Readalikes: If you enjoyed January's selection . . .

If you enjoyed The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer, then you might also like the books Packer reviews in A Critic at Large: Don't Look Down for The New Yorker (April 29, 2013), a look at the new Depression literature. These titles include Down the Up Escalator: How the 99% Live in the Great Recession by Barbara Garson; Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff; and Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt by Chris Hedges with illustrations by Joe Sacco. You could also read the U. S. A. trilogy of novels by John Dos Passos, published in the 1930s, which Packer acknowledges influenced the subject, structure, and style of The Unwinding.

January Not Fiction Book Discussions

We begin our road trip through American history and culture with one of the most talked-about books of 2013: The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer. Inspired by John Dos Passos' U.S.A. trilogy, Packer creates a montage of longer biographical narratives of ordinary Americans, shorter biographical sketches of celebrities of all kinds, and collages or mashups of cultural memes to illustrate the "unwinding" over the last three decades of the America most of us take for granted, "when the coil that held Americans together in its secure and sometimes stifling grip first gave way." Packer is referring in particular to what he calls the "Roosevelt Republic," a cohesive national web of public and private institutions that offers a place and a sense of security for all citizens. He argues that what has taken its place is organized money and a cult of celebrity that has reached beyond entertainment into other areas of public life, including government.

Looking back over the last three decades, do you recall noticing signs of this unwinding as they were occurring? What were they? Or did they only become clear upon looking back, as through a rear view mirror? In his Prologue, Packer suggests that unwindings of political, social, and cultural structures in our country are nothing new, that "Each decline brought renewal, each implosion released energy, out of each unwinding came a new cohesion." Yet in an interview with NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, Packer says of this particular devolution, "What I see happening is not just cyclical, though, it feels like a real cultural shift where the value of the community, of what makes this a coherent society, has really been submerged." What do you think? Do you see the events of the last three decades in the same light as Packer does? Do you feel that they are cyclical or that they represent a true cultural shift? Does Packer offer any hope for our collective future? Do you see any? And finally, do you think future generations will read Packer's book as we do works like Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, or do you think it is closer to a cry that the sky is falling that will appear alarmist to future readers?

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer includes collages, called Mashups, of headlines, slogans, and songs that capture the flow of events—the social and political undercurrents—in a given year. Did you find yourself wondering what sources Packer used? Click here for an interactive page on the publisher's website that provides source notes.

We hope you will join the discussion of this winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Nonfiction: Tuesday, January 7, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, January 16, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.