Matthew Newton has written about visual culture, issues of urbanization, and the marginalization of people and places for The Atlantic, Esquire, Forbes, Spin, and Guernica, and is currently at work on a collection of nonfiction stories that explore the faded promise of the American suburbs. Death of a Good Job, his first e-book, chronicles the experience of losing his job as a magazine editor in the months following the stock market crash of late 2008. He currently lives in Western Pennsylvania with his wife and two sons.
I wanted to hide and quiet my mind by drowning it in alcohol, and I wanted a familiar place to do it. Much like my job, however, I had returned to something that no longer existed.