If every story feels like a lie, you have a great book. I love all of Joanne Greenberg’s fiction, but I wasn’t sure how she’d do with a memoir. I thought On the Run would be one of those boring memoirs about a woman trying to work in a “man’s world.” It turned out to be a page-turner where every story feels like it can’t be true. Yet, it is. Nothing boring about this memoir at all. It’s like watching an action-adventure pic in text form. I loved it, and I recommend it to anybody looking for a history lesson, a story about a woman putting in 110% to get the respect of the men she worked with, and above all, an adventure story that will inspire you like a Shaw Brothers Kung Fu movie from the ’70s.
Why would someone climb out of a warm bed to rescue a neighbor? Because it needs to be done. What is it like to fight a fire in a 10-deg blizzard at 3 in the morning? Greenberg’s description of this feels real and honest but without a lot of handwringing. At the same time, she spells out the lessons she learned from that experience. Or what happens to a semi-tractor trailer going down a 12% grade for 25 miles when the brakes fail? She explains this inside-trucking story to non-truck drivers in a language we can understand without talking down to us.
I also really appreciated the lack of explanations for the tech jargon. As a reader, I don’t need to know how a two-and-one-half-inch hose differs from some other hose. I don’t need to understand the details of pumping from the tanker or what a turnout is. The stories are not encumbered by these terms and probably would not be enhanced by mundane explanations. The result is the author gives us the opportunity to look up those questions if we absolutely need those answers. It’s a sign of respect for the reader.
~Anon
Joanne Greenberg