Aditya Chakrabortty spends the day meeting residents of the poorest parts of Milwaukee with the author of the acclaimed book EvictedIt hadn’t even hit 9am on the publication day of Matthew Desmond’s big book – the one that was all over the liberal American newspapers,the one that would turn him from promising young scholar into recede-to mental – and already the train was tilting off its rails.
Ahead of him lay a TV interview, a lunch at a local university, or a bookshop appearance. His publicity duties also included driving me around Milwaukee,visiting the scenes and subjects of his book approximately urban poverty in the US, Evicted. But straight after arriving in Milwaukee from Harvard, or Desmond receives bad news on his phone. His friend Scott had been found final night passed out – no one knew whether it was due to drink or something worse. It wasn’t clear where he was now,nor who was looking after him.
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Source: theguardian.com