Tales of Two Americas, John Freeman
Tales of Two Americas, John Freeman
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Tales of Two Americas
Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation

Author: John Freeman

Narrator: Teri Schnaubelt, Corey M. Snow

Unabridged: 11 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/12/2017

Synopsis

America is broken. You don't need a fistful of statistics to know this. Visit any city, and evidence of our shattered social compact will present itself. From Appalachia to the Rust Belt and down to rural Texas, the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest stretches to unimaginable chasms. Whether the cause of this inequality is systemic injustice, the entrenchment of racism in our culture, the long war on drugs, or immigration policies, it endangers not only the American Dream but our very lives.

In Tales of Two Americas, some of the literary world's most exciting writers look beyond numbers and wages to convey what it feels like to live in this divided nation. Their extraordinarily powerful stories, essays, and poems demonstrate how boundaries break down when experiences are shared, and that in sharing our stories we can help to alleviate a suffering that touches so many people.

About John Freeman

John Freeman is the editor of Freeman's, a literary annual of new writing. His books include How to Read a Novelist and The Tyranny of E-mail, as well as Tales of Two Americas, an anthology of new writing about inequality in the U.S. today. Maps, his debut collection of poems, was published in 2017. His work has been translated into more than twenty languages and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, andThe New York Times. The former editor of Granta and one-time president of the National Book Critics Circle, he is currently Artist-in-Residence at New York University.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jan on November 05, 2023

"All you have to do is give a little bit of understanding to the possibility that life might not have been fair." from Ann Patchett Deeply moving. I might have skimmed 20 pages of this collection. There are mostly essays, but stories and poems and a couple of graphics. Some works I did not care for,......more

Goodreads review by Sharon on October 18, 2022

Thought provoking, eye opening, poignant stories by 36 authors about inequality, privilege, community, systemic discrimination, police brutality, immigration, and race. Stories have the power to move people to action and this book is filled with incredibly moving journeys. John Freeman edited the boo......more

Goodreads review by Emily on November 03, 2017

America is divided. That is easy enough to see everyday on the news. What isn't always easy to see are the stories behind the divisions and the how the thing we may be railing against is actual life for our fellow citizens. I picked up this book because I read Kiese Laymon's book How to Slowly Kill......more

Goodreads review by Jenny on November 19, 2017

I loved this book but hated reading it. Does that make any sense? The picture it painted of modern America is a bleak one (not that I argue with it), so it wasn’t a book to plow through for pleasure. That said, I loved the diversity of topics, genres, and geography as well as the compelling voices f......more

Goodreads review by Debbie on August 17, 2020

This book made me cringe at times because I am white and privileged. The individual stories from many different people around the country point out how difficult life is for those who are less fortunate. There is a very informative essay about the housing crisis in Portland, Or. that we natives will......more

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