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Summary: Ben Hamper, Where Art Thou?
Review: I bought this book on the recommendation of one of my graduate school professors, thinking I would suffer through it. Contrary to my preconceptions that it would be a dull account of factory life, I simply could not put the book down once I started reading it. Hamper's insight into the Greaseball Mecca (GM) assembly plant culture was both entertaining and informative. I started and finished the book in the time span of one weekend and plan to read it again soon. Ben apparently hasn't written another book yet...
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Summary: Must read for anyone from the Flint area
Review: I found out about this book while watching Michael Moore's The Awful Truth on Bravo. Ben did some correspondence work for Michael. My husband, my dad, and I were watching it and my dad told me that was the guy from Roger & Me (a movie about Flint by Michael Moore-a must see for anyone who enjoys this book) that was in the mental hospital on Holly Rd. I got the book and read the acknowledgements and I realized that I went to school with his daughter! He hung out and a bar called Mark's Lounge and I used to work at the Sunoco gas station right next door to it while I was in college! Anyway being originally from the Flint area and working right across the street from the factory Ben worked in I knew that quite a bit of drinking and long lunch hours took place but Ben tells it is so funny. My favorite parts are when he talks about Howie Makem the quality cat. It is an easy read too. It only took me a couple of days to read it. But then again maybe that is because I couldn't put it down!
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Summary: Ben Hamper - M.I.A.
Review: I have good news and bad news. The good news is that "Rivethead" is still in print. The bad news is that its author, Ben Hamper, apparently isn't. As far as I know, this is the last (only?) work of his to be published. Having read "Rivethead" no less than 10-15 times, I can say that nothing I have ever read can touch it. Hamper's tales of his and his ne'er-do-well, misfit co-workers' escpades, set in the shadowy nether world of a General Motors assembly plant, are hilarious, sad, frightening, and fascinating. Ben, if you're out there somewhere, give us a sign. I'd consider it an honor if you'd autograph my Angry Samoans album.
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Summary: Best book I've read yet
Review: I have no doubt that this is an accurate description of life at GM during his tenure. I wonder if it is similar now? Anyhow, I can see why many companies are now drug free at least in theory. I also wonder how many of these problems were self inflicted. Whatever is true Ben Hamper has certainly given us something to think about.
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Summary: An interesting read
Review: I have no doubt that this is an accurate description of life at GM during his tenure. I wonder if it is similar now? Anyhow, I can see why many companies are now drug free at least in theory. I also wonder how many of these problems were self inflicted. Whatever is true Ben Hamper has certainly given us something to think about.
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Summary: Read it and laugh (or cry!)
Review: I have to say that this is one of the best books I have ever read. It is contemporary and razor sharp. Anyone who knows the corporate world at all can sympathize.The author's wit and perception are uncanny. Read it.
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Summary: Great, great, great!
Review: I just re-read this and it is one of my all-time favorite books! It's so funny. Anyone who grew up in a Midwestern, blue-collar environment will relate to the drinking and dark humor and job of drudgery. I wish he would write a second book.
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Summary: Hard-hitting biography of the common man
Review: I read Rivethead for a course in Michigan History at Central Michigan University. As a prospective history teacher, I plan to use Hamper's book in my high school classes. Hamper describes factory life in a manner that is both brutal and eloquant. This book helped me to understand the daily pains that so many Big Three employees and factory workers in general experience. My respect for these men and women that comprise the backbone of American life as grown expodentialy since reading Hamper's opus.
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Summary: Did we work at the same place?
Review: I read this book the first time when I was a clerk at the Postal Service on the night shift. Apparently GM and the Post Office have a lot in common. I laughed out loud almost through the whole book, often identifying with the subject matter.
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Summary: Outstanding, funny, easy read.
Review: I spent four years in college reading over a hundred books for my classes, including this one. I am done now, and this is the ONLY book I am even thinking of re-reading. I have never laughed so hard in my life, and learned so much. Durkheim, Marx. Weber, Huff, I have ready some books by the greats of academia, but this is the book that sticks in my mind. Ironically, my first job out of college was working in a factory enviroment driving a forklift!! You never know where life will take you, but in this book you learn about the lives of the people who built that car you are driving through life. I drive a GM vehicle, and this book really opened my eyes!!
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