Andy Robinson

Fear, loathing, and hope in the United States… In the style of his admired gonzo journalism, Andy Robinson sets out to explore the new American dolocracy along the margins of a road that keeps splitting further apart the more he travels it. On one side: megalomaniac ostentation, golf courses, elite universities, and the young billionaires of Silicon Valley. On the other: waves of racist violence, a swelling prison population, undocumented immigrants, precarious workers, hurricanes, and droughts. A country where the middle class is on the verge of extinction and grotesque plutocrats have seized the reins of politics with the stroke of a checkbook.

A journey that veers off the path usually taken by mainstream media, the book exposes the dire consequences of that global crisis which turned the American Dream into a horrific nightmare. Yet, what stands out most in Robinson’s prose is his sense of humor, optimism, and irony—indispensable when describing events as outlandish as billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s visit to Spain—and which allows glimpses of hope to shine through in the voices of figures like Bill de Blasio and Bernie Sanders.

Written in the form of short chronicles, with the author immersing himself in the daily lives of ordinary people, the book not only plunges us into cities like New York, Detroit, and San Francisco—emblems of the starkest inequality—but also takes us to Vermont and its independence movement; to Albuquerque, the backdrop of Breaking Bad, where police snipers kill drug addicts and the homeless with impunity; and to Nogales and Tucson, home to a sprawling border-security and private-prison complex that thrives on an inexhaustible supply of deported immigrants.