Best Of Sarah Smarsh's "Heartland"
Here is a selection of memorable quotes from Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh But the American Dream has a price tag on it. The cost changes depending on where you're born and to whom, with what colour skin and with how much money in your parents' bank account. The poorer you are, the higher the price. You can pay an entire life in labor, it turns out, and have nothing to show for it. Less than nothing, even: debt, injury, abject need. Most of us, regardless of economic station, sacrifice a great deal to it. p. 42 That can be a satisfying agreement. Grandpa Arnie loved working the land not for the price of wheat per bushel but because smelling damp earth at sunrise felt like a holy experience. Dad loved building something beautiful out of good lumber not for the paycheck but for seeing his own creativity turned into a sturdy, useful structure. The pleasure that Mom got when she sold a little house in Wichita w...
