May you live in interesting times," runs the old Chinese curse. During the worst recession since the 1930s, a university professor leaves the safe routines of campus life and hits the road, looking for a change of pace. But as the economy plummets, a supposedly manageable adventure becomes a four-and-a-half year journey into times that prove "interesting" indeed. He finds work as a cut-rate adjunct prof, a field hand, car washer, day laborer, janitor, and a variety of other vocations far removed from his previous existence. Along the way he gets into fights, skirts homelessness, and mingles with an unforgettable cast of characters, including an ex-professor who has found a new life in the woods; a business genius who is not what he seems; a painter who teleports to the asteroid belt; and a brilliant scholar who has chosen poverty in disgust of modernity.
This book is a journey into hard times and a visit with a subculture where life is lived close to the bone. It's also an intimate history of the early 1980s as seen from its lower regions. But ultimately it's a satisfying adventure that is leavened with humor, color, and, always, with the fullness of life.
