“Clutch is a book of such tenderness—and grit and generosity and moving passages. It is also a celebration of construction work, of truck drivers, of teachers and friends, and ultimately of honoring our own hearts even when the worlds we love do not speak to each other. I found myself charmed as I read Linda Pawlenty’s memoir, and I might have gone into truck driving myself if I had found this book when I was younger.” —Daisy Hernández, author of A Cup of Water Under My Bed: A Memoir
“This book is a tough haul, as Pawlenty steers between woman truck driver and college English teacher, between the colloquialisms of trucker talk and the conceptualizations of Marxist and feminist theory, between pouring concrete and managing the dangerous abstract curves of graduate school, between the joy of trucking and the shock of sexual harassment. But at the busy intersection of all this, Pawlenty comes through in the clutch.” —Thomas C. Gannon, author of Birding While Indian: A Mixed-Blood Memoir
Driving a concrete mixer through graduate school, Linda Pawlenty became accustomed to being the odd one out: as a working-class laborer in academia and as a woman and an academic in the construction industry. But from the moment she became a truck driver, Pawlenty loved the satisfaction of proving herself, the thrill of coaxing large machines into place with precision and care. Similarly, when beginning a PhD program in literature, she maneuvered her way through the strange territory of the university, proud to be the first in her family to attempt the degree. In Clutch, she recounts her time shuttling between worlds, delivering with bracing clarity a rare perspective on gender, class, labor, and whiteness—and how the implications of each shift according to context. From enduring sexual harassment at construction sites and classist comments from professors, to the joys of driving a truck and finding academic fulfillment—Pawlenty takes stock of her disparate experiences to ask hard questions about power and acceptance, providing a beacon for those fighting for presence in places they are not expected—and not always welcome—to be.
Linda Pawlenty is a truck driver and volunteers as an English language teacher for Spanish speakers. She holds a PhD in literary studies from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Contents
Preface
Dawning
Some Crazy Tom Potter Shit
Essays
Navigating
Definitions
Cite Your Work
A Truck Driver Is Born
Feedback
Rules and Regs
Sharing
My Pretty Eyes
Truth and Beauty
Participation
And Yet Another Instance Where a Word Wields Its Power
Please
Legal Protection
I Was Talking to Bob and Said:
Assets
Conviviality
¿Pero dónde están los hispanos?
Refrain
Schooled
Not a Chick
Partnership
Craft
What We Might Do
Parts of Speech
Uniform
Mouse
Lacking
Talking Back
Blindside
Refuge
Epilogue
Why I Write
Acknowledgments
Notes
Further Reading
