Octopus Hunting, a mind-bending collection of new essays by Richey A. Piiparinen with illustrations by Liz Maugans. Piiparinen has crafted fourteen essays that traverse the economy of the Rust Belt and Cleveland, Ohio, from its past triumphs to its current struggles, explaining the issues confronting the region with laser wit and mounds of research. The book is also a memoir of Piiparinen’s diagnosis of glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive brain cancer known as “the terminator,” and his subsequent treatment. The two seemingly disparate themes are so expertly knitted together that his personal experiences deepen the economic discussion, and we never forget that when we talk about the rise and fall and rise again of cities and regions, we are really talking about the people who live in them.

Piiparinen has crafted a love song to the city where he was born, raised, and became an influential voice in the debate about the city’s future. Octopus Hunting represents his best thinking and hard-fought conclusions concerning a post-industrial economy and the traps that await a region that does not consider equity in the drive for progress. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to know how a once-dominant industrial region has been dismantled by deliberate policies, public relations, and a drive for lower wages, or who wants to be inspired by a clear-eyed prophet as he stares into his personal abyss.