http://seattlest.com/2007/04/13/seattlest_book_club_the_worst_hard_time.php All comments for Seattlest Book Club: The Worst Hard Time en-us 2009 seattle_katelyn Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:00:00 -0800 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss kbhackett@gmail.com kbhackett@gmail.com 60 http://seattlest.com/2007/04/13/seattlest_book_club_the_worst_hard_time.php#comment-1066924 http://seattlest.com/2007/04/13/seattlest_book_club_the_worst_hard_time.php#comment-1066924 Comments Fri, 13 Apr 2007 13:28:16 -0800 <p>I don't find it that hard to relate, but then I read a lot of history. Although it is really amazing to think that it wasn't long ago in this country where you could legitimately starve to death...or maybe it's weird that now you probably can't.</p> http://seattlest.com/2007/04/13/seattlest_book_club_the_worst_hard_time.php#comment-1066896 http://seattlest.com/2007/04/13/seattlest_book_club_the_worst_hard_time.php#comment-1066896 Comments Fri, 13 Apr 2007 13:12:39 -0800 <p>Maybe it's because my parents had me when they were in their 40's and their parents had done the same to them, but it seems like the rural version of the stories I heard about growing up in the slums of Boston during the same period. More extreme, of course. I love how Egan sprinkles facts in that are not necessarily important to them main thrust of the story without their seeming at all like nonsequitirs. A good example is the quote from Jim Perry on page 21. "If it weren't for this old black face of mine, I'd be foreman." He wants you to recognize that things weren't great for *all* of the cowboys before the sodbusters arrived. But he keeps himself from digressing into that territory too much--it isn't the focus of his story. But that detail helps remind us of an important issue to keep in mind.</p>