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From Publishers Weekly
In a voice often as powerful as the riveting gun he wielded in the 1970s and '80s in a Flint, Mich., General Motors assembly plant, Hamper nails down the excruciating boredom of a shoprat's life on the line. These roughly chronological essays, many published in the local press, bare the rage and humor that, with booze and drugs, friendships and enmities, served to speed along the timeclock's "suffocating minute hand." A fourth-generation factory worker, raised on hard music, hard liquor and soft drugs, given a parochial school education, Hamper was the eldest of eight children deserted by their father, supported by their mother. He was determined not to be an auto worker but soon after high school, married and a father, he needed the steady work GM offered. With free-ranging intelligence and a sharply anarchic sensibility, he tries to figure out and establish some control over his place in GM's massive corporate system. While these essays might best satisfy in small doses, Hamper, no longer a GM employee, writes with unrelenting energy. BOMC and QPB selections; film rights to Warner Bros.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
Hamper, a son, a grandson, and a great-grandson of General Motors' "shoprats," chronicles ten years spent in an abusive marriage with GM in Flint, Michigan. Despite exploitative management policies, arrogant and/or incompetent supervisors, and mind-numbing working conditions, Hamper, like the abused spouse who keeps returning to the abuser, becomes de pressed during layoffs and revives when recalled to the assembly line. Hamper copes with his perceived limited options by consuming impressive quantities of alcohol and writing an irreverent, cynically humorous column about shoprat life for an alternative newspaper. How much of Hamper's alienation and later panic disorder are the result of his ten years at GM and how much are due to genetics and choices is unexplored. Another weakness is Hamper's graceless style and his overuse of four-letter words. Despite these shortcomings, blue-collar voices are rarely heard, and therefore this is recommended for public libraries.
- Andrea C. Dragon, Coll. of St. Elizabeth, Convent Station, N.J.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
- Andrea C. Dragon, Coll. of St. Elizabeth, Convent Station, N.J.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
I WAS SEVEN YEARS OLD THE FIRST TIME I EVER SET FOOT inside an automobile factory. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
I WAS SEVEN YEARS OLD THE FIRST TIME I EVER SET FOOT inside an automobile factory. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An accurate description of line work,
By David Houston (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line (Paperback)
As a former line worker at a Japanese assembly plant, I can honestly say that this is a very accurate description of life on the line. Although the working conditions at the plant I worked at were not as bad as at GM, the mentality of the workers and how they deal with management is the same in a non unionized Japanese Plant. In fact even though it is thought that there is more cooperation between management and worker at Japanese Plants, I found that there was still a deep division between the two. The description of the pranks are hilarious. In summary, if anyone thinks that workers in Japanese plants are any better off than the North American plants, think again. An auto plant is an auto plant.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I be,
By A Customer
This review is from: Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line (Paperback)
Unlike the songs of Bruce Springsteen that focus upon the working class of America, Hamper provides one with a glimpse into the life of an American factory worker. This book shows the lived experiences of people that have now become transperent voices in mainstream society. What Hamper does is provide a forum for these voices to be articulated. This book should be a mandatory reading in college classrooms. Specifically, english majors, sociology majors, and communication majors would benefit from the insight and rhetoric displayed through the harsh but real voice of Hamper. More books like this should be read by members of our society both in and out of the academic forums. In sum, I would recommend this book to the masses.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ben Hamper tells it like it is, I was there !,
By Tony (hustler@globalbiz.net) (Flint, Michigan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line (Paperback)
Life on the line comes back to haunt me with every word Ben writes. It's all true, I worked with Ben, I saw it all, drunk, high, sometimes sober. General Motors and all it's cronies couldn't keep the goodtimes from rolling down the line. Truck-in, truck-out, a drink here, a drink there, a joint here, a joint there, anything to escape.
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