Paul Hertneky will visit the Hancock Town Library to discuss his new memoir “Rust Belt Boy: Stories of an American Childhood” on Thursday, June 9, at 7 p.m.
Just like the mill towns of New England that preceded them, the steel towns of the Rust Belt have set loose a diaspora that spreads across the country. Hertneky’s story portrays a moment in time: the last gasp of the industrial north where European immigrants had raised families and built communities and cities, but saw the end of their way of life looming on the horizon. Approximately six million baby boomers, like the narrator, fled the Rust Belt. Another six million remained.
Through Hertneky’s storytelling, we can smell his Czechoslovakian grandmother’s cooking, see the streets lined with saloons, hear the backroom politicos’ deal-making at a local restaurant, and feel the aspirations of a generation.
This event is free and open to all.
For more information, call the library at 525-4411.