KDL Recommends

Made for You and Me: Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home

ISBN: 9781401341466

Title: Made for You and Me: Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home

Author: Caitlin Shetterly

KDL Description:

The author explains how her and her husband headed west and failed in their endeavors, but still came out of it with a new-found faith in strangers and gratitude for family.

Amazon Description:

“A redemptive story of how Caitlin Shetterly and her passionately devoted husband fought life to a draw in their coast-to-coast-to-coast odyssey. Kerouac would be proud. In fact he might be envious.”
—Peter Davis, Academy Award-winning director of Hearts and Minds

Newlywed Caitlin Shetterly and her husband, Dan Davis, two hardworking freelancers, began their lives together in 2008 by pursuing a lifelong, shared dream of leaving Maine and going West. At first, California was the land of plenty. Quickly, though, the recession landed, and a surprise pregnancy that was also surprisingly rough made Caitlin too sick to work. By December, every job Dan had lined up had been canceled, and though he pounded the pavement, from shop to shop and from bar to bar, he could not find any work at all. By March 2009, every cent of the couple’s savings had been spent.

So, a year after they’d set out with big plans, Caitlin and Dan packed up again, this time with a baby on board, to make their way home to move in with Caitlin’s mother. As they drove, Caitlin blogged about their situation and created audio diaries for NPR’s Weekend Edition—and received an astounding response. From all across the country, listeners offered help, opening their hearts and their homes. And when the young family arrived back in rural Maine and squeezed into Caitlin’s mother’s small saltbox house, Caitlin learned that the bonds of family run deeper than any tug to roam, and that, with love, she and Dan could hold their dreams in sight, wherever they were.

Made for You and Me captures the irrepressible spirit and quiet perseverance of one small family—and offers to share that strength with any reader willing to make the journey.

Praise for Made For You and Me

“Caitlin Shetterly has written an eloquent, thoughtful, and courageous account of a young couple in the midst of a devastating economic crisis. A sense of the present, here and now, is startlingly real, and a feeling emerges that this new generation is facing challenges we have not seen since the time of their grandparents.”
-Reeve Lindbergh, author of Under a Wing: A Memoir and No More Words: A Journal of My Mother, Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“In a world of uncertainty, we are offered a thoughtful pause, from a writer of uncommon resonance, heart, and verve. When Caitlin Shetterly and her husband, Dan, moved to Los Angeles, California, in early 2008, they never imagined they would be among those who would find themselves in a terrifying economic free fall—out of work, far from family, with options dwindling. In Made for You and Me, Caitlin’s memoir of that time, she has written an open letter to all of us, mobile or rooted, about what it means to search for one kind of `American Dream’ and yield to another.

Made for You and Me is a chronicle of change through love—sometimes painful, sometimes funny, often moving. What matters about this book is its revelation that what we think we want is not what we really need, which is family, community, and a meaningful life. This book will make many, many people feel less lonely in the world.”
-Terry Tempest Williams, author of Refuge and Finding Beauty in a Broken World

“Caitlin Shetterly’s lovely, moving account of her small family’s journey to seek out and attain the sometimes elusive American dream will resonate with anyone who has had a tough time, and who hoped and tried hard to keep going.”
– Isabel Gillies, author of Happens Every Day: All All-Too-True Story

“With her candid, open-hearted account of dreams and ambitions waylaid by the Great Recession, Caitlin Shetterly has given us a chronicle of our hard times. Her young family’s bewildering journey across the country and back again ultimately stands as a testament to both resilience and reliance. This is a beautifully-told story informed by a sharp eye and a generous spirit.”
-Jane Brox, author of Five Thousand Days Like This One: An American Family History and Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light