Off Ramp: Adventures and Heartache in the American Elsewhere [Paperback]

Hank Stuever (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 16, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0312424884 | ISBN-13: 978-0805075731 | Edition: First Edition

In his unique, funny, and haunting reports from "Elsewhere," Hank Stuever records the odd and touching realities of modern life in everyday places. Elsewhere might be revealed in the tract-house adventures of a home-décor reality show, at a discount funeral home in a strip mall, or in the story of an armed man named Honey Bear in the hunt for his beloved but now missing sleeper sofa which he left in a store unit. Off Ramp shows us America through the humorous gaze of Hank Stuever, who finds beauty in the midst of the most unlikely and invisible lives and places.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The American landscape is ripe with humor and pathos. And it's been Stuever's privilege for the past 14 years to chronicle the people who populate it. Part social commentary, part paean to ordinary life, this is Stuever's valentine to America's everyman. It's a compilation of newspaper articles he wrote for the Albuquerque Tribune, Austin American-Statesman and the Washington Post. These quiet observational pieces visit the author's muse, Elsewhere, which he defines as a place "that offers what I considered to be true mystery. If I was looking, I could find the Lord, death, porn, destruction, tanning booths and teriyaki chicken bowls." And that's just for openers. The real journey Stuever, a staff writer for the Washington Post, takes is both personal and profound. Whether documenting a wedding in New Mexico, two best friends in Plano, Tex., who swap decorating challenges on Trading Spaces or the challenge of getting a huge sofa into a Washington, D.C., apartment, Stuever looks deep into the American psyche. In his quiet, gentle way, he records our banalities and triumphs. He casts the net wide—and what he catches is a nation gripped by longing, loss, hope and social convention. Stuever does not overtly judge his subjects, but he neatly inserts subtle mocks and digs. Still, his empathy and his humanity are evident on every page. This tender, funny, compelling collection is an homage to the rhythms and cadences of modern life.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Stuever, staff writer with the "Style" section of the Washington Post, offers an absorbing look at the "marginal things" in American life, "the funny quirks of what is bland and true." Drawing on his experiences writing for newspapers from Albuquerque to Texas to Washington, D.C., the journalist covers the "American Elsewhere." Eschewing major news, scoops, or prizewinning stories, Stuever brings glimpses into ordinary America: two couples in Plano, Texas, who subject their homes and friendships to the rigors of the Trading Spaces home-redecorating show; an Albuquerque family in the weeks leading up to the overly elaborate wedding of their youngest daughter; a group of Texans searching for fragments from the fallen Columbia spacecraft; and the fractured world of Stuever's grandfather after the bombing in Oklahoma City. With an incredible eye for detail, Stuever offers observations of the minutiae and underlying passions of American life. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Picador; First Edition edition (June 16, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312424884
• ISBN-13: 978-0805075731
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #990,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hank Stuever was born in 1968 in Oklahoma City and grew up there, and left, and got into journalism. He has worked for newspapers in Albuquerque and Austin and, since 1999, has covered pop culture for The Washington Post's Style section. OFF RAMP, a collection of his feature stories and essays, was published in 2004. His 2009 book, TINSEL, follows three suburban families in Frisco, Texas, through three Christmases. He lives in Washington, DC.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars When I grow up I want to be (or marry) Hank Stuever July 1, 2004

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

This book consists largely (entirely?) of reprints of Stuever's articles for the style section of the Washington Post, so I guess that it's kosher to review it before it actually appears in stores next week.

Every day I turn to the Style section hoping to see Hank's byline, because he is simply the funniest man alive. (Yeah, David Sedaris, I'm talking to you. You don't even come close.) Through patient observations of small details, he persuades that our world is ridiculous, with its plastic chairs and its star-spangled panties on Wonder Woman. But instead of laughing at it, he celebrates this ridiculousness because it's these skewed aspects of our culture that make it so wonderful.

Stuever's not simply a humorist; some of his essays (especially the appreciations of recently deceased figures in American culture) reveal a wide sentimental streak. But all of his essays make the world enchanted again, and are could melt the heart of the most jaded of cynics.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Insight into off-rampia September 28, 2004

By chenoameg

Format:Hardcover

Off Ramp - Adventures and Heartache in the American Elsewhere

Washington Post staff writer Hank Stuever (his work appears in the Style section) collects his articles about the almost-mainstream. Stuever enters the stories as a journalist, but he stays because they resonate with him. Whether he's talking about the creator of Wonder Woman, the owner of a skating rink, or the Murrah building bombing, he finds the anecdote that explains the people, not just the situation.

Stuever understands the nature of strip mall America, and it's where he focuses his attention. Although many of his subjects are ridiculous, he treats them with respect. He's the same age as I am, so he feels nostalgic in the same ways for the same cultural icons. His cadence stays with me for hours after I finish reading.

Who Should Read it:

Anyone who likes the radio program "This American Life". Anyone who wants to better understand that "other America" (i.e. not the big coastal cities). Reading it in two sittings was, for me, a mistake -- the stories tend to be between wistful and sad. I would have been better off reading just one essay at a time.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely, touching, funny. Stories of real life. June 21, 2004

By Linda Perlstein

Format:Hardcover

Full disclosure: I am a friend of Hank Stuever's. But I am a friend of a lot of writers, and Hank is the only one whose every word I read, no matter the subject matter. "You know Hank Stuever?!" people ask me, because his stuff is that imaginative and that good.

I read many of Hank's pieces from "Off Ramp" when they appeared in the newspaper. Years (and months) later, the book still managed to surprise, entertain and move me. I have never read a more compelling take of the Oklahoma City bombing, and of course I have never read any other take on self-storage facilities. Who knew? The book is clever but never mean. Hank notices things other people don't; he finds great stories nearly everywhere; he understands how popular culture and regular life intertwine; and, most important, he treats reality show contestants and funeral home directors and sofa repairmen with respect.