A review by jaclyn_sixminutesforme
Rust: A Memoir of Steel and Grit by Eliese Colette Goldbach

4.0

This was a really fascinating and compellingly written memoir looking at the author's experience working in the Rust Belt in a steel mill, particularly so because of the connections she draws to how she ended up there based on current politics, her education, religious upbringing, class, mental health, and the complexities of a recession. Her commentary and self-awareness of privilege, juxtaposed against her experience with mental health and sexual assault related trauma particularly, was really well developed alongside the everyday issues she encountered as a woman working in a male-dominated workplace.

What I felt was missing was perhaps another chapter or so from Goldbach reflecting on her transition into academia, and how her time in the steel mill informed and impacted that - I found that quite compartmentalized, which seemed at odds when compared with how much earlier parts of her life influenced her time at the steel mill.

I would have also been fascinated to see photographs of some of the more technical aspects of her work in the mill (perhaps more wishful thinking on my part as I found these descriptions so fascinating! I would have loved to have seen the scale of some of the work tasks she performed, for example).

Many thanks to Flatiron for a review copy