This book succeeds as a possible insight into the lives of menial, poverty-level workers taken from the standpoint of an outsider. I think this thing could be an eye-opener for the type of people that possess the time and interest to read this sort of thing, namely middle- to upper-class nine to fivers, those that want to understand laborers without getting their own hands dirty. In that way, I think the book has potential. It might not be wholly accurate, but it does have potential. It might just make a yuppie reader think twice before being stingy with his tip for that overworked waitress that neglected to offer him a third refill on his coffee. In that sense, I can see some good from this book.
Taken as investigative journalism elucidating the real plight of bottom-rung workers, the book is just plain worthless. The writer's privelege is never more than a couple sentences away. Whenever trouble arises, she's able to bail herself out with savings from her real life bank account, something real struggling people cannot do. While she acknowledges this inaccuracy on her part, the reader is left unfortunately never really getting an inside look into the difficulties of survival at a barely subsistance level. The reader is always aware that this journalistic exercise is little more than a vacation for the writer, what you might term "slumming it" ( and, also, something not entirely unlike a bit from the introduction where the writer dismisses 70s radicals who, despite their middle-class college degrees, similarly slummed it and tried to help working-class factory workers). For anyone who has actually labored and toiled, this book isn't likely to add anything to the store of knowledge you already possess. In fact, it might actually be deemed offensive, possibly exploitative.
But then again, I don't think that this is meant as a book written for the workers.
Get more detail about Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.
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