Braving Home: Dispatches from the Underwater Town, the Lava-Side Inn, and Other Extreme Locales
Feb 2015 · Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Ebook
256
Pages
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About this ebook
A journalist visits five of America’s disaster-zone towns and the devoted residents who chose to stay despite hellish conditions.
As a young reporter, Jake Halpern became obsessed with stories about "some outlandish and often hellish place inhabited by a handful of stalwarts who refused to leave." His fellow reporters joked with him and nicknamed him the Bad Homes Correspondent. But the more he learned about these people, the more he was drawn to them. Braving Home is Halpern’s irresistible portrait of these hometowns and his friendships with their most loyal residents.
In North Carolina, Halpern meets a retired mill worker who single-handedly manned his hometown in the wake of a devastating flood. In Alaska, he visits a lone snowbound high-rise at the foot of a glacier. At the base of a Hawaiian volcano, he stays with a hermit whose house was surrounded by molten lava. Among the glitterati of Malibu, a longtime "hillbilly" teaches him the traditions of firefighting. And on a barrier island off the coast of Louisiana, a legendary storm rider tells of surviving hurricanes—even if it means tying one's hair to a tree. Throughout his journey, Halpern explores the value of rootedness in an age when American society is more mobile than ever.
As a young reporter, Jake Halpern became obsessed with stories about "some outlandish and often hellish place inhabited by a handful of stalwarts who refused to leave." His fellow reporters joked with him and nicknamed him the Bad Homes Correspondent. But the more he learned about these people, the more he was drawn to them. Braving Home is Halpern’s irresistible portrait of these hometowns and his friendships with their most loyal residents.
In North Carolina, Halpern meets a retired mill worker who single-handedly manned his hometown in the wake of a devastating flood. In Alaska, he visits a lone snowbound high-rise at the foot of a glacier. At the base of a Hawaiian volcano, he stays with a hermit whose house was surrounded by molten lava. Among the glitterati of Malibu, a longtime "hillbilly" teaches him the traditions of firefighting. And on a barrier island off the coast of Louisiana, a legendary storm rider tells of surviving hurricanes—even if it means tying one's hair to a tree. Throughout his journey, Halpern explores the value of rootedness in an age when American society is more mobile than ever.
About the author
Jake Halpern is the author of Fame Junkies: The Hidden Truths Behind America's Favorite Addiction, and Braving Home: Dispatches from the Underwater Town, the Lava-Side Inn, and Other Extreme Locales, hailed by Bill Bryson as “a splendid and engaging account of stubbornness in Modern America." Halpern has written for the New York Times, The New Yorker, LA Weekly, and many other publications. He is also a commentator and freelance producer for NPR’s All Things Considered. He lives in Connecticut.
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