"Life is like the Indy 500. Five hundred laps. Five hundred laps with pit stops. You've got to tune up, change the tires, recharge the battery.”
– Ayaz Virji, Love Thy Neighbor: A Muslin Doctor's Struggle for Home in Rural America

 

 

 

In This Kit You’ll Find:

• 3 copies of American Vertigo by Bernard-Henri Levy
• 3 copies of Blue Collar, White Collar, No Collar Edited by Richard Ford
• 3 copies of Love Thy Neighbor by Ayaz Virji
• 3 copies of Old Glory by Jonathan Raban
• Book sign-up sheet to keep track of books (you may keep)

Themes for Discussion:

• American Vertigo: Ideaology, social problems, cultural differences, travels & voyages, U.S. political culture
• Blue Collar, White Collar, No Collar: work, human relationships to employment
• Love Thy Neighbor: Small town life, toleration, interethnic conflict, Christianity/Islam relations
• Old Glory: Mississippi River life, travel, boating

 

 

About the Book:

American Vertigo: A French writer travels in the footsteps of Alexis de Tocqueville to provide a glimpse into American politics, culture, and society and what it means to be an American from the perspective of a foreign observer. (Novelist)

Blue Collar, White Collar, No Collar: A collection of short stories about work compiled by the writer, Richard Ford. It explores the ways Americans are employed, how we find work and leave it and how it excites, ennobles, occasionally debilitates and often defines us. (Novelist)

Love Thy Neighbor: A true story about a Muslim doctor's service to small-town America. It shows the human consequences of our toxic politics, the power of faith and personal conviction, and the potential for a renewal of understanding in America's heartland. (Novelist)

Old Glory: A chronicle of a journey by motorboat down the Mississippi River that traces the waterway and the lives of the people along its banks. (Novelist)

 

 

Request Kit Here

 

Further Your Discussion:

• Read:  An interview of Richard Ford by CBS News regarding his inspirations for the short stories collected in Blue Collar, White Collar, No Collar:

 

• Watch: Author of American Vertigo, Bernard Henri Levy, talk about his travels through American as a foreigner:
  

 

• Watch: Dr. Ayaz Virji, author of Love Thy Neighbor, detail his fight against hate in the small Minnesota town where he lives and practices:
  

 

• Listen: To this thoughtful review on NPR.org by Tony Horowitz of Jonathan Raban's Old Glory.