Jake Halpern’s Braving Home (also in softcover) easily took my interest. Here’s how John Moe described it for Amazon.com:
As a cub reporter at The New Republic, Jake Halpern earned the unofficial job title of Bad Homes Correspondent. Braving Home tells his stories of places where people really ought not live and the people who live there anyway. Halpern traveled to such inadvisable destinations as a bed and breakfast at the foot of an active Hawaiian volcano, a North Carolina town trying to recover from being completely submerged, an indoor Alaskan city, and an island in the Gulf of Mexico located directly in the cross hairs of numerous hurricanes. And while the places themselves make for interesting historical lore, the people who choose to stay and make their homes there form the real heart of the story. The doomed, it seems, get few visitors but have plenty of time on their hands. So Halpern goes out to meet them, crashes on their couches or guest beds and hangs out for a few days forming a one-man tourist industry. Far from being the kooks one might expect, Halpern’s subjects come across as normal folks, though significantly more resilient than most, who stay in their homes simply because, well, those are their homes. Halpern himself figures prominently in most of the stories and at times it seems like the young man is spending too much time navel gazing. But on each of the book’s five adventures, Halpern goes from wide-eyed visitor to welcome member of the community and in so doing demonstrates how, once you get used to it, any place can feel like home. Even if that it’s surrounded by molten lava.
Halpern visits homes in Princeville North Carolina, Whittier Alaska, Kalapana Hawaii, Malibu California, and Grand Isle Louisiana. Some of the homemakers are following long held family traditions, others are intentionally isolating themselves in their inhospitable environments.
Despite my interest in Halpern’s concept, I found it to be a mixed read. He goes looking for some deeper meaning or significance in the way these people cling to their homes, but largely comes up empty. People, it would seem, do inexplicable things. There are times I wished told me more. In Alaska, for instance, he could have done more to explain what economic activity sustained Whittier today.
Update… here are two relevant Wikipedia articles about Hawaii: Kalapana Hawaii and Volcanoes National Park. The Times ran a story that mentioned the Lava Side Inn last week. It’s With Vulcan as My Landscaper in the June 30 2005 Home & Garden section. If I was cool I’d give you an OpenURL link for this.
tags: braving home, danger, dangerous places, home, homemaking, jake halpern, lava side inn, underwater town, kilauea, hawaii, kilauea hawaii, grand isle, louisiana, grand isle louisiana, malibu, california, malibu california, princeville, north carolina, princeville north carolina, whittier, alaska, whittier alaska
Posted July 7, 2005 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Books, Movies, Music, Travel. Tags: alaska, braving home, california, danger, dangerous places, grand isle, grand isle louisiana, hawaii, home, homemaking, jake halpern, kilauea, kilauea hawaii, lava side inn, louisiana, malibu, malibu california, north carolina, princeville, princeville north carolina, underwater town, whittier, whittier alaska.
1 Comment(s)
No comments yet.
Comments RSS
TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
User contributed tags for this post:
l ve sex (296) - l ve (210) - live sex com (176) - l ve com (72) - sex com my (64) - live video com (63) - google Earth interesting Coordinates (59) - sex home com (50) - halpern (48) - live sexs com (45) - l ve foot (45) - gogle earth (39) - sex l ve (37) - sexs com my (36) - live earth com (33) - gogle earth home (33) - video com (32) - Google earth home com (32) - live sexs (31) - sexs home (22) - live home com (22) - l ve sex com (21) - live sexs.com (21) - crashvideos com (20) - video com my (19) - live sex video com (19) - interesting coordinates (18) - braving home (18) - young sex com (17) - WWW LIVE VIDEO COM (17) - WWW.LİVE SEXS.COM (16) - l ve cameras (16) - live gogle earth (16) - www.live.sexs.com (15) - braving (15) - l ve video com (14) - live.sexs (14) - sex video com (13) - WWW LIVE SEX COM (13) - LİVE.SEXS.COM (13) - www.sex home.com (12) - l ve earth (12) - l ve tv (12) - l ve porno (12) - WWW SEX HOME COM (12) - l ve music tv (12) - home sex video com (11) - interesting google earth coordinates (11) - www.sex.com.my (11) - l ve s (11) - gogle earth live (11) - sexs live (10) - l ve f lm (10) - earth home com (9) - l ve satellite (9) - sex video com my (9) - google hearth places (8) - l ve mode be (8) - 18young (8) - l ve 2 (8) - homesex (8) - porno l ve (8) - gogle home (7) - log n l ve com (7) - google earth home (7) - www 18 video com (7) - www.live sex.com (7) - home sex com (7) - sex com my video (6) - live 20sex com (6) - l ve web cameras (6) - log n l ve (6) - earth l ve (6) - live one earth com (6) - google earth coordinates (6) - WWW LIVE SEXS (6) - l ve l ve com (6) - live sex (6) - WWW SEX COM MY (6) - google heart places (6) - grand isle (6) - lava side inn (6) - www.live.sex.com (6) - google earth interesting places (6) - the lava side inn (5) - sexs homes (5) - WWW LIVE SEXS COM (5) - 18 video com (5) - l ve video (5) - interesting coordinates google earth (5) - google video com my (5) - www.sex.home.com (5) - google earth interesting co ordinates (5) - www.live.sexs (5) - lowrider video com (5) - live nude sex com (5) - sexs l ve (4) - sex 18young (4) - google l ve (4) - google hearth hawaii (4) - داستان (4) - L VE SEXS COM (4) - www live earth com (4) - L VE SEXS (4) - WWW World sex video com (4) - www 18 video (4) - l ve tv it (4) - google erth hawaii (4) - 18young sex (4) - google eart places (4) - live video com my (4) - google hearth places of interest (4) - interesting coordinates for google earth (4) - google erth home (4) - www.18 Home Video.com (4) - vid o com (3) - all (3) - sex@home com (3) - interesting co ordinates for google earth (3) - 18 And On Video com (3) - sex-home.com (3) - hawaiian porn sex com (3) - live vid o com (3) - wwwlivesex.com (3) - car crash video com (3) - www.world sex.com (3) - hawaii (3) - 18YOUNG SEX COM (3) - young sex (3) - sexs ve porno (3) - 6.sex.com. (3) - porn up lıve (3) - porno home.com (3) - music video com my (3) - homesex vidios (3) - www live home com (2) - Lava-Side Inn photos (2) - home sex vidio (2) - www. 18.video.com (2) - vidio sex hawai (2) - gogle maps interesting places (2) - Gogle earth co ordinates (2) - crashvideos (2) - porno video com my (2) - live sex tv (2) - live video cameras in people homes (2) - sexs momes (2) - gogle cameras live (2) - kilauea lava jake halpern (2) - l@ve.com (2) -
