so much better when I read it 10 years ago- now he just irritated me with all his whining. still written well and gives you an insight (sort of) into how men think so much differently and react differently to life's situations. Liked that he finally got that who you are is not what you do-
March 23, 2008
This book made me fall in love with memoirs. A little rough at places, but an honest picture of a man struggling to find his identity when his successful career as a college English professor falls apart. It reminds me that everyone has dignity, and that our lives can be recreated at any moment.
July 20, 2021
Poignant memoir about losing your job, career, and direction in life and the lows encountered before finding your way again. I liked the familiar setting of Scarborough and Prouts neck. Well written but sad.
February 11, 2019
In my experience there are only two types of people, when we're talking about pride- those who are aware of it and those who aren't. Snyder was, as far as we can glean from this read, a good teacher who did it for all of the the right reasons. The rush he got from this was just too good and it became a part of him in a way that is as hard to quit as name-your-drug-here. For the shinier hero, watch Dead Poet's Society.
I maybe have more sympathy for him than some of the other readers because I know that there is as much ego in construction as there is in academia. People are people. Everywhere you go, there you are.
This is an honest book by a fearlessly self-aware writer. As an English teacher myself, it was a real gut-check for me, which I appreciate.
I maybe have more sympathy for him than some of the other readers because I know that there is as much ego in construction as there is in academia. People are people. Everywhere you go, there you are.
This is an honest book by a fearlessly self-aware writer. As an English teacher myself, it was a real gut-check for me, which I appreciate.
February 29, 2008
i really liked this book. it's about a teacher that always thought a little too much of himself, and then finds himself not a teacher anymore....not only is he not a teacher, but instead, he has to resort to taking a manual labor job. i think i related to this book even more, since i worked construction while i was going to school to become a teacher. while i was working....it just so happened that i worked in schools almost exclusively......the company installed fire protection (sprinkler) systems.....you wouldn't believe how poorly many of the teachers treated me. part of it, is that i'm a minority, but most of it, was that i was doing a manual labor job, and they weren't.
June 19, 2009
I enjoyed this memoir because the author conveyed a sense of his desperation as things got worse and worse for his family. I still have lots of questions. What was the exact reason given for his firing? Why didn't he try to get a job in a related field like college administrator or editor or any white collar job that it seems he would qualify for?
September 28, 2009
I know this spit of land. I know this cliff and this walk. I even know the academic employment precipice, and it terrifies me as I face it unexpectedly all over again. Very, very, very well done, this book. Redemptive without And, honestly, coastal Maine is not a bad place to go to brood. I'm about to.
May 11, 2012
Good crap, this took me forever to read, but only because I've been so busy with life I haven't had time to read. All-in-all, this was a pretty good memoir. He lost me a little in the middle. Also, his wife is a SAINT to put up with all the crap he put her through. I'm not sure I would have had the patience for that. But I was glad to see at the end he found something that made him happy.
July 9, 2012
Excellent writing...very detailed account of thoughts and feelings the author experience in the course of losing everything he had struggled to attain and then starting over. He does a great job of documenting the changes in perspective and paradigms and how that involved his wife and children and friends.
January 7, 2017
I read this in 1999 and hung onto it until today when I cleaned off my bookshelves. I kept it because I really enjoyed the writing and the story. The author is humbled professionally and has to find his way again, along paths he would never have foreseen. His intense love for his family shines through.
August 8, 2017
I thought this book was very well written and demonstrated a deep level of reflection regarding the author's situation. For much of the book I found myself feeling frustrated and waiting for circumstances to get even worse. I appreciated how the author's outlook on life changed and how he learned to be comfortable with himself regardless of his station in life.
September 20, 2007
This man takes for granted his job as a professor and his easy life. Then he gets fired.He has a young wife with three children, and one on the way. He becomes a house painter to survive and discovers a life worthy to live.
May 31, 2009
Worth reading, but the main character wasn't a guy I really wanted to root for. He wallows in self-pity way too long and becomes a pretty crappy person for awhile. Still, I didn't regret the time I spent with it...
December 10, 2015
Were it fiction, this book would have more redeeming features, but as a memoir, it is a self description of arrogance, unearned self importance and distain that most authors would be embarrassed to publish.
August 13, 2018
The man writes well, that's the only reason for the two stars. And, I suppose, for fessing up to what a jerk he was. (Although it almost comes across as bragging.) Watching this self-involved, self-important lout agonize through to his final enlightenment was just painful.
Read
April 14, 2009Read once in 1997, then again in 2009.
November 5, 2007
This book is horrible. It is everything I detest about successful, privilaged, white men not being able to muster their own resources because they have never before experienced hardship. sigh
April 7, 2008
Great for those who are disenchanted with academia
December 31, 2008
I really enjoyed reading the perspective of a man who has lost his job and needs to find his way to support his family. Very interesting.
January 28, 2009
Indulgent - I couldn't relate to the central character.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews