In 2011, Laura Moulton founded Street Books, a bicycle-powered lending library serving folks living outside in Portland, Oregon. That summer, Ben Hodgson became one of her most dedicated regulars, setting the still-unbeaten single season record for borrowing. Then winter came, and Ben's routines changed, and they didn't see each other for two years. Loaners is the story they began to tell when they reconnected.
Their story is a lot of things: It's an oral history of a friendship, told in hyper-observant vignettes. It's a much-needed report from the frontlines of Portland's housing crisis. It's a DIY guide to creating your own street library. It's an indelible portrait of what it's like to experience houselessness for three and a half years. It's an unforgettable exercise in empathy. It's also very funny.
Hodgson (or "Hodge" as Laura calls him) is a classic raconteur, and Moulton matches him tale for tale. Loaners alternates between their perspectives in an addictively readable, occasionally sublime way.
Their story is a lot of things: It's an oral history of a friendship, told in hyper-observant vignettes. It's a much-needed report from the frontlines of Portland's housing crisis. It's a DIY guide to creating your own street library. It's an indelible portrait of what it's like to experience houselessness for three and a half years. It's an unforgettable exercise in empathy. It's also very funny.
Hodgson (or "Hodge" as Laura calls him) is a classic raconteur, and Moulton matches him tale for tale. Loaners alternates between their perspectives in an addictively readable, occasionally sublime way.