Rendezvous with Oblivion, Thomas Frank
Rendezvous with Oblivion, Thomas Frank
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Rendezvous with Oblivion
Reports from a Sinking Society

Author: Thomas Frank

Narrator: Thomas Frank

Unabridged: 6 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/19/2018


Synopsis

From the acclaimed author of Listen, Liberal and What’s the Matter with Kansas, a scathing collection of his incisive commentary on our cruel times—perfect for this political moment.

What does a middle-class democracy look like when it comes apart? When, after forty years of economic triumph, America’s winners persuade themselves that they owe nothing to the rest of the country?

With his sharp eye for detail, Thomas Frank takes us on a wide-ranging tour through present-day America, showing us a society in the late stages of disintegration and describing the worlds of both the winners and the losers—the sprawling mansion districts as well as the lives of fast-food workers.

Rendezvous with Oblivion is a collection of interlocking essays examining how inequality has manifested itself in our cities, in our jobs, in the way we travel—and of course in our politics, where in 2016, millions of anxious ordinary people rallied to the presidential campaign of a billionaire who meant them no good.

These accounts of folly and exploitation are here brought together in a single audiobook unified by Frank’s distinctive voice, sardonic wit, and anti-orthodox perspective. It captures a society where every status signifier is hollow, where the allure of mobility is just another con game, and where rebellion too often yields nothing.

For those who despair of the future of our country and of reason itself, Rendezvous with Oblivion is a booster shot of energy, reality, and moral outrage.

About Thomas Frank

Thomas Frank is the author of Listen, Liberal, Pity the Billionaire, The Wrecking Crew, and What's the Matter with Kansas? A former columnist for The Wall Street Journal and Harper's, Frank is the founding editor of The Baffler and writes regularly for The Guardian. He lives outside Washington, D.C.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Gregg

Leave it to Thomas Frank to take a bad year and make it even worse. His collection of essays spans a few years and several topics: McMansions, middle America, higher education. But mostly Donald Trump and the disaster that befell the nation in 2016 when we elected a spectacularly unqualified man to......more

Goodreads review by David

Having been mightily impressed by Listen, Liberal, I really looked forward to the next insight by Thomas Frank. Unfortunately, Rendezvous With Oblivion is simply a collection of earlier essays, and not any deep new thought to set politicos back on their heels. These reprints are mostly a dated look......more

Goodreads review by Alex

Frank is one of the most persuasive commentators about the crises inside American liberalism, having garnered attention with his What’s the matter with Kansas and Listen Liberal. Here he offers a series of essays that aims to situate the reader inside the crises progressives in the United States fin......more