Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more



or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Start reading Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Color:
Image not available

To view this video download Flash Player

 

Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line [Paperback]

Ben Hamper
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)

List Price: $19.99
Price: $18.99 & FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $1.00 (5%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Only 16 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Want it Tuesday, May 28? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
Free Two-Day Shipping for College Students with Amazon Student

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition $8.89  
Hardcover --  
Paperback $18.99  
Audio, Cassette, Audiobook, Unabridged --  
Unknown Binding --  
Rent Your Textbooks
Save up to 70% when you rent your textbooks on Amazon. Keep your textbook rentals for a semester and rental return shipping is free.

Book Description

July 1, 1992 0446394009 978-0446394000 Reprint
The man the Detroit Free Press calls "a blue collar Tom Wolfe" delivers a full-barreled blast of truth and gritty reality in Rivethead, a no-holds-barred journey through the belly of the American industrial beast.

Frequently Bought Together

Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line + Once Upon a River: A Novel + Trespassing: Dirt Stories and Field Notes (Great Lakes Books) (Made in Michigan Writers) (Made in Michigan Writers Series)
Price for all three: $48.11

Buy the selected items together


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a voice often as powerful as the riveting gun he wielded in the 1970s and '80s in a Flint, Mich., General Motors assembly plant, Hamper nails down the excruciating boredom of a shoprat's life on the line. These roughly chronological essays, many published in the local press, bare the rage and humor that, with booze and drugs, friendships and enmities, served to speed along the timeclock's "suffocating minute hand." A fourth-generation factory worker, raised on hard music, hard liquor and soft drugs, given a parochial school education, Hamper was the eldest of eight children deserted by their father, supported by their mother. He was determined not to be an auto worker but soon after high school, married and a father, he needed the steady work GM offered. With free-ranging intelligence and a sharply anarchic sensibility, he tries to figure out and establish some control over his place in GM's massive corporate system. While these essays might best satisfy in small doses, Hamper, no longer a GM employee, writes with unrelenting energy. BOMC and QPB selections; film rights to Warner Bros.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Hamper, a son, a grandson, and a great-grandson of General Motors' "shoprats," chronicles ten years spent in an abusive marriage with GM in Flint, Michigan. Despite exploitative management policies, arrogant and/or incompetent supervisors, and mind-numbing working conditions, Hamper, like the abused spouse who keeps returning to the abuser, becomes de pressed during layoffs and revives when recalled to the assembly line. Hamper copes with his perceived limited options by consuming impressive quantities of alcohol and writing an irreverent, cynically humorous column about shoprat life for an alternative newspaper. How much of Hamper's alienation and later panic disorder are the result of his ten years at GM and how much are due to genetics and choices is unexplored. Another weakness is Hamper's graceless style and his overuse of four-letter words. Despite these shortcomings, blue-collar voices are rarely heard, and therefore this is recommended for public libraries.
- Andrea C. Dragon, Coll. of St. Elizabeth, Convent Station, N.J.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 260 pages
  • Publisher: Warner Books; Reprint edition (July 1, 1992)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0446394009
  • ISBN-13: 978-0446394000
  • Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.7 x 8.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,571 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars "Rivethead" describes life on the GM assembly line. August 22, 1997
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Ben Hamper's outrageous description of life on the
car and truck assembly line had me laughing out loud at the antics of both workers and bosses at the GM factory in Flint, Michigan. Hamper uses words like rivets and blasts them at the nearest human target; no one escapes his savage attack, not even himself. Hamper is a "flake" and he knows it, but he is an observant flake who is just as adept at turning a phrase as he is finding ways to avoid work. He seeks to please no one, not even himself, and he succeeds beyond even his expectations. Read at your own risk is how Hamper himself might caution us about "Rivethead."
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Stark ,dark and depressingly funny an interesting read August 16, 1999
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The book title betrays the story in that it's more tangable and real to the modern day production worker than any other book written in recent times. The characters are ones which we have all seen and met..in fact Homer Simpson would understand this factory. The attempts to improve productivity are desparate as the introduction of 'quality cat'a man hired and dressed up in a tiger outfit is found after some weeks later slumped on the floor smoking a cigarette. Suffice to say the book makes some very important statements on the drive for profit and the effects it has on you me and everyone else.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Ben Hamper shaped this darkly humorous account of his years working on a General Motors truck assembly line with considerable skill. While his engaging prose firmly establishes the mind-numbing, repetitive nature of factory work, he also reveals how he and those around him on the line maintained some level of humanity by using humor and other diversions in their never-ending battle with the clock. Hamper's take on GM's outmoded management techniques and bumbling efforts to maintain market share in the face of global competition during the 1980s (for example, assigning an employee to dress in a cat costume and patrol the factory as a mascot for quality) is especially amusing.
Was this review helpful to you?
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars Painfully Entertaining
I am about ten years younger than the author and we shared so many similarities in life it is spooky. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Peter Morrow
5.0 out of 5 stars Finished it in less than a week
Just finished this book up in less than a week. What you have here is one man's story of life on the line at GM in the late 70s and early 80s. Read more
Published 3 months ago by mhjett
5.0 out of 5 stars Hilariously tragic
A true must-read for anyone who knows of anyone who has set foot inside a factory. Hamper wields his words with the precision of a skilled riveter. Read more
Published 4 months ago by John
5.0 out of 5 stars Perspective
Accurate, interesting and all around great read! I can't put the book down! Hamper did fry all his brain cells.
Published 4 months ago by javaman50002
5.0 out of 5 stars Lost my copy so had to get it again!
This was required reading in one of my college classes. I enjoyed the book then, and several years later went to read it again an could relate to it well, as I work in a factory... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Pam Avila
1.0 out of 5 stars One distorted view of life working on assembly line
I bought this book, hoping to read some stories from a person actually working on an assembly line in a town close to me (Flint, Michigan). Read more
Published 5 months ago by R. Martenis
5.0 out of 5 stars What It Is
Hamper has a charming writing style that is somewhat self deprecating but really captures the grit of the modern American factory worker. Read more
Published 6 months ago by E. Long
5.0 out of 5 stars HOW IS THIS NOT REQUIRED READING?!?!?!
This is possibly one of the best books ever written, and I read at least a book every two to three days. Read more
Published 23 months ago by S. Seeman
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb description of life on the line
"Rivethead" is simultaneously outrageous, funny, unbelievable, and down to earth, serious, and relatable. Read more
Published 23 months ago by J. Reinhart
4.0 out of 5 stars Explains a lot and lots of fun
I believe Detroit has changed in the years since Mr. Hamper wrote this book, but since I don't work on an assembly line, I can't tell you. Read more
Published 23 months ago by A. Luptak
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews



Books on Related Topics (learn more)

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Forums

There are no discussions about this product yet.
Be the first to discuss this product with the community.
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 





Look for Similar Items by Category