2008 financial crisis
A01=Patrick McGinty
Appalachia
Author_Patrick McGinty
big city
bildungsroman
Category=FB
Category=FBA
Category=FXB
college
coming of age
cryptocurrency
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_nobargain
fiction
financial sector
investment banking
LGBTQI
masculinity
New York City
novel
queer
rust belt
small town
tech bros
western Pennsylvania
Product details
- ISBN 9780299354244
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 140 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 23 Sep 2025
- Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Town College City Road follows Kurt Boozel from childhood in an insular Northwestern Pennsylvania steel town, to college, through the booms and busts of the financial and cryptocurrency markets, and back to his Rust Belt home.
As a young math nerd, Kurt is bullied but relishes the opportunity to tutor his high school's star athlete. After their friendship ends in a public and emasculating act of violence, Kurt steers his life progressively eastward, first as a closeted economics major clinging to the coattails of his richer fraternity brothers, then to New York for a high-pressure finance job. After turning his attention to the fantastic promises of the cryptocurrency market, he finds himself unmoored while driving across Pennsylvania in the midst of a snowstorm to be the best man at his older brother's wedding.
Through his struggles to pass multiple masculine initiations, both real and metaphorical, Kurt ultimately discovers that the only thing tougher than running away from rural mythology is constructing a new one.
As a young math nerd, Kurt is bullied but relishes the opportunity to tutor his high school's star athlete. After their friendship ends in a public and emasculating act of violence, Kurt steers his life progressively eastward, first as a closeted economics major clinging to the coattails of his richer fraternity brothers, then to New York for a high-pressure finance job. After turning his attention to the fantastic promises of the cryptocurrency market, he finds himself unmoored while driving across Pennsylvania in the midst of a snowstorm to be the best man at his older brother's wedding.
Through his struggles to pass multiple masculine initiations, both real and metaphorical, Kurt ultimately discovers that the only thing tougher than running away from rural mythology is constructing a new one.
Patrick McGinty is an assistant professor of languages, literatures, cultures, and writing at Slippery Rock University and lives in Pittsburgh. He is the author of Test Drive, a novel about the driverless car sector.
