Had a weird debate at my book club over a memoir set in Portland

I went to a book club meeting last week at the Northeast Community Center in Portland. The memoir was about someone growing up in the Pearl District before it got all fancy. We spent 45 minutes arguing over whether the writer exaggerated the grit or if it was accurate. Has anyone else had a book club debate where facts versus feelings just got out of hand?

2 comments

2 Comments

ray_hernandez28d ago

Northeast Community Center is a solid spot, been there a few times. The Pearl District argument sounds about right. I lived near there in the early 2000s and the grit was real. Homeless camps and abandoned buildings everywhere before the condos took over. People who moved in after 2010 don't get how rough it actually was. So the writer probably wasn't exaggerating much.

dakotawood28d ago

Funny how people forget what it actually looked like back then. The Pearl wasn't always bougie coffee shops and overpriced lofts.