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

by Don J. Snyder

Overview

Snyder's account of temporarily losing his way in life presents a heartrending and inspiring memoir that confronts the not-so-secret fear that haunts every American who works for a living (Atlanta Journal-Constitution). Author pubilcity. .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316803489
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	07/20/1998
Edition description:	1ST BACK B
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

Editorial Reviews

In 1992, Snyder, a writer (Veteran's Park) and an English professor at Colgate University, learned he would not get tenure and that his lucrative teaching job would end in another year. Happily married with four children under the age of seven, Snyder alternated between overconfidence and fear as he attempted to get another university position. This gripping and well-written chronicle, a portion of which was published in Harper's in 1995, describes how being rejected for 90 jobs plunged Snyder into mind-numbing despair. Despite the deep love of his wife, Colleen, the author, who had struggled to enter the privileged world of academia in the first place, was unable to face applying for food stamps or paying the bills with Colleen's child-care jobs. Snyder's depression ended when he was able to accept the loss of his sense of entitlement, and he took a job as a day laborer to support his family. This honest, articulate memoir skillfully explores the psychological as well as the financial pain that comes with the loss of a statusy job and income. Author tour; national publicity. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

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 tenureand, indeed, the upheaval caused by downsizing generallySnyder's book is timely. Highly recommended for general collections.Bellinda Wise, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, N.Y.

Library Journal

Ultimately a story about family, identity, and purpose. The questions that Snyder poses go to the core of American middle-class life….
—The Washington Times

Patrick Boyle

A scary, beautiful, moving memoir…the house building section contains some of the best writing about work in American literature.
—Austin American-Statesman

Tom Grimes

A cautionary fable…strengthened by novelistic pacing and detail…fortunately on his journey to another life, Mr. Snyder took good notes. —The New York Times Book Review

Anne Matthews