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| No Heroes | 
 enlarge | Author: Chris Offutt
Publisher: Methuen Publishing Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: $26.85
Buy New: $10.07
You Save: $16.78 (62%)
New (6) Used (5) from $8.74
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 3966690
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 0413772837
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780413772831
ASIN: 0413772837
Publication Date: February 6, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Aged 40, Chris Offutt returns to his Kentucky birthplace to teach at his old school in the hills. With the humblest of intentions, he want to give something back to his community, hoping to become, quietly, a hero of sorts. Yet the present-day reality of a "town of six thousand with no airport, no bookstore, no deli, no record store, one bar and 40 churches" collides painfully with his expectations, leaving him searching for a home that no longer exists. During that same year, Offutt hears for the first time the story of his parents-in-law, Arthur and Irene, Holocaust survivors who emigrated from Poland in 1946. Their frighteningly honest stories of war and exile counterpoint Offutt's search for a sense of safety and home - despite the fact that, as Arthur tells him, "home is illusory" and in real life there are "no heroes".
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| Customer Reviews:
EXCELLENT READ. INTERESTING. June 11, 2007
In many ways, this work is more complex than you would first think. Note the various reviews here. This work seems to bring out all sorts of emotions. This work is not easy to review. I suppose the best place to start is to state my humble opinion in reference to a couple of points. First, I don't think that the author was actually "putting down" the good folks in his old home town. I think he was just calling it the way he saw it. I have traveled through this area of the country extensively, spent quite a lot of time there. To be honest, the author nailed a certain segment of the population quite well. Now let me state that I am from and live in the Ozarks is S.W. Missouri. Some of the folks here, myself included, make the people of the author's home down seem down right sophisticated. I have traveled and lived all over this country for more years than I care to admit to. To be quite frank, the people the author described here can be found in just about ever town in the U.S., from coast to coast. Kentucky does not have lock on "town characters." Secondly, the author indeed has some rather harsh things to say about Morehead State University. This was silly on the author's part. Schools are schools. I work with a lot of Harvard and Yale graduates that have far less "education" than a lot of Jr. College drop outs I work with. School is what you make of it after you get out. Those attending this college should not feel bad. After all, the author himself graduated from this "inferior school," made the most of it and seems to have done alright for himself.
Now, as to the book: It is actually rather well written. I do like the author's style. The story was good, easy to follow and simply interesting. This is actually two books in one. The first is about the author and his family returning to the hills of Kentucky to teach and possibly make a difference. The second story is that of his in-laws, both of whom were Holocaust Survivors. At this point I will state that I think it a shame that the author choose to use this method to tell these two stories. Both really should have been extended and made into two separate works.
The author is very, very good ad descriptions, the country, the people the background. The author is quite good a capturing emotions. Chris Offutt is obviously quite a talented writer. I should also note that a few other reviewers have stated that the author made most of the stories here up. I doubt that very much. The stories just ring too true. He may have done a bit of embellishment here and there, but is that not what most authors do?
I am giving this one only four stars rather than five for two reasons. First, there is an element of "sour grapes" that runs through the story which I found unbecoming and secondly, I feel the author should have devoted an entire book to his in-laws and their stories.
I do recommend this one highly. It is a very good read.
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