Overview

In the tiny Iowa farm town of Atalissa, a group of intellectually disabled men, all from Texas, lived in a tired old schoolhouse. Every morning, well before dawn, they were bussed to a processing plant to eviscerate turkeys in return for food, lodging, and $65 a month. From 1974 until 2009, the men lived in near servitude, enduring increasing neglect, exploitation, and physical and emotional abuse—until state social workers, local journalists, and one tenacious government lawyer helped these men achieve their freedom. New York Times columnist Dan Barry reveals how these men in an Iowa schoolhouse remained nearly forgotten for more than three decades. Drawing on exhaustive interviews, he dives deeply into their lives, recording their memories and suffering, their tender moments of joy and persistent hopefulness—their endurance of harrowing circumstances. Barry explores why this small heartland town remained all but blind to the men’s plight, details how those responsible for such profound neglect justified their actions, and chronicles the lasting impact of a dramatic court case that has spurred advocates—as well as President Obama—to push for just pay and improved working conditions for people with disabilities. A luminous work of social justice, told with compassion and compelling detail, The Boys in the Bunkhouse is inspired storytelling and a clarion call for vigilance—an American tale that holds lasting reverberations for all of us.

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9780062372130

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Reviews

Dan Barry gives dignity even to the darkest corners of the American experience. He is the closest thing we have to a contemporary Steinbeck. --Colum McCann, author of the National Book Award-winning Let the Great World Spin

A worthy companion to Roger Kahn s classic Boys of Summer ...[Dan Barry] exploits the power of memory and nostalgia with literary grace and journalistic exactitude. He blends a vivid, moment-by-moment re-creation of the game with what happens to its participants in the next 30 years. --New York Times

The story of these men gets the full telling it deserves in Dan Barry's powerful, moving, and at times heartbreaking book, The Boys in the Bunkhouse. --Commonweal Magazine Hard-hitting journalism shot through with flourishes of the best literary nonfiction. . . . The Boys in the Bunkhouse is, ultimately, a hopeful story of the power of a few dogged individuals to make change. --Minneapolis Star Tribune Gently, emphatically, and indelibly, Barry conveys a tale of unthinkable brutality.--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Disturbing yet beautifully told... --America Magazine Dan Barry represents the magic that is possible in journalism when there is a convergence between a great story and great talent. --Gay Talese Dan Barry gives dignity even to the darkest corners of the American experience. He is the closest thing we have to a contemporary Steinbeck. --Colum McCann, author of the National Book Award-winning Let the Great World Spin Barry's book can't right all those wrongs, but it at least documents them eloquently, and in a more permanent way. --Kansas City Star An important story about the horrors of slavery and exploitation that can happen to vulnerable people anywhere. --The Atlantic An extraordinary contribution to the literature of social injustice. . . . The Boys in the Bunkhouse surely will emerge as one of the landmark books of the year. --Providence Journal An astonishing tale that lyrically articulates baseball's inexorable grip on its players and fans, Bottom of the 33rd belongs among the best baseball books ever written. --Cleveland Plain Dealer A fascinating, beautifully told story... In the hands of Barry, a national correspondent for the New York Times, this marathon of duty, loyalty, misery and folly becomes a riveting narrative...The book feels like 'Our Town' on the diamond. --Minneapolis Star Tribune [Dan] Barry does more than simply recount the inning-by-inning-by-inning box score. He delves beneath the surface, like an archaeologist piecing together the shards and fragments of a forgotten society, to reconstruct a time and a night that have become part of baseball lore. --Associated Press The Boys in the Bunkhouse is not just a book about the victims but also a book that turns those victims into real men. Dan Barry has written them into history, as only a journalist could. --Newsweek As an expose of a moral catastrophe, this is a vital piece of reportage. --New York Times Book Review Praise for Bottom of the 33rd: What a book--an exquisite exercise in story-telling, democracy and myth-making that has, at its center, a great respect for the symphony of voices that make up America. --Colum McCann

Dan Barry represents the magic that is possible in journalism when there is a convergence between a great story and great talent. --Gay Talese

A fascinating, beautifully told story... In the hands of Barry, a national correspondent for the New York Times, this marathon of duty, loyalty, misery and folly becomes a riveting narrative...The book feels like Our Town on the diamond. --Minneapolis Star Tribune

The story of these men gets the full telling it deserves in Dan Barry's powerful, moving, and at times heartbreaking book, The Boys in the Bunkhouse. --Commonweal Magazine Hard-hitting journalism shot through with flourishes of the best literary nonfiction. . . . The Boys in the Bunkhouse is, ultimately, a hopeful story of the power of a few dogged individuals to make change. --Minneapolis Star Tribune Gently, emphatically, and indelibly, Barry conveys a tale of unthinkable brutality.--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Disturbing yet beautifully told... --America Magazine Dan Barry represents the magic that is possible in journalism when there is a convergence between a great story and great talent. --Gay Talese Dan Barry gives dignity even to the darkest corners of the American experience. He is the closest thing we have to a contemporary Steinbeck. --Colum McCann, author of the National Book Award-winning Let the Great World Spin Barry's book can't right all those wrongs, but it at least documents them eloquently, and in a more permanent way. --Kansas City Star An important story about the horrors of slavery and exploitation that can happen to vulnerable people anywhere. --The Atlantic An extraordinary contribution to the literature of social injustice. . . . The Boys in the Bunkhouse surely will emerge as one of the landmark books of the year. --Providence Journal An astonishing tale that lyrically articulates baseball's inexorable grip on its players and fans, Bottom of the 33rd belongs among the best baseball books ever written. --Cleveland Plain Dealer A fascinating, beautifully told story... In the hands of Barry, a national correspondent for the New York Times, this marathon of duty, loyalty, misery and folly becomes a riveting narrative...The book feels like 'Our Town' on the diamond. --Minneapolis Star Tribune [Dan] Barry does more than simply recount the inning-by-inning-by-inning box score. He delves beneath the surface, like an archaeologist piecing together the shards and fragments of a forgotten society, to reconstruct a time and a night that have become part of baseball lore. --Associated Press The Boys in the Bunkhouse is not just a book about the victims but also a book that turns those victims into real men. Dan Barry has written them into history, as only a journalist could. --Newsweek Praise for Bottom of the 33rd What a book--an exquisite exercise in story-telling, democracy and myth-making that has, at its center, a great respect for the symphony of voices that make up America. --Colum McCann As an expose of a moral catastrophe, this is a vital piece of reportage. --New York Times Book Review

Author Information

Dan Barry is a reporter and columnist for the New York Times. In 1994 he was part of an investigative team at the Providence Journal that won the Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles on Rhode Island's justice system. He is the author of a memoir, a collection of his About New York columns, and Bottom of the 33rd, for which he won the 2012 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Maplewood, New Jersey.

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