February 15, 2016
Quirky, immersive report on the "who, what, where, when, and why of junk." After spending months painstakingly sifting through knickknack boxes in her parents' basement after the sale of the family home, journalist and TV host Stewart (First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America's First Black Public High School, 2013) contemplated the nature of obsession, nostalgia, and our compulsive reliance on personal "stuff." Her entertaining three-year exploration spans U.S. Route 411 from central Alabama to Tennessee, a stretch of Southern highway that becomes a 250-mile-long yard sale teeming with hives of eccentrics and their roadside tchotchke stands during a four-day autumnal "junk-a-palooza." There, and throughout the many homes and storage units she examined, Stewart understood that "the key element of true junk is worthlessness." However, behind the dusty boxes and overstuffed bins are real people; some harbor serious psychological impairments, while others seem trapped in a collection cycle, surrounding and guarding themselves with a disposable, ever expanding bloom of ephemera. "Letting go is a common problem for people who have attachments to things they know they no longer need but secretly still like or even love," the author writes as more complicated issues of compulsive hoarding, loneliness, and disposophobia surface in other sections of her accessible, enthusiastic study. She conducts amusing interviews with experts in the big business of eviction clean-outs, junk removal, and recycling, and she queries the troubled creator of a three-story interconnected colossus of objects and the executive producer of TV's Pawn Stars. Particularly engrossing chapters spotlight groups dedicated to the science intersecting identity and possessions and a NASA expert on intergalactic space junk. In all fairness, Stewart concedes that "what qualifies as junk is subjective," and throughout her lively observations, she consistently remains respectful to those on all levels of the stockpiling spectrum. Absorbing and enjoyably compelling research on the packrat conundrum in our society.
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May 1, 2016
When journalist and author Stewart (First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America's First Black Public High School) must clear out her late parents' full basement, she is prompted to explore the topic of junk. Traveling the Southern multistate Highway 411 Yard Sale, she witnesses that one's person's trash is another's treasure. In Arizona, the author learns about the furry creatures known as pack rats that fill their nests with random items. In various cities, she rides along with entrepreneurs whose businesses haul away people's possessions. Stewart contemplates phrases that incorporate the word "junk," such as junk mail, and meets the sender of the first spam email. She presents transcripts of her interviews with a former NASA scientist dedicated to the issue of space junk, the executive producer of the television show Pawn Stars (about a Las Vegas pawnshop), the creator of the sculpture known as the Cathedral of Junk in Austin, TX, and the founder of the FreeCycle Network. She checks out tiny houses with little space and repair cafes where volunteers attempt to fix broken items. VERDICT Stewart's compelling and readable book is for those who are fascinated by stuff and are in search of something other than decluttering or organization manuals.--Janet Clapp, N. Clarendon, VT
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
April 1, 2016
Americans are obsessed with stuff. Obtaining it, using it, and hanging on to it. So much so that storing it all brings in nearly $25 billion in revenue every year to storage companies (a recession-proof business). We're fascinated by television shows such as Pawn Stars, Hoarders, and Storage Warsin fact, Stewart lists 27 different current shows dedicated to our fixation on junk. When faced with clearing out the family home, Stewart started wondering about our new national pastime and what keeps people so wedded to objects. For fun, she tags along on jobs with various junk-removal companies, visits an artist who has built a tower of junk, and interviews the founder of Freecycle.org; she gets more serious when discussing hoarding disorders. A particularly entertaining chapter classifies the many types of junk, from junk mail to junk food to junk in the trunk. While there aren't any earth-shattering conclusions hereit's hard to give up sentimental items; someday that tchotchke might be worth something!this is an engaging narrative that will certainly appeal to readers who love those aforementioned cable shows.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)