Holding on: Dreamers, Visionaries, Eccentrics, and Other American Heroes

By David IsayHarvey WangDave Isay, et al.

Book Overview

This book is a tribute to some of America's greatest characters, people holding on to unique ways of life at all costs. A castle builder, a forty-year veteran Woolworth's lunch-counter waitress, a moonshiner, and the president of The Brooklyn Elite Checker Club are among this varied group of ordinary people who prevail against all odds. They are Dewey Chafin and Barbara Elkins, snake handlers for the Church of the Lord Jesus in Jolo, West Virginia; Amos Powers, caretaker of America's only coon-dog graveyard in Colbert County, Alabama; Dixie Evans, curator of Exotic World, Museum of Burlesque in Helendale, California; and Mike Gashwarza of the Hopi tribe, fighting against electricity being brought to Old Oraibi, Arizona, the oldest town in North America.

David Isay's compelling, often humorous profiles are accompanied by Harvey Wang's wonderful portraits of fifty such people, die-hard individualists who speak for themselves, illuminating their remarkable lives and personalities. Henry Roth's foreword is a moving testament to the creativity, tenacity, and dignity these people possess.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393316084
• ISBN13: 9780393316087
• Release Date: May 1997
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.8" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A marvelous companion to the NPR series

Holding On is a compilation of 56 profiles interviewed by David Isay and photographed by Harvey Wang. The stories are full of humor, tenderness, and spirit, such as all that David Isay touches. Amongst those featured are a writer, an activist, a prisoner, serpent handlers, a healer, a bell collector, a hat blocker, all of which hold onto their ways of life, with relentless passion and drive. The photographs are evocative black and white portraits of the subjects in their surroundings, gazing directly at Wang's camera, echoing the 1st person monologues captured by Isay. There is nothing exploitative here, no obsession with the bizarre and unusual, only pure poetry.

A delightful look into real Americana.

Holding On is a delightful book. These people are so much more of what America is all about than all of "the Donalds", the Bill Gates' and the Britney Spears' in the headlines. David Isay and Harvey Wang treat these characters (and some really are characters!) with a tenderness that is deserved. I would bet that every reader either knows someone like someone in the book or knows someone who should be in the book! It is an easy read and it will leave you wanting more.

Inspiring Portraits You Won't Soon Forget

50 inspiring individuals portraying an American work ethic of days gone by. You'll meet the lunch counter lady, the country doctor, the castle builder and so many more interesting people who made this country great. It's like sitting with your grandparents listening to the "good old days" around the pot belly stove.

An Absolute Gem

"Holding On" is an alternately delightful and thought-provoking homage to the spirit and people that make our nation so unique. This is a rare book that will please any reader until the last page...because you will be left eager to meet more of these proud real-life characters.