From a review in the New Yorker for 27 August: "Buying a car, Grescoe writes "is the beginning of a spiral through selfishness, road rage, and anomie, one whose ultimate goal is the mall or the gated community".
Unless you, you know, live in the country.
Do our coastal elites even "get" Upstate New York? (Yes, I know Grescoe is Canadian).
What they might think of a town of less than a thousand, forty miles on one side and 26 on the other from the nearest small towns, and 100 from a city, is hard to imagine.
Reminds me of a 1970s article written by a show dog breeder friend of mine, describing the difficulties of driving the vast distances found in the midwest; he was a recent transplant from the east coast to Kansas City, and his friends could not comprehend the distance and time required for him to drive to Denver or Phoenix. The largest driving jolt I ever experienced was driving from near Indianapolis to Montreal. It looked so easy on the map ... just drive north to Detroit and turn right ... right?
ReplyDeleteDriving time to run errands or buy supplies in town is usually longer than the actual time it takes to do the errand or buy the supplies. And part of that is over very bad dirt roads. You need a vehicle with 4WD that is big enough to haul stuff. No, I don't have a truck or SUV because I hate the environment.
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