At the age of 14, Lydia Paar joined the American workforce. Throughout the years, Paar held 27 jobs across 25 homes in eight states.
In “The Exit Is the Entrance,” Paar shares lyrical snapshots of her attempts to evade or transform the lower-middle class American experience across various cityscapes, towns, deserts and in-between places. She seeks peace, connection and freedom as she moves from the hip streets of Portland to desolate deserts, Army basic training to cross-country bus trips, to eerie St. Louis funeral homes.
These essays interrogate the interior emotional work that comes with labors of love and friendship, of learning and motion, and of finding faith in potential for positive change. Paar meditates on subcultures, agendas, violences, alliances and the intersection of the natural world with human endeavors. Within these pages, she contemplates how what people try to transform so often transforms them.
