Barbara Ehrenreich
Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting by in America (2001)
Author: Barbara Ehrenreich
Genre: Nonfiction (Inside encounter/Sociology and Economics
Book Summary:
How do single working mothers survive on low-wage jobs? Ehrenreich embars on three separate journeys into the world of low wages, unskilled labor, shoddy living conditions and no health benefits to explore explore her question. A PhD. holding writer, Ehrenriech forsakes her normal, mid-upper class lifestyle to first waitress in Key West. Her rules for the experiment do not allow her to fall back on her education (she finds this to be useless anyway), she must take the best paying job she can find and the least expensive living place, she will not allow herself to be homeless or starve. She lives in three different locales employed in three different types on low-wage jobs for one month. Waitressing in Key West she ends up taking two jobs our of financial necessity. In Portland, Maine she works as both nursing home aide and for a home-cleaning service. Lastly, Ehrenreich joins the largest private employer in the nation, Wal-Mart, in Minneapolis. An eclectic cast of characters carries her through each job. Closing with an evaluation of the experiment, Ehrenreigh concludes that two low-wage jobs really are necessary for survival and she herself would never last in such living conditions in the long term. She then returns to her normal life, transitioning from the bottom 20% to the top 20%, changed in her perspective of what it takes to (not) get by in America.
Geographical Setting: Key West, Florida/Portland, Maine/Minneapolis, Minnesota
Time Period: 1998-2000
Series: Ehrenreich wrote a sequel, Switch and Bait
Appeal Characteristics:
Ehrenreich's narrative account of her experiment appeals not only to humanity and the reader's emotions but also to their curiosity. The motley mix of location and characters that dot her experiences add flavor and variety to her recounting. Along the way it is the human encounters with managers, co-workers, clients, patients, and guests that bring real poignancy and meaning to her experiment.Readers will also be interested in the political and economic nature of her initial question, sparked by the Welfare Reform Act, "What does it take for single mothers to survive in a low-wage job?" Readers will also enjoy the "under-cover" treatment of the experiment. Ehrenreich treats her subject and stories with humor, never taking herself too seriously though always treating her circumstances and the experiment with respect and scientific dignity. Anyone interested in issues of understanding poverty, sociological issues, and human side of economics will be drawn to Ehrenreich's work.
Read-alikes: For readers who enjoyed Nickel and Dimed suggest Ehrenreich's more recent work, Bait and Switch. Here Ehrenreich enters the world of the white-collar worker of corporate America in pursuit of “getting ahead.” For its non-traditional and accessible treatment of oddities in economics and statistics, suggest Stephen D. Levitt’s Freakonomics. The author draws bold and seemingly counter-intuitive conclusions based on his economical evaluations. For a read-alike dealing more with the issue of poverty, try David Shiplers The Working Class. More serious in tone, yet meaningful and insightful, Shipler's examination of the working class takes the form of in-depth interviews of men and women working in poverty. He includes more examination of the consequences of poverty,especially on children. For another book dealing with the issues of class conflict and differences, suggest Ruby K. Payne's Crossing the Tracks for Love, her work about the class conflicts often found between partners in love relationships when both do not share a common class background. Taking the story-telling format, this book is a good read-alike for fans of Ehrenreich who want to also explore the human interest topic of relationsips. Finally, for another "undercover" journalism read, suggest Dennis Covington's Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake-Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia. A very different topic from Ehrenreich's, Covington is a journalist sent to cover a murder trial in the Appalachians. Through his investigations, he takes part in a snake-handling church's service, eventually finding close bonds with the parishioners and becoming a part of this mysterious world.
Red Flags: Some course language, mentions of sex and sexuality, drug use
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