A RACE TO THE BOTTOM OF CRAZY

A British journalist profiles the American city and state where he has spent half his life.

Grant first lived in Tucson on something of a whim in the early 1990s as a 20-something looking for a life with few constraints or demands, pushing the boundaries of both luck and risk. Over the next 20 years there, he married, divorced, and married again; built a robust freelance journalism career chasing stories flavored with danger; and consorted with various slightly offbeat writers and creators. After about a decade away, Grant arrives back in Tucson with his wife and young daughter shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic, finding a beloved city somewhat changed and himself leaning more into his role as a father, less enchanted by the personal risks that marked his past pursuits. The story of Grant’s return to Arizona and his keen, bemused observations of its position in the present sociopolitical context combine with memories from his earlier days and outline the contours of his own life, career, relationships, and longing for excitement. His reflections strike a chord of wistful satisfaction, tinged with just a hint of late-professional bravado, but this is counterbalanced with the humility and sincere wonder contained in his musings on his daughter and parenthood. Into the space created by his own narrative threads, he pours the characters, politics, and landscape of the city and state he has made home, revealed through accounts of a cherished literary mentor, polarizing campaign rallies, and family camping trips. Shot through with harrowing events and idiosyncratic characters, Grant’s text resists easy tropes to deliver an endearing, if at times absurd, portrait of a surprisingly alluring American hotbed for every issue from immigration and gun laws to climate change and Native American tribal rights.

Tender and hopeful, an engaging read.