****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
This book was recommended to me by a friend as we were starting to set up the 50th reunion for our Denison High School Class of '60. Both sides of my family had lived in Denison since the late 1800's - but currently I only have one distant relative living there. I personally left right after graduating from high school and have been back less than a half dozen times since. That seems to be the experience of the majority of my classmates as well - very few still live in Denison.The book really captures Denison as it currently is - including the conflict between "old timers" and newly arrived Hispanics. The analogy to the earlier German/non-German conflicts is generally accurate - but the conflicting sides in that case arrived at about the same time. In fact, the German side of my family was probably there earlier.Denison is dying simply because the farm land is too rich to do anything else with it - and with current farming equipment, that doesn't take many people. The packing industry is a good employer, but the skill set required is very minimal (meaning the pay is relatively poor) and the work is hard (farming and butchering always have been).If you're not a Denison native, read the book to get a feel for what is currently happening throughout the Midwest. If you are, prepare to feel sad as well.
