The Last Street Before Cleveland: An Accidental Pilgrimage

By Joe Mackall

Book Overview

The old neighborhood was the place that Joe Mackall left. It was a place where everyone's parents worked at the factory at the dead end of the street, where the Catholic church operated like a religious city hall, and where he grew up vowing to get out as soon as he could and to shed his blue-collar beginnings and failed, flawed religion.

When the mysterious death of a childhood friend draws him back to the last street before Cleveland, however, he discovers that there is more to "old haunts" than mere words--and more to severing one's roots than just getting away.

The Last Street Before Cleveland chronicles Mackall's descent into his past: the story of how, looking for answers about his lost friend, he stumbles onto larger questions about himself. With clear-eyed candor, Mackall describes the resurfacing of dormant demons, the opening of the old chasms of depression and addiction, and the discovery, at rock bottom, of a flickering faith that casts a surprising light over everything that has come before. Mackall's is, finally, a story about life--lived and lost, given and earned.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803254741
• ISBN13: 9780803254749
• Release Date: May 2014
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Outstanding

I read Joe's book in a day, cried during the reading, and found even more respect (although I didn't think it possible to respect him more than I already did) as a human being, writer, and professor. The story is intriguing and honest, rich and lyrical. Joe really knows how to use language to his advantage. I've passed it on to others already. It's a great book from a great man.

Gutsy, Lyrical

Mackall writes a gutsy book here, looking honestly at drinking, depression, despair, and the similar pitfalls that too often trip-up young men from blue-collar Cleveland (or any other rust belt city), yet he writes with beauty and lyricism, giving us, in the end, a beautiful memoir of faith and redemption.