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Sh*t Show by Charlie LeDuff
The subtitle of this book says it all: The Country's Collapsing...and the Ratings Are Great.
276 pages, Hardcover
First published May 22, 2018
158 people are currently reading
1806 people want to read
About the author
Charlie LeDuff
10 books267 followersCharlie LeDuff is a writer, filmmaker and a multimedia reporter for The Detroit News. He is a former national correspondent for The New York Times.
He covered the war in Iraq, crossed the desert with a group of migrant Mexicans and worked inside a North Carolina slaughterhouse as part of The Times series “How Race Is Lived in America,” which was awarded the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.
In 2005 LeDuff was host and writer of “Only In America” – a 10-part television show of participatory journalism for the Discovery Times Channel. Among other things he brawled at a fight party held by an Oakland motorcycle gang, rode a bull at a gay rodeo, became a trapeze clown in a traveling circus of immigrants.
LeDuff also hosted and co-produced “United Gates of America” for the BBC in 2006 where he moved into a gated city at the edge of the Los Angeles sprawl. There, he encounters Nazi youth, a porno director, a Christian housewife, the town good-time girl, the angry Mexican gardener and other all-stars of American life.
He is the author of two books:
“Work and Other Sins: Life in New York City and Thereabouts” (Penguin Press)
“US Guys: The True and Twisted Mind of the American Man” (Penguin Press)
Previously, LeDuff, 42, has worked as a carpenter, middle school teacher and gang counselor in Detroit, a bartender in Australia and a baker in Denmark. He lived in a tree house in Alaska and slept on the Great Wall of China. He speaks decent Spanish and bad Russian.
LeDuff received a bachelor of arts degree in political science from the University of Michigan and a master of journalism degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
He lives with his wife and daughter near Detroit, Michigan.
He covered the war in Iraq, crossed the desert with a group of migrant Mexicans and worked inside a North Carolina slaughterhouse as part of The Times series “How Race Is Lived in America,” which was awarded the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.
In 2005 LeDuff was host and writer of “Only In America” – a 10-part television show of participatory journalism for the Discovery Times Channel. Among other things he brawled at a fight party held by an Oakland motorcycle gang, rode a bull at a gay rodeo, became a trapeze clown in a traveling circus of immigrants.
LeDuff also hosted and co-produced “United Gates of America” for the BBC in 2006 where he moved into a gated city at the edge of the Los Angeles sprawl. There, he encounters Nazi youth, a porno director, a Christian housewife, the town good-time girl, the angry Mexican gardener and other all-stars of American life.
He is the author of two books:
“Work and Other Sins: Life in New York City and Thereabouts” (Penguin Press)
“US Guys: The True and Twisted Mind of the American Man” (Penguin Press)
Previously, LeDuff, 42, has worked as a carpenter, middle school teacher and gang counselor in Detroit, a bartender in Australia and a baker in Denmark. He lived in a tree house in Alaska and slept on the Great Wall of China. He speaks decent Spanish and bad Russian.
LeDuff received a bachelor of arts degree in political science from the University of Michigan and a master of journalism degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
He lives with his wife and daughter near Detroit, Michigan.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 162 reviews
May 12, 2019
Szanuje LeDuffa za te książkę jeszcze bardziej niż za Detroit. Tak, pęka mu żyłka, tak, nie przebiera w słowach, jest jeszcze bardziej wkurzony.
Wyraził chyba wszystkie moje frustracje związane ze współczesnymi mediami (tymi old i tymi social), ich twórcami oraz ich odbiorcami.
Pokazuje jak ważna jest rzetelna, kompetentna informacja zdobyta i przekazana przez zawodowców. I co się dzieje, kiedy niknie w jeziorze bzdur.
Podpisano: dziennikarka.
P.S. A, No i nie wiedziałam, ze w Stanach istnieją ludzie, którzy żywią się wiewiórkami, bo na nic innego ich nie stać. Daje do myślenia.
Wyraził chyba wszystkie moje frustracje związane ze współczesnymi mediami (tymi old i tymi social), ich twórcami oraz ich odbiorcami.
Pokazuje jak ważna jest rzetelna, kompetentna informacja zdobyta i przekazana przez zawodowców. I co się dzieje, kiedy niknie w jeziorze bzdur.
Podpisano: dziennikarka.
P.S. A, No i nie wiedziałam, ze w Stanach istnieją ludzie, którzy żywią się wiewiórkami, bo na nic innego ich nie stać. Daje do myślenia.
May 8, 2018
The Insanity of Daily Life in America
Reporters are privileged. They get to talk to people in the street and at their homes. No one else can do that. They get to query politicians and corporate executives. They get to talk to the actors in standoffs, protests and riots. They visit people 20 years after their 15 minutes of fame in some crime or incident. They find out things that others can’t even imagine. And they have a platform to tell the world about it all.
Unfortunately, television news reporters like Charlie LeDuff then distill it down to a formulaic minute and a half, glossing over the truth and featuring any sort of violence as the main point (“If it bleeds, it ledes”). So the real truth doesn’t necessarily make it to air. A longer format show allowed him to fill in those details. Shitshow! follows him all over the country over the three years of the show. It made him into a war correspondent.
LeDuff describes himself as a “street reporter … The story was and always will be the American people scratching it out from Ferguson to Flint.” He proposed a series to Fox, his employer, that would be broadcast by its 18 owned major-market stations (as opposed to a cable network), and would focus on what was happening across the country at street level. He called it The Americans.
He found all kinds of commonalities on the street, including racism, frustration, boredom and above all poverty. The middle class had been melting away, as decent paying jobs became minimum wage (or less). The races clashed, but it was poverty that put them in that position. Even in North Dakota, where stories of fracking fortunes drew thousands north, he found pathetic poverty. Yes, some were making $100,000. But they were working the equivalent of three jobs to do it. And their expenses were enormous as everyone wanted a cut. And then there was government.
The government had betrayed everyone too many times to ever be trusted again. It cut their pay, crippled them with taxes, rolled back their pensions, took away social programs, robbed their tax dollars, kneecapped their unions and even poisoned their water. And if that weren’t enough, governments, in the form of police, were shooting at them.
As a journalist, LeDuff dug deep and was persistent, as well as creative. He got his stories, often at great risk to his own life and of his cameramen. He got into Cliven Bundy’s camp, and made it into Reynosa, Mexico, to talk to would-be emigrants. He was in Ferguson for the riots. And all the time, he was battling his employer Fox, which was redirecting his efforts, denying his expenses and calling him off when political pressure was applied. It was almost a race against not being able to complete the task. He quit the night Trump was elected, and has been writing this book ever since.
LeDuff is perceptive. On union-busting states, he points out there are only four non-union Volkswagen plants in the world: in Russia, China and Tennessee. Hypocrisy is a way of life in the USA. The everyday corruption is depressing. And Americans’ views are at best suspect: “The American is generally poorly instructed in his own history, not because it is especially difficult to learn, but rather because it is difficult to hear.” It all forms part of the shitshow he sees everywhere.
For a working definition of a shitshow, there is the story of a Detroit police sergeant, shot trying to stop a mad killer. In 20 years, he had never fired a shot on duty, and was both highly respected and effective. The police “brotherhood” and politicians took over his funeral and made the usual big deal of it, but his widow still had to pay for it. They promoted him posthumously to captain, but did not give the family a captain’s pension or benefits. They magnanimously extended his healthcare for the whole family, including his five year old son, but only for five years. Then they were on their own. That’s a shitshow.
Interestingly, while LeDuff looks like a Sean Penn, and writes like a Damon Runyon, he is actually largely black. He has a hard time filtering all the prejudice he sees, and is plainly disgusted with politicians as an entire class. The book is as breezy as his speech – street level, straight talking, and salty. It’s a reading pleasure that makes the content easier to take.
There is a running joke, at the expense of both Fox and officious security. Everywhere LeDuff went, he inevitably couldn’t complete his reporting without resorting to a fake Press ID he had assembled himself, printed and laminated to look official. It says “News Media Press Official Identification”. He had to kludge something together, because his Fox News employer wouldn’t issue them to the news team. It has his name, photo, and a barcode from a candy bar. It got him past absolutely everyone and in to see absolutely everyone. Again and again. For years. Another shitshow.
LeDuff is a fine storyteller, a hardworking journalist and an honest witness (with all the weaknesses of honest witnesses). I wouldn’t want him running the country (he actually recommended himself to Donald Trump as VP), but he’s a great one to have on your side.
David Wineberg
Reporters are privileged. They get to talk to people in the street and at their homes. No one else can do that. They get to query politicians and corporate executives. They get to talk to the actors in standoffs, protests and riots. They visit people 20 years after their 15 minutes of fame in some crime or incident. They find out things that others can’t even imagine. And they have a platform to tell the world about it all.
Unfortunately, television news reporters like Charlie LeDuff then distill it down to a formulaic minute and a half, glossing over the truth and featuring any sort of violence as the main point (“If it bleeds, it ledes”). So the real truth doesn’t necessarily make it to air. A longer format show allowed him to fill in those details. Shitshow! follows him all over the country over the three years of the show. It made him into a war correspondent.
LeDuff describes himself as a “street reporter … The story was and always will be the American people scratching it out from Ferguson to Flint.” He proposed a series to Fox, his employer, that would be broadcast by its 18 owned major-market stations (as opposed to a cable network), and would focus on what was happening across the country at street level. He called it The Americans.
He found all kinds of commonalities on the street, including racism, frustration, boredom and above all poverty. The middle class had been melting away, as decent paying jobs became minimum wage (or less). The races clashed, but it was poverty that put them in that position. Even in North Dakota, where stories of fracking fortunes drew thousands north, he found pathetic poverty. Yes, some were making $100,000. But they were working the equivalent of three jobs to do it. And their expenses were enormous as everyone wanted a cut. And then there was government.
The government had betrayed everyone too many times to ever be trusted again. It cut their pay, crippled them with taxes, rolled back their pensions, took away social programs, robbed their tax dollars, kneecapped their unions and even poisoned their water. And if that weren’t enough, governments, in the form of police, were shooting at them.
As a journalist, LeDuff dug deep and was persistent, as well as creative. He got his stories, often at great risk to his own life and of his cameramen. He got into Cliven Bundy’s camp, and made it into Reynosa, Mexico, to talk to would-be emigrants. He was in Ferguson for the riots. And all the time, he was battling his employer Fox, which was redirecting his efforts, denying his expenses and calling him off when political pressure was applied. It was almost a race against not being able to complete the task. He quit the night Trump was elected, and has been writing this book ever since.
LeDuff is perceptive. On union-busting states, he points out there are only four non-union Volkswagen plants in the world: in Russia, China and Tennessee. Hypocrisy is a way of life in the USA. The everyday corruption is depressing. And Americans’ views are at best suspect: “The American is generally poorly instructed in his own history, not because it is especially difficult to learn, but rather because it is difficult to hear.” It all forms part of the shitshow he sees everywhere.
For a working definition of a shitshow, there is the story of a Detroit police sergeant, shot trying to stop a mad killer. In 20 years, he had never fired a shot on duty, and was both highly respected and effective. The police “brotherhood” and politicians took over his funeral and made the usual big deal of it, but his widow still had to pay for it. They promoted him posthumously to captain, but did not give the family a captain’s pension or benefits. They magnanimously extended his healthcare for the whole family, including his five year old son, but only for five years. Then they were on their own. That’s a shitshow.
Interestingly, while LeDuff looks like a Sean Penn, and writes like a Damon Runyon, he is actually largely black. He has a hard time filtering all the prejudice he sees, and is plainly disgusted with politicians as an entire class. The book is as breezy as his speech – street level, straight talking, and salty. It’s a reading pleasure that makes the content easier to take.
There is a running joke, at the expense of both Fox and officious security. Everywhere LeDuff went, he inevitably couldn’t complete his reporting without resorting to a fake Press ID he had assembled himself, printed and laminated to look official. It says “News Media Press Official Identification”. He had to kludge something together, because his Fox News employer wouldn’t issue them to the news team. It has his name, photo, and a barcode from a candy bar. It got him past absolutely everyone and in to see absolutely everyone. Again and again. For years. Another shitshow.
LeDuff is a fine storyteller, a hardworking journalist and an honest witness (with all the weaknesses of honest witnesses). I wouldn’t want him running the country (he actually recommended himself to Donald Trump as VP), but he’s a great one to have on your side.
David Wineberg
May 15, 2020
The American is generally poorly instructed on the history of America, not because it is especially difficult to learn, but rather, because it is difficult to hear. (p. 95)
If you want to know why Donald Trump was elected in 2016, and why he may be re-elected in 2020, you have plenty of books to choose from, many written by distinguished scholars from prestigious universities. Or you could read Charlie LeDuff’s Sh*tshow, a blue-collar look at America by someone who actually spent time in the forgotten corners of the country where the exploited, ignored, and abandoned people live and barely scrape by, where resignation and rage alternate to the point that these people would vote for Hitler just because he was not another in the long line of arrogant, smooth-talking politicians who promise and promise and then deliver nothing. Substitute “Donald Trump” for “Hitler” and you get the idea. “Why not, [one man] said of Trump? Why not? Hillary came and pimped us and all we got was some bottled water. So why not let Trump come and pimp us out? Why not?” (p. 262)
I was surprised that the author had been employed by Fox, which doesn’t usually champion the underdog except to manipulate their anger and alienation. LeDuff doesn’t elaborate on this, but the events of the book happened during the Obama administration, and he was let go just as Trump was ascendant. Perhaps Fox was happy to use his reporting to ascribe the country’s misery to the Democrats, but found it an untenable position once the Republicans were back in power.
Economists speak of the hollowing out of the middle class, which has a nice dispassionate ring to it, but this book confronts the reality of lost jobs, lost security, and the vanishing hope that things will ever get better. Tell it to the guys sleeping in their trucks in minus 40 degree weather because they heard that decent jobs could be found in the fracking industry. Perhaps that was true once, at the beginning of the boom, for people willing to work 80-100 hours a week in dangerous conditions, but by the time LeDuff showed up there were half a dozen men for every job, burning up their remaining savings looking for work, and getting ripped off at every turn by people happy to exploit their desperation.
He turned up at Cliven Bundy’s 2014 standoff with the government, where the insurgents mostly come across as clueless or deluded, the kind of people who lie about having a military record to sound like big men. Even among these losers the driving motivation was rage. They had been screwed so often and for so long that even if they were not clear on the finer points of federal grazing rights law, they were willing to kill for Bundy’s interpretation of it. The federal government has been criticized for its hands-off approach to the incident, but in the end letting it end on its own terms probably saved lives.
LeDuff went to Texas and the border with Mexico, and found it in chaos. Obama had announced that the United States would not deport parents with children under sixteen, and across Latin America that was interpreted as amnesty for anyone who could get over the border with a kid. And so they came, swimming across the Rio Grande or paying smugglers for rides on Jet Skis or boats. Once they made it to the American side they were home free; they received food, medical care, a bus ticket to anywhere in the country they wanted to go, and a court date to plead their case, which 90% of them ignored. The Border Patrol, undermanned and aware that they were just being used as pawns in politicians’ games of political posturing, were only going through the motions of securing the border.
He went to Ferguson, Missouri after the killing of Michael Brown, and observed that the mostly white police department’s primary function seemed to be supporting the city’s bloated mostly white bureaucracy by issuing punitive fines to the mostly black population. He was there when the situation turned violent, made worse by cops playing soldier, armed with military hardware and secure in the knowledge that they would be immune to the consequences of their actions. And so the city exploded, and in the rioting blacks were just as willing to loot and burn Black owned businesses as White or Asian ones.
LeDuff himself is from Detroit, and the book's bitterest chapters deal with the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. National, state, and local politicians made promises, then made themselves unavailable after failing to follow through on those promises. Hundreds of millions of dollars were directed to politically connected contractors for projects that would not have worked and which were never completed anyway. Everyone piously claimed that they were there to help, but because most of Flint was poor and black, nobody really gave a rat’s ass about them being poisoned by their own government.
In the end the book is about the corruption of the American Dream. There is political and economic corruption by companies and political parties who have realized that they can act with impunity. There is also a deeper, more fundamental corruption, the corruption of hopes and dreams, where people have given up believing in a better future. The rich get richer and everyone else gets screwed. It was exactly this kind of polarization of wealth and power that attracted people to Communism a hundred years ago, and I would not be surprised to see Marx making a comeback in the near future.
If you want to know why Donald Trump was elected in 2016, and why he may be re-elected in 2020, you have plenty of books to choose from, many written by distinguished scholars from prestigious universities. Or you could read Charlie LeDuff’s Sh*tshow, a blue-collar look at America by someone who actually spent time in the forgotten corners of the country where the exploited, ignored, and abandoned people live and barely scrape by, where resignation and rage alternate to the point that these people would vote for Hitler just because he was not another in the long line of arrogant, smooth-talking politicians who promise and promise and then deliver nothing. Substitute “Donald Trump” for “Hitler” and you get the idea. “Why not, [one man] said of Trump? Why not? Hillary came and pimped us and all we got was some bottled water. So why not let Trump come and pimp us out? Why not?” (p. 262)
I was surprised that the author had been employed by Fox, which doesn’t usually champion the underdog except to manipulate their anger and alienation. LeDuff doesn’t elaborate on this, but the events of the book happened during the Obama administration, and he was let go just as Trump was ascendant. Perhaps Fox was happy to use his reporting to ascribe the country’s misery to the Democrats, but found it an untenable position once the Republicans were back in power.
Economists speak of the hollowing out of the middle class, which has a nice dispassionate ring to it, but this book confronts the reality of lost jobs, lost security, and the vanishing hope that things will ever get better. Tell it to the guys sleeping in their trucks in minus 40 degree weather because they heard that decent jobs could be found in the fracking industry. Perhaps that was true once, at the beginning of the boom, for people willing to work 80-100 hours a week in dangerous conditions, but by the time LeDuff showed up there were half a dozen men for every job, burning up their remaining savings looking for work, and getting ripped off at every turn by people happy to exploit their desperation.
He turned up at Cliven Bundy’s 2014 standoff with the government, where the insurgents mostly come across as clueless or deluded, the kind of people who lie about having a military record to sound like big men. Even among these losers the driving motivation was rage. They had been screwed so often and for so long that even if they were not clear on the finer points of federal grazing rights law, they were willing to kill for Bundy’s interpretation of it. The federal government has been criticized for its hands-off approach to the incident, but in the end letting it end on its own terms probably saved lives.
LeDuff went to Texas and the border with Mexico, and found it in chaos. Obama had announced that the United States would not deport parents with children under sixteen, and across Latin America that was interpreted as amnesty for anyone who could get over the border with a kid. And so they came, swimming across the Rio Grande or paying smugglers for rides on Jet Skis or boats. Once they made it to the American side they were home free; they received food, medical care, a bus ticket to anywhere in the country they wanted to go, and a court date to plead their case, which 90% of them ignored. The Border Patrol, undermanned and aware that they were just being used as pawns in politicians’ games of political posturing, were only going through the motions of securing the border.
He went to Ferguson, Missouri after the killing of Michael Brown, and observed that the mostly white police department’s primary function seemed to be supporting the city’s bloated mostly white bureaucracy by issuing punitive fines to the mostly black population. He was there when the situation turned violent, made worse by cops playing soldier, armed with military hardware and secure in the knowledge that they would be immune to the consequences of their actions. And so the city exploded, and in the rioting blacks were just as willing to loot and burn Black owned businesses as White or Asian ones.
LeDuff himself is from Detroit, and the book's bitterest chapters deal with the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. National, state, and local politicians made promises, then made themselves unavailable after failing to follow through on those promises. Hundreds of millions of dollars were directed to politically connected contractors for projects that would not have worked and which were never completed anyway. Everyone piously claimed that they were there to help, but because most of Flint was poor and black, nobody really gave a rat’s ass about them being poisoned by their own government.
In the end the book is about the corruption of the American Dream. There is political and economic corruption by companies and political parties who have realized that they can act with impunity. There is also a deeper, more fundamental corruption, the corruption of hopes and dreams, where people have given up believing in a better future. The rich get richer and everyone else gets screwed. It was exactly this kind of polarization of wealth and power that attracted people to Communism a hundred years ago, and I would not be surprised to see Marx making a comeback in the near future.
July 6, 2022
From Pulitzer Prize winner best selling author Charlie LeDuff who previously wrote Detroit: An Autopsy, comes a new book about what he sees as the crumbling of America. In this book he travels the heart of America including to Ferguson, the border with Mexico, the Clive Bundy ranch, Flint water pollution, and many more and interviews a representative mix of people to explain and maybe gain some understanding of what is happening. As with his previous writings, he is blunt and pulls no punches but usually gets to the core of issues facing America today. He also seems to present things in a fair and evenhanded way such that I don’t agree with everything he writes here but still found it thought provoking. May not be for everyone, but if you’ve read any of his previous works, you'll know what to expect.
February 13, 2022
Shitshow nie trafił mnie tak mocno, jak zrobiło Detroit. Głównie dlatego, że już wiedziałem, czego mogę się po LeDuffie spodziewać i byłem mentalnie przygotowany na nasze drugie spotkanie. Popatrzyłem sobie na reportaże, które robił dla lokalnego oddziału Foxa – warto, bo to kanwa spisanych w Shitsow historii, poza tym z łatwością da się je znaleźć na YouTubie. Posłuchałem wywiadów z nim, zobaczyłem, jak reporter gada, ubiera się, gestykuluje, w jakiś sposób oswoiłem sobie go.
Chociaż reportaże są bardzo przygnębiające, bo traktują o beznadziei ludzi zbędnych dla globalnej gospodarki, których na co dzień polityczny establishment ma w dupie, to jednak dzięki pomysłowości, odwadze i werwie LeDuffa, czyta się je świetnie. Reporter na swój błazeński, prostacki sposób, jest w stanie zawsze trafić w sedno problemu, a dzięki temu, że nie jest jedynie biernym obserwatorem - często angażując się w opisywane historie – roznieca na nowo iskierkę wiary w dziennikarski etos.
LeDuff batoży wszystkich równo, niezależnie od koloru skóry, wyznania, czy poglądów politycznych. Równie mocno znęca się nad wszystkimi przedstawicielami establishmentu: Hillary Clinton, Donaldem Trumpem, Tedem Cruzem (taki prawicowy senator) i robiącym im wszystkim dobrze mediom z wielkich miast, które żyją z tego Shitshow.
Czy LeDuff za bardzo nie idzie w tym wszystkim w populizm? Ciężko stwierdzić. Na pewno za pomocą małych historii stara się dać czytelnikowi szerszy ogląd rzeczywistości. Warto jednak pamiętać przy (wszystkich) reportażach, że dziennikarstwo to nie nauka, a żaden reportaż, choćby nie wiem jak mocno, nas wzruszał, czy oburzał, nie musi być „prawdą obiektywną” - straszny banał, wiem, ale w dzisiejszych czasach (ugh!) ludzie zbyt często traktują swój punkt widzenia, za jedyną opcję.
Chociaż reportaże są bardzo przygnębiające, bo traktują o beznadziei ludzi zbędnych dla globalnej gospodarki, których na co dzień polityczny establishment ma w dupie, to jednak dzięki pomysłowości, odwadze i werwie LeDuffa, czyta się je świetnie. Reporter na swój błazeński, prostacki sposób, jest w stanie zawsze trafić w sedno problemu, a dzięki temu, że nie jest jedynie biernym obserwatorem - często angażując się w opisywane historie – roznieca na nowo iskierkę wiary w dziennikarski etos.
LeDuff batoży wszystkich równo, niezależnie od koloru skóry, wyznania, czy poglądów politycznych. Równie mocno znęca się nad wszystkimi przedstawicielami establishmentu: Hillary Clinton, Donaldem Trumpem, Tedem Cruzem (taki prawicowy senator) i robiącym im wszystkim dobrze mediom z wielkich miast, które żyją z tego Shitshow.
Czy LeDuff za bardzo nie idzie w tym wszystkim w populizm? Ciężko stwierdzić. Na pewno za pomocą małych historii stara się dać czytelnikowi szerszy ogląd rzeczywistości. Warto jednak pamiętać przy (wszystkich) reportażach, że dziennikarstwo to nie nauka, a żaden reportaż, choćby nie wiem jak mocno, nas wzruszał, czy oburzał, nie musi być „prawdą obiektywną” - straszny banał, wiem, ale w dzisiejszych czasach (ugh!) ludzie zbyt często traktują swój punkt widzenia, za jedyną opcję.
September 1, 2019
Niestety LeDuff nie jest dla mnie rzetelny, nie przekonuje mnie. Obraz sypiących się Stanów, biedy i niemocy, rasizmu i korupcji jest przerażający. A ego LeDuffa miejscami jest większe niż wszystkie stany, które zjechał pisząc ten reportaż. Miejscami wydaje mu się, że jest super-ekstra-bohaterem-kaskaderem, wydumane pościgi, awantury i bójki. Czy aby naprawdę-naprawdę to miało miejsce, czy to tylko wyobraźnia LeDuffa, który już niejednokrotnie pokazywał, że ściemniać i plagiatować to potrafi jak mało kto.
Reportaż jest przytłoczony jego obecnością, którą podkreśla na każdej stronie. To takie trochę Charliego przygody w Ameryce niż solidne pisanie.
2,5
Reportaż jest przytłoczony jego obecnością, którą podkreśla na każdej stronie. To takie trochę Charliego przygody w Ameryce niż solidne pisanie.
2,5
July 20, 2019
Stany Zjednoczone LeDuffa są dalekie od sielskości amerykańskich przedmieść pokazywanej w serialach z lat 90, przypominają bardziej zbiorowisko slumsów, obrazy znane raczej z Ameryki Południowej, jak tej Północnej. To ludzie od których odwraca się państwo, które nadal segreguje swoich obywateli, które skazuje ich na picie zatrutej wody, bądź odłącza od jakiejkolwiek, ludzie żyjący w pustostanach, bez prądu i podstawowych świadczeń, zdeklasowani przez nieudane kredyty, pozbawieni funduszy emerytalnych...a jednocześnie obawiający się emigrantów zza południowej granicy. Pokazuje jak żyzny jest to grunt dla haseł tych, którzy znów obiecują Amerykę wielką.
Bardzo gorzki obraz szczególnie elit politycznych.
(autor to kawał su...syna.)
Bardzo gorzki obraz szczególnie elit politycznych.
(autor to kawał su...syna.)
September 15, 2022
Świetny reportaż, napisany charakterystycznym dla LeDuffa ulicznym językiem. Ogromne brawa dla tłumaczki, Kai Gucio, której udało się osiągnąć efekt naturalności tych wszystkich przekleństw oraz oddać swobodę opowieści reportera w naszym rodzimym języku. Książkę naprawdę czyta się tak, jakby została napisana po polsku.
LeDuff pokazuje Amerykę jako kraj z kartonu, jeździ do miejsc wykluczonych, zapomnianych, brudnych i w kryzysie. Bardzo dużo się dowiedziałam, bardzo polecam.
LeDuff pokazuje Amerykę jako kraj z kartonu, jeździ do miejsc wykluczonych, zapomnianych, brudnych i w kryzysie. Bardzo dużo się dowiedziałam, bardzo polecam.
September 5, 2019
Daje obraz, autor wydaje się b. sympatyczny, ale na ten temat wolę jednak Obcego we własnym kraju. Hochshild.
June 25, 2019
Dużo tutaj dobrego, kiedy już czytelnik przyzwyczai się do megalomańskiego stylu LeDuffa, gdzie zawsze to on jest w centrum uwagi. Mnie to absolutnie nie przeszkadza, a wręcz doceniam reportera uprawiającego współczesne gonzo, nieudającego obiektywizmu i mówiącego o rzeczywistości tak, jak ją widzi. Co prawda wiąże się z tym duże ryzyko, że zacznie "mówić, jak jest", i rzeczywiście w jego pisaniu na wkurwie dużo jest populizmu, ale także szczerości, bo kiedy autor na coś się nie godzi, to z przekonaniem daje temu wyraz. Książka największe wrażenie robi w początkowych stadiach, kiedy jeszcze piorunuje nas nie tylko treść, ale i styl (brawurowe tłumaczenie Kai Gucio, momentami naprawdę czapki z głów! - zdarza jej się jechać po bandzie, ale zawsze w interesie wierności duchowi LeDuffa). Potem z czasem dociera do nas, że rzecz nie jest aż tak odkrywcza, jak udaje, że o większości tych problemów już gdzieś czytaliśmy, a temat degrengolady mediów nie jest jednak aż tak zajmujący. Niemniej - bardzo dobra lektura, która i wkurzy, i rozbawi, i zaintryguje.
June 5, 2018
I highly recommend watching his Americans videos on YouTube. Really funny and worth ten books about America by most writers. How come only people from the Midwest know what is going on (or how to write) these days?
Soundtrack by The Soledad Brothers, from Maumee. Check out their videos too.
Soundtrack by The Soledad Brothers, from Maumee. Check out their videos too.
August 24, 2019
Gdyby, poza już od co najmniej kilku lat wałkowanymi oczywistościami, LeDuff wysilił się na głębszą diagnozę społeczną...
Gdyby LeDuff, zamiast obwoływać się dziennikarzem, który przewidział to, tamto, i jeszcze tamto, i tamto też, faktycznie napisał coś wybiegającego w przyszłość...
Gdyby LeDuff w tak ciekawym temacie, czy właściwie pakiecie zagadnień, nie zdecydował się na "dziennikarstwo 120% gonzo"...
Jeśli tylko LeDuff pozbyłby się maniery czynienia z siebie głównego bohatera akcji...
To byłby naprawdę dobry reportaż.
A tak jak jest, to przeczytałem niezły, wciągający materiał, ale zachwianie proporcji na rzecz ego autora, powoduje, że mechanizmy powodujące frustrację społeczną schodzą na dalszy plan i pozostało mi wrażenie przeczytania relacji z pełnej niby-przygód niby-buntowniczej wyprawy. Pan-dziennikarz-gwiazda-rocka robi tournee i pokaże nam prawdziwe-oblicze-Ameryki-jakiego-komercyjne-stacje-nam-nie -pokażą.
Gdyby LeDuff, zamiast obwoływać się dziennikarzem, który przewidział to, tamto, i jeszcze tamto, i tamto też, faktycznie napisał coś wybiegającego w przyszłość...
Gdyby LeDuff w tak ciekawym temacie, czy właściwie pakiecie zagadnień, nie zdecydował się na "dziennikarstwo 120% gonzo"...
Jeśli tylko LeDuff pozbyłby się maniery czynienia z siebie głównego bohatera akcji...
To byłby naprawdę dobry reportaż.
A tak jak jest, to przeczytałem niezły, wciągający materiał, ale zachwianie proporcji na rzecz ego autora, powoduje, że mechanizmy powodujące frustrację społeczną schodzą na dalszy plan i pozostało mi wrażenie przeczytania relacji z pełnej niby-przygód niby-buntowniczej wyprawy. Pan-dziennikarz-gwiazda-rocka robi tournee i pokaże nam prawdziwe-oblicze-Ameryki-jakiego-komercyjne-stacje-nam-nie -pokażą.
March 31, 2021
Charlie LeDuff się nie pierdoli, że tak to ładnie ujmę. Dosadnie, szczerze i z całą brutalnością obnaża to, co przez ostatnie lata buzowało w amerykańskim społeczeństwie i doprowadziło do wygranej Trumpa. Język, jak na LeDuffa przystało, jest niewyparzony, ale oddaje towarzyszące mu emocje.
Ameryka to dziwny kraj, trudno więc odmówić słuszności LeDuffowi, który pisze: "W Ameryce zapanowała chujoza, ale możemy jeszcze to naprawić. Ameryka jest największym eksperymentem w historii ludzkości, narodem złożonym z plemion, które usiłują przezwyciężyć odwieczne instynkty, społeczeństwem, które rozwija się poprzez rozum, a nie wyniszcza przemocą". Książka wyszła w 2018 roku (u nas w 2019), więc biorąc pod uwagę to, co się zdarzyło w przeciągu tych dwóch/trzech lat śmiało można powiedzieć, że teraz Ameryka "wyniszcza się przemocą". Pytanie, czy faktycznie uda jej się to naprawić...
P. S.: Tłumaczka Kaja Gucio odwaliła kawał dobrej roboty.
Ameryka to dziwny kraj, trudno więc odmówić słuszności LeDuffowi, który pisze: "W Ameryce zapanowała chujoza, ale możemy jeszcze to naprawić. Ameryka jest największym eksperymentem w historii ludzkości, narodem złożonym z plemion, które usiłują przezwyciężyć odwieczne instynkty, społeczeństwem, które rozwija się poprzez rozum, a nie wyniszcza przemocą". Książka wyszła w 2018 roku (u nas w 2019), więc biorąc pod uwagę to, co się zdarzyło w przeciągu tych dwóch/trzech lat śmiało można powiedzieć, że teraz Ameryka "wyniszcza się przemocą". Pytanie, czy faktycznie uda jej się to naprawić...
P. S.: Tłumaczka Kaja Gucio odwaliła kawał dobrej roboty.
Read
November 20, 2020"My, reporterzy, rzadko zadajemy pytania o tę opuszczoną szkołę: dlaczego ciągle tam stoi albo dlaczego dzieci się nie uczą. Albo dlaczego policji nie udało się aresztować ani Misia, ani Pysia, ani nawet ustalić ich prawdziwych nazwisk. Albo dlaczego broń można kupić równie łatwo co gumę do żucia. Takie pytania tylko komplikują sprawy. Spowalniają cały proces. Przez nie kasa się nie zgadza [...]
Oglądając telewizję, można pomyśleć, że całe miasto krwawi."
"Trump to inna para kaloszy. Ilekroć kłamał, przesadzał, szydził, groził lub porównywał kolegę republikanina do pedofila, kapitanowie tonących statków medialnych obserwowali, jak rosną im statystyki kliknięć i oglądalności. Biznes to biznes. Statek płynął dalej. Postanowili zrobić z tego Donald Trump Show"
"W Ameryce istnieje problem klasowy, ale media najwyraźniej ze wszystkich sił starają się widzieć tylko stereotypy i odcień skóry."
"Skąd miałem wiedzieć, że powinieniem był potraktować ten shitshow poważnie?"
Stany kojarzy się z Broadwayu, licznych "[tu wstaw nazwisko] Show" puszczanych w kablówkach i z Hollywood. Ale chyba nie jest się świadomym, że tam wszystko zostaje podniesione do rangi widowiska. Żadna zasada w systemie nie ma na celu czegokolwiek uporządkować - wszystko ma nadać dramaturgii, zachwytu, teatralności. Normalni ludzie się nie liczą, relacja na własne oczy też nie - status nadaje to, na co składają się piksele. A im więcej pikseli się włączy na przestrzeni kraju tym lepszy jest temat, więc tym dłużej warto go ciągnąć. Nawet jeżeli ceną za to są cztery lata pod obcasem pomarańczki.
Ale chyba najważniejszym, co wyciągnęłam z tego reportażu, jest jedna teza - Ameryka nie istnieje. To szalony sen majaczącego w gorączce, a tym majaczącym jesteśmy my.
Nie wierzę że tak pokichany kraj naprawdę gdzieś tam jest. Nie przekonacie mnie.
Oglądając telewizję, można pomyśleć, że całe miasto krwawi."
"Trump to inna para kaloszy. Ilekroć kłamał, przesadzał, szydził, groził lub porównywał kolegę republikanina do pedofila, kapitanowie tonących statków medialnych obserwowali, jak rosną im statystyki kliknięć i oglądalności. Biznes to biznes. Statek płynął dalej. Postanowili zrobić z tego Donald Trump Show"
"W Ameryce istnieje problem klasowy, ale media najwyraźniej ze wszystkich sił starają się widzieć tylko stereotypy i odcień skóry."
"Skąd miałem wiedzieć, że powinieniem był potraktować ten shitshow poważnie?"
Stany kojarzy się z Broadwayu, licznych "[tu wstaw nazwisko] Show" puszczanych w kablówkach i z Hollywood. Ale chyba nie jest się świadomym, że tam wszystko zostaje podniesione do rangi widowiska. Żadna zasada w systemie nie ma na celu czegokolwiek uporządkować - wszystko ma nadać dramaturgii, zachwytu, teatralności. Normalni ludzie się nie liczą, relacja na własne oczy też nie - status nadaje to, na co składają się piksele. A im więcej pikseli się włączy na przestrzeni kraju tym lepszy jest temat, więc tym dłużej warto go ciągnąć. Nawet jeżeli ceną za to są cztery lata pod obcasem pomarańczki.
Ale chyba najważniejszym, co wyciągnęłam z tego reportażu, jest jedna teza - Ameryka nie istnieje. To szalony sen majaczącego w gorączce, a tym majaczącym jesteśmy my.
Nie wierzę że tak pokichany kraj naprawdę gdzieś tam jest. Nie przekonacie mnie.
April 21, 2024
Na co dzień słuchamy osób ważnych i ważniejszych. Tu w telewizji wypowie się ekspert, tam jakiś inny specjalista. Z reguły opieramy swoje poglądy na jego zdaniu. Autor postanowił odejść od tego schematu, zabrał ze sobą ekipę telewizyjną i wyruszył w podróż po Stanach Zjednoczonych, by rozmawiać z typowymi zjadaczami chleba. Okazuje się, że tematów jak i ludzi do wysłuchania jest całkiem sporo. Spotkamy osoby przygniecione ciężarem długów i brakiem nadziei na sensowną pracę, która zapewni godny byt. Ludzi, którzy musieli podejmować drastyczne decyzje, by wyjść z trudnej sytuacji. Ludzi, którzy uciekali z innego kraju z nadzieją na ten słynny amerykański sen, a zderzyli się z brutalną i bezwzględną rzeczywistością. Ludzi obserwujących dokąd zmierza cała ta polityka oraz liczących na to, że coś po następnych wyborach prezydenckich zmieni się na ich korzyść. Ludzi mierzących się z codziennością, najczęściej oznaczającą, że bogaty nie zbiednieje, a biednemu jeszcze zabiorą. Przejdziemy przez nierówność, niesprawiedliwość, łapówkarstwo, oszustwo, kombinatorstwo, walki rasowe i inne problemy, które dotykają współczesną Amerykę.
Styl autora jest dosyć specyficzny, więc wymaga trochę od nas "czułości", żeby wejść na te zakrzywione tory. Tematy są trafne oraz bardzo aktualne, ale zabrakło mi pewnych elementów, które mogłyby dopełnić całość - jakaś statystyka, głębsza obserwacja, lepsza analiza. Autor raczej powierzchownie opisuje problemy i zdecydowanie często czułam niedosyt, który chciałam uzupełnić jakimś trafnym podsumowaniem, bądź liczbami.
3 gwiazdki ode mnie.
Styl autora jest dosyć specyficzny, więc wymaga trochę od nas "czułości", żeby wejść na te zakrzywione tory. Tematy są trafne oraz bardzo aktualne, ale zabrakło mi pewnych elementów, które mogłyby dopełnić całość - jakaś statystyka, głębsza obserwacja, lepsza analiza. Autor raczej powierzchownie opisuje problemy i zdecydowanie często czułam niedosyt, który chciałam uzupełnić jakimś trafnym podsumowaniem, bądź liczbami.
3 gwiazdki ode mnie.
September 3, 2019
Smutna opowieść o tym, jak okropnym miejscem do życia jest USA. Warto przyswoić w pakiecie z serialem "The Loudest Voice".
January 21, 2025
przez to że czytałam już tą książkę o detroit to trochę wątków się powtarzało, niektóre rozdziały zbyt krótkie i trochę porozrzucane a ocena książki: amerykanie to są tacy debile że mimo tylu przeczytanych książek o stanach dalej jestem pod wrażeniem
August 23, 2018
A very deeply distressing look at the collapse of the American middle class. The author makes the point that the talking head media are not talking with people which is why the Trump disaster took them by surprise. When you DO talk to real people struggling, you feel the white-hot rage at the screwing from the 1%. Who are these desperate angry people? They are unarmed black people shot in the back, ex-middle class whites shooting varments to eat, and desperate NAFTA refugees on both sides of the lawless Mexican border trying to survive, they are auto workers who don't dare vote for a union lest they see the factory move to Mexico. They don't care that Trump is a lying racist autocrat, if he burns down the obviously-corrupt power structure that is literally killing them, voters feel some sort of power. More of the same happy-talk platitude-riddled Kabuki-theatre politics as usual just won't cut it for the guy sleeping in his truck at the oil sands operation in North Dakota with the hope he will get a job - it won't cut it for the people in Baltimore and Chicago who see their kids killing each other in the street - it won't cut it for the people in Flint, Michigan who see toxic waste pouring out of their faucets for which they are still being billed. The big money has seized the government and it will unfeelingly turn a profit on the backs of Americans, black or white, rich or poor and it is costing people their families, their homes. their jobs and sometimes their lives. No one cares. No wonder they're pissed off.
June 6, 2018
This book is a sad commentary on our country's fading middle class. Before this read, I believed journalists no longer existed. I mean the ones who go out in the real world and dig into stuff that isn't necessarily safe or uplifting and actually do their fact-checking. Well, here's a real journalist who doesn't just spout "talking points." Reading the reviews, I saw many people thought this book was disjointed, but I have to disagree. I found it an easy read, and I understood he was going from one spot to another and why. He doesn't expose that he's a republican or democrat ( although some may put the republican label on him because he works for Fox News on the local level). I think this is a good book for people on all "sides" to read. His entire expose' on the water issue in Flint, Michigan is a microcosm of what's wrong in our country today. Our government doesn't see the anger and despair, nor do they see how money in the bureaucracy is funneled and stolen -- time and time again. I highly recommend that those who never leave their safe bubble read this. Perhaps they'd even go out into the "real" world after reading this. Just hoping, that's all. I recommend this to everyone.
October 16, 2019
Moje ocena jest radykalna. Książka może i by zasługiwała na więcej, ale styl w jakiej jest to napisane woła o pomste do nieba. Chaos, brak spójności i można by tak do samego rana wymieniać. Umiejętność opisywania zdarzeń nie została przekazana autorowi. Dopiero ostatnie 20/30 stron książki ma jakąś narrację, w której człowiek się nie gubi.
Dwie gwiazdki zamiast jednej za szczerość przekazu i wskazanie realnych problemów. Umiejętność przebicia stereotypowego myślenia. Nalezy cenić to, że ktoś potrafi napisać, że nie tylko czarni w Ameryce mają źle i, że nie tylko biali są rasistami.
Dwie gwiazdki zamiast jednej za szczerość przekazu i wskazanie realnych problemów. Umiejętność przebicia stereotypowego myślenia. Nalezy cenić to, że ktoś potrafi napisać, że nie tylko czarni w Ameryce mają źle i, że nie tylko biali są rasistami.
March 16, 2021
Słyszałam wiele dobrego o stylu pisania tego pana, tymczasem zupełnie mnie swoją lekturą nie porwał . Nie jestem jakąś wielką znawczynią tematyki związanej z USA, ale też niewiele nowego się z tej książki dowiedziałam, bo pełna jest po prostu nazwisk i dość dennie opisanych afer, które wydarzyły się w kolejnych stanach. Chyba miało być zabawnie, ale ja nie przypominam sobie, żebym zaśmiała sie w którymkolwiek momencie, raczej męczyłam się żeby doczytać do końca.
August 19, 2023
Would it hurt this man to interview some more women for his books. He emphasises that he is a „street” reporter and okay fine most of the people he likes to talk to are congressmen, mayors, councilmen, so mostly men, but like come on he claims to focus on the ones no one listens to in this one. There are women among factory workers and office workers, cleaners, homemakers, single employed mothers and migrants. They are a big absence in this book save for two or three exceptions. Other than that it was an okay read
July 9, 2025
podoba mi się że skupia się na problemach społecznych o których aż tyle nie wiemy zamiast stricte na polityce i tych tematach o których wiemy z mediów
April 25, 2021
strasznie przeszkadzało mi, że we wszystkich historiach, które leduff opowiada jest on głównym bohaterem i pisze w niesamowicie megalomański sposób - jakby on pierwszy zauważył, że w usa nie dzieje się dobrze, ale teraz na szczęście opowie o tym światu i w ten sposób zbawi cały kraj.
plus, wkurzyły mnie teksty, że "ameryka ma problem klasowy, nie rasowy", jakby wcale oba nie mogły współistnieć.
plus, wkurzyły mnie teksty, że "ameryka ma problem klasowy, nie rasowy", jakby wcale oba nie mogły współistnieć.
June 15, 2018
(Audible) Read by the author
Peel back the blinders.
TV News is as culpable in the disintegration of informed debate as the instant gratification anonymous social media is. The quest for ratings drives what stories are covered, how they are covered and how they are sometimes egged on and created.
With a verbal nimbleness of a rapper, Charlie LeDuff reports what he sees and experiences on the ground, in "real" middle America. How and why did Donald Trump capture the loyalty of so many Americans? Who are these people? What drives them? Was Charlie surprised by the rise of Trump? Nope.
Charlie can be a little full of himself and he can come across as a ballsy bullshitter at times but there's a free spirited, no holds barred point of view from someone who has often been in front of the camera reporting too. He puts himself in precarious situations. He knows what you have to do to create spectacle and get air time.
His dislike of the pancake makeup prima donnas that swoop in to report on tragedy from a sheltered tent well out of harm's way is particularly enjoyable. His verbal virtuosity shines best when taking on the arrogant upper class of network TV anchors and special reporters.
The tail of the book seemed a little rushed, and not quite as polished as the first 2/3rds. Must be deadlines. Must be a fear that Trump would be arrested or impeached before the book could make it to market.
That said, it's a good read.
Recommend.
Peel back the blinders.
TV News is as culpable in the disintegration of informed debate as the instant gratification anonymous social media is. The quest for ratings drives what stories are covered, how they are covered and how they are sometimes egged on and created.
With a verbal nimbleness of a rapper, Charlie LeDuff reports what he sees and experiences on the ground, in "real" middle America. How and why did Donald Trump capture the loyalty of so many Americans? Who are these people? What drives them? Was Charlie surprised by the rise of Trump? Nope.
Charlie can be a little full of himself and he can come across as a ballsy bullshitter at times but there's a free spirited, no holds barred point of view from someone who has often been in front of the camera reporting too. He puts himself in precarious situations. He knows what you have to do to create spectacle and get air time.
His dislike of the pancake makeup prima donnas that swoop in to report on tragedy from a sheltered tent well out of harm's way is particularly enjoyable. His verbal virtuosity shines best when taking on the arrogant upper class of network TV anchors and special reporters.
The tail of the book seemed a little rushed, and not quite as polished as the first 2/3rds. Must be deadlines. Must be a fear that Trump would be arrested or impeached before the book could make it to market.
That said, it's a good read.
Recommend.
September 3, 2018
The movie (well, video - TV + youtube) is so much better. If Johnny Depp were to watch a little Charlie Manson and then create a rogue reporter character, it would fall far short of what the real Charlie in LeDuff deliver on screen.
He brings a "Moonlighting" approach to reporting, and he surely is willing to stick his head in the lion's mouth. His BS detector works fantastically, and he's got Detroit cred for way more than 8 miles. So that was a marriage made in Motown, unfortunately as the political scandals seemed to be built on assembly lines.
If authenticity is the thing that VR/Hollywood/Washington want to synthesize now, then Charlie bottled his from the waters of the Rouge River and the Rio Grande. If it comes with particles of plagiarism, so be it. I wonder if he's really just amplifying good stories that got started elsewhere. I hope so. Seems he's on hiatus now.
The book is alright, but it pales to the real deal, the Charlie Show.
While waiting for its next transmission, maybe check out this one - (not one of the fine Fox episodes, but as always a solid take ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_iTh...
He brings a "Moonlighting" approach to reporting, and he surely is willing to stick his head in the lion's mouth. His BS detector works fantastically, and he's got Detroit cred for way more than 8 miles. So that was a marriage made in Motown, unfortunately as the political scandals seemed to be built on assembly lines.
If authenticity is the thing that VR/Hollywood/Washington want to synthesize now, then Charlie bottled his from the waters of the Rouge River and the Rio Grande. If it comes with particles of plagiarism, so be it. I wonder if he's really just amplifying good stories that got started elsewhere. I hope so. Seems he's on hiatus now.
The book is alright, but it pales to the real deal, the Charlie Show.
While waiting for its next transmission, maybe check out this one - (not one of the fine Fox episodes, but as always a solid take ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_iTh...
February 17, 2019
I really enjoyed some parts of the book, classic LeDuff railing against the man. But thought it far too simplistic when criticizing subjects, to Charlie everyone’s equally bad, which simply isn’t true. Easy read and worth your time.
August 19, 2019
Wysoce cyniczne i krytyczne studium sytuacji w Ameryce. To jak rozcinanie czyraka, z którego wylewa się ropa... Polecam!!
February 27, 2022
This is the second part of my little project called "FOR FUCK'S SAKE, ZOSIA, YOU CAN'T HAVE EIGHTEEN BOOKS ON YOUR CURRENTLY-READING SHELF, DO SOMETHING WITH IT".
I started reading this book back in 2019 (!!!!!!!) right after coming back home from US. I had previously read LeDuff's "Detroit" and it was important read for 15 yo me and my blossoming political views. I don't even remember why I abandoned "Shitshow!" because it seemed like a book made for me.
I have very strong opinions on America. I believe that American experiment was a fine idea but one that failed. Sometimes I almost think they should burn the whole country to the ground and start from scratch. But save national parks, they're great.
"Shitshow!" shows the seedy underbelly of US (is it seedy underbelly? or is that just US?), shows problems of this country, shows the reasons why Trump happened. LeDuff's is a great narrator, funny, vulgar, angry when needed, really no-nonsence.
I think that this book would have been a lot more impactful for me, had I actually finished it in 2019. At this moment in my life, in 2022 I'm much more aware of the problems LeDuff touch on in this book so there's very little that's new to me. Nevertheless, it was still worth reading even just for LeDuff's snarky sense of humour.
Lastly, as always, the more I know about America, the more relieved I am to be European.
I started reading this book back in 2019 (!!!!!!!) right after coming back home from US. I had previously read LeDuff's "Detroit" and it was important read for 15 yo me and my blossoming political views. I don't even remember why I abandoned "Shitshow!" because it seemed like a book made for me.
I have very strong opinions on America. I believe that American experiment was a fine idea but one that failed. Sometimes I almost think they should burn the whole country to the ground and start from scratch. But save national parks, they're great.
"Shitshow!" shows the seedy underbelly of US (is it seedy underbelly? or is that just US?), shows problems of this country, shows the reasons why Trump happened. LeDuff's is a great narrator, funny, vulgar, angry when needed, really no-nonsence.
I think that this book would have been a lot more impactful for me, had I actually finished it in 2019. At this moment in my life, in 2022 I'm much more aware of the problems LeDuff touch on in this book so there's very little that's new to me. Nevertheless, it was still worth reading even just for LeDuff's snarky sense of humour.
Lastly, as always, the more I know about America, the more relieved I am to be European.
July 29, 2023
2,5 zaokrąglone niematematycznie ;)
Długo się wahałam, na jaką ocenę zasługuje ta pozycja i wydaje mi się, że połowa skali będzie tutaj w sam raz.
W reportażach bardzo lubię, kiedy autor gdzieś się chowa i nie wysuwa na pierwszy plan. Tutaj natomiast było wprost inaczej, co więcej, nie przypadła mi do gustu osobowość autora i jego wulgarny język. Poza tym wyczuwałam też próby pokazania jego „męskości”, co dodatkowo mnie zniechęcało.
Co do fabuły, czasem się wciągałam, czasem i nie, chociaż to wszystko, co się działo szczególnie mnie nie szokowało. Może to przez niedawną lekturę „Polska odwraca oczy” Kopińskiej, gdzie to uświadomiłam sobie, że po Shitshow nie trzeba jechać do Stanów. Nie trzeba nawet opuszczać granic naszego kraju.
Muszę jednak przyznać na plus, że dzięki tej książce bardziej zrozumiałam, jak doszło do tego, że Trump został prezydentem, co pomogło mi otworzyć oczy na rzeczywistość. Wyłonił się krajobraz kraju pogrążonego w chaosie, który zgoła różni się od tego z hollywoodzkich filmów.
Długo się wahałam, na jaką ocenę zasługuje ta pozycja i wydaje mi się, że połowa skali będzie tutaj w sam raz.
W reportażach bardzo lubię, kiedy autor gdzieś się chowa i nie wysuwa na pierwszy plan. Tutaj natomiast było wprost inaczej, co więcej, nie przypadła mi do gustu osobowość autora i jego wulgarny język. Poza tym wyczuwałam też próby pokazania jego „męskości”, co dodatkowo mnie zniechęcało.
Co do fabuły, czasem się wciągałam, czasem i nie, chociaż to wszystko, co się działo szczególnie mnie nie szokowało. Może to przez niedawną lekturę „Polska odwraca oczy” Kopińskiej, gdzie to uświadomiłam sobie, że po Shitshow nie trzeba jechać do Stanów. Nie trzeba nawet opuszczać granic naszego kraju.
Muszę jednak przyznać na plus, że dzięki tej książce bardziej zrozumiałam, jak doszło do tego, że Trump został prezydentem, co pomogło mi otworzyć oczy na rzeczywistość. Wyłonił się krajobraz kraju pogrążonego w chaosie, który zgoła różni się od tego z hollywoodzkich filmów.
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