Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Some people never leave their hometowns, but Barbara Ehrenreich deliberately turns her life upside down. While most people imagine a vacation as a trip to an exotic or relaxing destination, Ehrenreich chooses the kind of “vacation” no one would want. For several months, she abandons her previous life and instead waits tables in Florida, cleans houses in Maine, and works retail in Minnesota.
In her book, Ehrenreich sets out to explore the realities of poverty in America firsthand. She leaves behind her husband, her possessions, and her stability, arriving in unfamiliar cities with little more than a laptop, some cash, and three goals: to find a job, settle into a home, and make friends in a completely new city, all in an attempt to understand what daily survival looks like for millions of Americans. Throughout her journey, Ehrenreich records the stories of dozens and presents their struggles through an alternative perspective on American economic inequality.
However, her undercover reporting ultimately feels limited in scope. While she mentions the struggles and traumatic stories of those she meets along the way—such as a teenage girl working for a cleaning company who survives on a single bag of chips each day—Ehrenreich rarely pursues these stories further. In documenting these conditions, she overlooks broader patterns and the systemic causes of these issues, glossing over experiences like those of trafficked dishwashers or middle-aged women working long hours at Wal-Mart.
Overall, I felt that she provided only a brief glance at poverty in the United States. At times, the novel felt as though it justified workplace abuse that stripped her coworkers of their dignity and pride. Regardless, her insights allow readers to take away one central message: for those living in poverty in America, work is more than just a means of survival; instead, it becomes a process of slowly selling away their lives just to survive.

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