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Sunday, October 4, 2009
Ever worked a weird low-level job?

Title: Nickel and Dimed, on (not) getting by in America.
By: Barbara Ehrenreich

Haven't we all worked at some kind of wretched job at some point in our lives? And thought to ourselves "I am so over-educated for this!" In this book, Ms. Ehrenreich conducts an experiment, using herself for the test subject: find work in meaningless jobs and write about the experience of being subservient to rules of management. Can she survive on a low minimum wage, plus find a place to live, plus enough to eat, plus clothes to wear? You are going to laugh out loud at how Ms. Ehrenreich joins a maid service, and has to strap a vacuum to her back while going through hallways, dusting wainscoting and wiping down counter tops with the same dirty cloth! I cried laughing when I read how she had to sort clothes at a famous department store on hangers and re-display the inventory in just the right spot, then see how the next day that display is in another area! She kind-of makes friends, or comrades, and their working class stories are real. The writer returns to her motel room at night to write about the indignity of the lower working class with deep insight. Perfectly appropriate right here, right now. Also available as an audio book.

View similarly tagged posts: non-fiction, history, biography

Posted by pollockl on Oct. 4, 2009 at 1:24 p.m.
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