Paper Girl

I'm not sure what I can say about this book except that I could have written it. I grew up a bit later than Macy, but in the general area. Education was indeed my ticket out of the Midwest, but mine was harder to come by than Macy's.

I listened to the audiobook, which Macy narrates, in addition to the book, and there are chapters I marked to reference. Macy's enduring optimism that there is some kind of redemptive hope she'll uncover in the course of her investigations and conversations is my only sticking point. In the end, no one changes. No one's pain compels another to compassion. It's the story of stuck people, stuck on all sides. Macy's research is top-notch and I appreciated how the memoir bits never veered into naval gazing.

As I progressed through the book, I had suspected it might end in a stalemate. In the end, Macy fares better than I do in maintaining relationships across political division. The way things are, the way things are going, I would take a stalemate as a win too.