Denison, Iowa, is as close to the heart of Middle America as it
gets. The hometown of Donna Reed, Denison has adopted "It's a
wonderful life" as its slogan and painted the phrase on the water
tower that hovers over everything in town. And in many respects,
life is pretty good here: it's a quiet town, a great place to raise
children; the crime rate is low, the schools strong. It's home to
the county's only Wal-Mart and a factory that does a booming
business in antiterrorism barriers. For outsiders looking in, there
is something familiar and comforting about Denison -- it conforms
to the picture of the wholesome, corn-fed heartland which we as a
nation cherish and which we think we know so well.
But something new and unfamiliar is happening in Denison, and
traditional viewpoints and partisan labels don't quite capture it.
The change goes beyond the post-9/11 loss of innocence; the sense
of unease and, in some cases, of rebirth began well before 2001.
Relations between the growing Latino population and the established
Anglo citizenry are not always smooth. The industries that still
predominate have become a mixed blessing for many people -- in the
1980s the meat-processing plant, for instance, froze wages, and
they have remained basically static to this day.
For many years, Dale Maharidge and Michael Williamson have made it
their business to document interior America. In 1990 they won the
Pulitzer Prize for their book And Their Children After Them, a
conscious homage to the 1941 classic Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
by James Agee and Walker Evans. To gather their observations and
insights on Denison, Maharidge and Williamson lived there for a
year, spending time among the 8,000 people who live, love, work,
run for office, go to school, and sometimes struggle to get by
there. From the Lutheran woman who singlehandedly teaches English
to Latino immigrants seeking grueling work in meatpacking plants to
the leaders who struggle to rescue the community from economic ruin
to the Latino businessman whose career is saved by two white men
risking the wrath of small-town politics, the author and
photographer trace the intersections of lives, the successes and
failures, the real stories beneath Denison's mom-and-apple-pie
surface.
Through Maharidge's gorgeous, plainspoken prose and Williamson's
stunning photography, we are privy to a sweeping perspective
layered with a microscopic depth of observation, and a searingly
honest portrait tempered by heartfelt compassion. Denison, Iowa is
a big, beautiful book about a small town at a critical time in our
history -- and it's the crowning work of a brilliant,
quarter-century partnership.
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