I read this non-fiction book last year and truly enjoyed the
author’s immersion in her experience. NOMADLAND IS POIGNANT AND
BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN: I look forward to reading it again.Description
From the beet fields of North Dakota to the National Forest
campgrounds of California to Amazon’s CamperForce program in Texas,
employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely
of transient older Americans. Finding that social security comes up
short, often underwater on mortgages, these invisible casualties of
the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in
late-model RVs, travel trailers, and vans, forming a growing community
of nomads: migrant laborers who call themselves “workampers.”
On frequently traveled routes between seasonal jobs, Jessica Bruder
meets people from all walks of life: a former professor, a
McDonald’s vice president, a minister, a college administrator, and
a motorcycle cop, among many others―including her irrepressible
protagonist, a onetime cocktail waitress, Home Depot clerk, and
general contractor named Linda May.
In a secondhand vehicle she christens “Van Halen,” Bruder hits the
road to get to know her subjects more intimately. Accompanying Linda
May and others from campground toilet cleaning to warehouse product
scanning to desert reunions, then moving on to the dangerous work of
beet harvesting, Bruder tells a compelling, eye-opening tale of the
dark underbelly of the American economy―one that foreshadows the
precarious future that may await many more of us. At the same time,
she celebrates the exceptional resilience and creativity of these
quintessential Americans who have given up ordinary rootedness to
survive. Like Linda May, who dreams of finding land on which to build
her own sustainable “Earthship” home, they have not given up hope.
“Stunning and beautifully written. . . brilliant and haunting”
- Arlie Russell Hochschild, New York Times Book Review
“People who thought the 2008 financial collapse was over a long time
ago need to meet the people JESSICA BRUDER GOT TO KNOW IN THIS
SCORCHING, beautifully written, vivid, disturbing (and occasionally
wryly funny) book. NOMADLAND IS A TESTAMENT BOTH TO THE GENEROSITY AND
CREATIVITY OF THE VICTIMS OF OUR MODERN-medieval economy, hidden in
plain sight, and to the blunt-end brutality that put them there. Is
this the best the wealthiest nation on earth can do for those who’ve
already done so much?”
- Rebecca Solnit, author of A Paradise Built in Hell
“In the early twentieth CENTURY, men used to ride the rails in
search of work, sharing camps at night. Today, as BRUDER BRILLIANTLY
REPORTS, we have a new class of nomadic workers who travel in their
RVs from one short-term job to another. There’s a lot to cringe at
here―from low pay and physically exhausting work to constant
insecurity. But surprisingly, NOMADLAND ALSO OFFERS ITS RESIDENTS
MUCH-needed camaraderie and adventure, which makes this book a joy to
read.”
- Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed
“The campsite as the home of last resort, the RV used not for
vacation but for survival: these are the makings of a new dystopia.
NOMADLAND IS A SMART ROAD BOOK FOR THE NEW ECONOMY, full of
conviviality and dark portent.”
- Ted Conover, author of Rolling Nowhere and Immersion
“You will never forget the people whose stories BRUDER TELLS. Proud,
resourceful, screwed-over, funny and in so many ways admirable, the
AMERICAN NOMADS BRUDER LIVED WITH AND REPORTS ON HAVE SOMETIMES LOST
EVERYTHING BUT THEIR BRAVADO . . . . [She] tells their stories with
humanity and wit.”
- Louise Erdrich, author of Future Home of the Living God
About the Author
Jessica Bruder is an award-winning journalist whose work focuses on
subcultures and the dark corners of the economy. She has written for
Harper’s Magazine, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.
Bruder teaches at the Columbia School of Journalism.
culture
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25/09/2019 Last update