The Cliff Walk: A Memoir of a Job Lost and a Life Found [Hardcover]

Don J. Snyder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1997

In a powerful memoir, an untenured English professor loses his position in a university downsizing, discovers that he cannot easily find another teaching job, and eventually finds himself work as a construction laborer, where he contemplates his misconceptions about life. 30,000 first printing. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Don Snyder had a plum academic job, a peaceful, almost perfect life, and plans for far more success in the future. Teaching English and creative writing at Colgate University couldn't have been more stimulating; he sought ever more work and thrived on student contact. When his contract was suddenly not renewed, Snyder was uncomprehending. Nonetheless, he responded immediately--thinking his efforts and accomplishments would pay off, as they always had in the past. Interestingly, he took some time before relaying the news to his pregnant wife, hoping that he could match the bad news with that of another appointment. After almost 100 rejection letters, Snyder found himself helping (not necessarily the word his fellow laborers probably used) to build a house in Maine, and worrying about being able to afford heavier boots. This book might have been preachy or self-indulgent. It is neither.

From Library Journal

Snyder (From the Point, LJ 4/15/88) had to come to grips with reality when he learned he would not be granted tenure as an English professor at Colgate University. Snyder had a wife he adored, three beautiful children, one on the way, and what he thought was a secure, lifetime "dream" job. Sure he would get another job, especially because the Student Honor Society had nominated him each spring for "Professor of the Year," Snyder was caught off balance when he received 90 rejections. Inertia, depression, and despair set in as he awaited another teaching position that never came. Snyder details the various painful stages his family had to go through, from selling their house to buying food with food stamps. When he could no longer take it, he accepted a job as a day laborer to provide for his family. Snyder writes with skill, insight, and sensitivity. Given the current upheaval in the status of tenure?and, indeed, the upheaval caused by downsizing generally?Snyder's book is timely. Highly recommended for general collections.?Bellinda Wise, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, N.Y.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown; 1st edition (April 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316803081
• ISBN-13: 978-0316803083
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,283,510 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a former student of Don Snyder, March 9, 2001

By 

Matthew R. McClain (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cliff Walk: A Memoir of a Job Lost and a Life Found (Paperback)

Don Snyder's book is wonderful.Having been one of his students, this is not surprising.Don Snyder was the most influential professor that I had at Colgate.His class was about life as much as it was about literature.For example,Don moved our classroom from one of the magnificent gray stoned buildings perched high on the hill of the campus,to a dank basement in one of the college houses at the bottom of the hill,so as to remove us from the ivory tower.He taught us the danger of assumption and vain glory.He challenged us to see the precarious nature of our lives and to take little for granted.Most importantly,Don challenged us to rid ourselves of the illusions of power and security, to find out what is truly the one most important thing in our lives and to live for this thing,this person.I kept waiting for him to tell me what that one thing should be.He never did.He left that to me and I am so thankful to him.This is the lesson of the book

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Cliff Walk and Rosy Colgate, August 26, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cliff Walk: A Memoir of a Job Lost and a Life Found (Hardcover)

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Don Snyder's account of his venture into and out of academia. I could relate to many of the feelings he had because of the similarities of our experiences. But it seemed that he has taken so much literary license that it is a little of a self serving memoir... but perhaps they all are.

I taught at Colgate University, apparently for the two years just before he arrived (on a 2 year contract). I will not claim, as some have, that Colgate did not mistreat or mislead him. I really do not know. But, I will point out that his portrayal of Colgate as an ideal place to hold a faculty position and as "one notch below the Ivy league" is a little generous.

Hamilton, NY. is only a great place to live if you like virtually perpetual cold gray weather in an isolated hamlet with very little cultural or other amenities (outside of the mostly amateur or excessively scholarly offerings of a small college's students and faculty).

The students at Colgate tended to be spoiled rich kids who wanted to go to an Ivy league school, but were not academically equipped to do so. Of course there were notable exceptions... those particularly talented and bright students that make teaching a joy. There are at least some of these at every school.

And the faculty... He should be happy not to be stuck there. The school's long term tenured faculty tend to be there precisely because they are not able to go somewhere else. There is a gilded cage feeling about their lives. It shows in their bitterness with administrators, students, and each other. They would fight over very small things because they had no control over the big things in their lives. Generally I would have to say that the over-all quality of the faculty was not one notch below Ivy League, but one notch below that at a typical large public state university.

Colgate regularly used 2-year contracts (instead of tenure track contracts) apparently to keep down faculty costs. Snyder was a little unclear about the nature of his contract. If it was a tenure track contract, everyone (in academia) knows that to be turned down at a third year review is an indication that the institution does not think you are doing well enough to be tenured at that institution, whatever they may "say" to soften the blow. An institution as small as Colgate would not typically hire a faculty member into a tenure track slot if it was a too heavily tenured department. It would use short term contracts, which are particularly easy to fill in English departments. So if Synder had a tenure track position, then he has not told us the whole story. There would be some written or verbal report or analysis from his colleagues judging the quality and quantity of his academic work, his teaching skills, his collegiality (how well they liked him and got along with him), and service. We hear nothing of this; he leaves us very much in the dark about the details of his dismissal. There must be more. By leaving this out, we are also shut out from the sense of outrage and/or self-doubt that such an analysis provokes. Perhaps this is what he could not tell his wife and couldn't tell us either... perhaps it just hurt too much to review it, even if he thought it was not a fair and accurate analysis.

It is interesting, though to spot some of the little ways in which I do concur with his analysis. His portrayal of the Economics Professor, whom he only names by initials, was right on the mark. I knew immediately to whom he was referring.

In the end, however, I found myself not liking Don Snyder very much. By neglect, at least, he mistreats his wife and children. He claims to have tried to "sell" one of his unborn children. We are supposed to think that this is because he has sunk so low. But, I think, he is just lacking in character and it took him a while to decide to be a better person.

He correctly notes that he is not the only one to face career setbacks, disappointments and even prolonged unemployment, but he did portray perhaps one of the worst ways to react to such a difficulty.

Not liking the person, Don Synder, however, does not mean that I did not like the book. It held my attention from beginning to end, and while I could not relate to the actions taken, I could relate to the emotions expressed as genuine.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must-read for those working with dislocated workers., July 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cliff Walk: A Memoir of a Job Lost and a Life Found (Paperback)

This moving, at times poetic tale of coping with job loss should be required reading for everybody that works with dislocated workers.

As a self-made professional who defined his place in the world by his success in academe, Snyder experiences all the classic steps of grief when he loses his job. This guy was not just knee-deep, he was up to his ears in denial--and his family, particularly his wife, paid the price. I was particularly moved by his wife's ability to swallow her pride to return merchandise following his bouts of profligate overspending--even as she was reduced to applying for food stamps to feed their 4 kids. How could he be so foolish? Snyder lets us see exactly how . . . and also shows us how his eventual acceptance changed not only his job, but his life.

I work in a retraining program for dislocated workers, and this book provided me more insight into the devastation of job loss than any how-to book I've come across. I wept, and so will you.