Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Book, But a Limited Viewpoint
Review: First off, let me state that the book is a fascinating read, and that the author is a superb writer. Perspective, poignancy, and humor engulfed me from the first page, and of course the subject matter is important and interesting.However, I will also mention that the author's viewpoint is more limited than she realizes. Some of the issues that she confronts are shocking to her, not because they happen to people in "entry level jobs," as she believes, but because after her years in free-lance writing, she is simply out of touch with everyday working people in general. Yes, Ms. Ehrenreich, people who work as lawyers, programmers, and professors also get reamed out, bossed around, and admonished to "work through" their disabilities. And if no one has spoken to you condescendingly since junior high school, you are much luckier than most of us. Also, I was troubled by her very negative view of her colleagues at work. That she considers maids to be "modern day untouchables" reveals only her own arrogance! I noticed that she made no attempt to socialize with the other servers, aides, maids, and sales associates; if she had, her work would have included far more insight into her subject. And while she clearly has researched her subject thoroughly and has interviewed several "experts," there is no evidence of interviews of the very people she is writing about. Does she really think that there was no more to know about them or from them, beyond her contact at the work site and break room? Still, the book is very interesting and enjoyable, and I gained additional insight into a highly significant subject. I certainly recommend this book!
Rating:
Summary: being there
Review: The financial page picture of economic life in America is dismal these days, but in a way that strikes me as abstract. The Dow Jones is down, the NASDAQ has crumbled, and IRA investors are nervous. A look at the fine print reveals rising personal debt, and the looming threat of corporate layoffs. In Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich dives right down past those abstractions, into the lives of people who may never be able to retire at all, let alone in Wall-Street-supported comfort. Ehrenreich went out and applied for jobs in Florida, Maine, and Minnesota. She folded clothes at Wal-Mart, waited tables, washed dish, and cleaned houses, to see what it's like to live on what those jobs pay. No big news, in a sense--it stinks: "What you don't necessarily realize when you start selling your time by the hour is that what you're actually selling is your life." Ehrenreich allowed herself a safety net. She always had a car, a place to live, an ATM card. She came with the first month's rent; the experiment was to see if she could legitimately earn another month's rent in the best job (or jobs) that an ordinary person could get. "In addition to being mobile and unencumbered, I am probably in a lot better health than most members of the long-term low-wage workforce. I had everything going for me." But nowhere does the equation work out. This is a passionate, painful book. It could not have been done as a thought experiment. "There's no way, for example, to pretend to be a waitress: the food either gets to the table or not." Ehrenreich is really exhausted, her knees and back really hurt--and in the end she gets to go home, back across the divide into the world of people who can reach into their wallets to buy this book. The last chapter of Nickel and Dimed treats the economic nuts and bolts of the experiment. Market rents go up; market wages do not; and the working poor go without lunch to make up the difference. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how the lowest-paid have disappeared from the agenda of American politics and media. Our blindness is our shame.
Rating: 
Summary: Wait For The Paperback!
Review: "Nickel and Dimed" is deceptive. On the surface, it is solid social commentary on the fate of the working poor in this country. It is also both well written and edited. The latter is often a rarity these days. "ND" reads quickly and could almost be finished in one sitting. Most any reader can empathize with the struggles of keeping body, soul and all too often, families together on an hourly wage. However, when the smoke clears, one must admit that Ms. Ehrenreich has offered us nothing new. Few Americans, with the possible exception of W, believe that the working poor have it easy or that supporting a family on a Wal- Mart salary is realistic. These folks often lead lives of quiet desparation but their plight is hardly a revelation. The author has shed her light on an old, old story. Furthermore, it is not real! Ehrenreich is a successful author going temporarily undercover! She has an ultimate out and never really will have to struggle-long term-to get by. Also, as another reviewer wrote, 3 cities may have been one too many. By the time Ehrenreich arrives in the Twin Cities, the tale has become a bit repetitive. She had the material to concentrate on Key West and Portland. Ultimately, "ND" is still recommended-especially if one waits for the paperback version. Just because this is an "Old Story" doesn't mean that we can't read about it one more time. This is a very undemanding book. The author deserves some credit. She tackled a serious subject and produced a readable product. (She could have written about the First Family or the British Royals). "Nickel and Dimed" is worth a try- at paperback prices!!
Rating: 
Summary: highly recommended
Review: This book is investigative journalism and doesn't attempt to be a sociological study. And yes, Ms. Ehrenreich brings her own personality, prejudices, and experiences with her in her forays into low-wage jobs. However, I think that is an asset, not a detriment to the book. I think as a society we're often loath to face uncomfortable truths, and the great truth she illustrates for us here is the sheer ugliness of capitalism. Marx did point it out for us a long way back, but he's not an easy read. Dickens did too, but the industrial revolution seems a long way away in the 21st century. Now, anyone with any background in economics can point out that companies need to keep costs down, that a "living wage" would put many small businesses under, the connections between capitalism and freedom, etc., etc. But sometimes I think we need a harsh look at reality and the indignities and struggles just to have food and shelter that many, many people in this country face on a daily basis. Ms. Ehrenreich doesn't purport to solve the problems she describes here, but she has done us a great service by making her readers think long and hard about the inequities and injustices in our country.
Rating:
Summary: The Truth of the Impoverished Working Class
Review: What I liked so much about this book is that finally someone has uncovered the truth about working in restaurant/retail/housekeeping. Having to work many terrible summer jobs in retail, I noticed the same thing about my co-workers she had observed. They were treated like garbage. Restaurant and retail workers are always getting blamed for everything that goes wrong, whether it's a customer complaint, a refrigerator malfuction or even company bankruptcy. In reality, a bad retail experience is usually due to poor management, corporate cut-backs, etc. Ehrenreich observed this very well. I saw how some of the people I worked with had to live and it was very sad. If they were fired unjustly they would still beg for their job back because they'd be out on the street until they could find a new one and the managers knew it. Ehrenreich knew it too, after working these jobs. She never talks about the younger people, granted their economic situations are usually not the same, but it doesn't mean they are treated any better or deserved the authoritarian rule of the managers. The only thing she says about that is a quote from a ridiculous and obviously un-researched article in the New York Times about how young people would rather work internships. Like most of them even have a choice. Both Ehrenreich and the New York Times reporter don't seem to realize how scarce internships really are and how difficult they are to obtain. It is sometimes hard to comprehend that she herself originated from a working-class background. Without the minimum wage lifestyle, she seems so absorbed in her world of Key West socialites you wonder if most of her life was an attempt to hide that background as much as possible. I would imagine that in Key West the working poor are harder to see than in a place like Brooklyn or Detroit. However, while many people realize there's a problem they, like Ehrenreich, are so absorbed in their elevated status they'd rather pretend it doesn't exist. In any case, I'm glad she wrote this book. It was worth being said and I recommend that anyone who is or has ever worked minimum wage to read it. They need to know they're not alone.
Rating:
Summary: Speaks for the voiceless
Review: Devoured this book in one sitting, reading out loud passages both funny and painfully true. At last, someone has FINALLY given those who toil in undercompensated and unappreciated jobs a voice. The narrative makes you feel as if you too are struggling in this rut. I found the less effective passages those when Ms. Ehrenreich delivers the occasional polemic on the evils of capitalism. The story is best when Ehrenreich draws attention to the ludicrous scenarios faced in these thankless jobs. I've been there too, and it validated so many of the frustrations hardworking people put up with just to barely get by -- and for what? The author's provocative statement about "unskilled workers" being the true philantropists in our society may possibly wake a few people up about the underbelly of our "free market" system.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I first read of this book in a magazine article and wanted to read it right away. After finishing the book, I found that it was not what I expected and was rather disappointing. If you're looking for revelations about the lives of the working poor, don't look here. Ehrenreich offers nothing that hasn't been said before. The only people who may be shocked by her conclusions are those who have been locked away in an ivory tower for their entire life. At points, it seems like Ehrenreich herself has been locked away in said tower - she waxes philosophical about the smallest issues and one wonders how working class the working class background she claims to have really is. There are also points in the books where it seems that she is no longer looking at the people she works with as people, but as some sort of lesser creature which she must constantly condescend. The book is a rather quick and easy read, so it may be enjoyed if you go in to it not expecting hardcore social introspection and think of it more as Cultural Studies lite.
Rating:
Summary: Serfin' USA
Review: America's culture industry is dominated by educated, relatively affluent folks (mostly Rightist or Centrist politically) who blithely assume that everyone shares their advantaged lifestyle and smug worldview. Ignored by the corporate media, the millions of Americans who toil at minimum wage jobs are largely absent from the nation's public consciousness. Indeed, the status quo depends on cultural amnesia and wholesale denial of America's obscenely skewed class structure in order to maintain itself. That's why a book like Barbara Ehrenreich's NICKLE AND DIMED is so incredibly important. Ehrenreich offers her readers a glimpse of what life is like at the bottom of the socio-economic heap. It's not a pretty picture down there: physically punishing, mind-numbing, soul-destroying work at peon wages under authoritarian management--that's the reality of life for a large segment of the population. When all the self-congratulatory capitalist cheerleading is shoved aside, what we have here is widespread wage slavery. True, Ehrenreich's sojourn amongst the proletariat was brief and, therefore, somewhat dilletantish but at least she tried to get a clue. Can you picture a right-wing pundit like Bret Hume or George Will or Mona Charen having the ethical stamina and intellectual curiosity to examine the lives of the U.S. underclass? Never happen, sir.
Rating:
Summary: It could have been a good book...missed its mark
Review: I think the premise was a good idea as a whole, but I don't believe Barbara Ehrenreich was the one to present it. She tends to have a victim attitude in life, and a contempt for people who are successful, which I find ironic since I am sure she is not standing on a street corner giving away her profits from the book. She opens fine and the footnotes are somewhat interesting but then she goes off on tangents that have nothing to do with the book. She claims to have this disdain for others who she feels are elitists but then she turns around and does the same thing herself. One example, which has no place in this story, in my opinion is when she, as an avid atheist, decided to attend a revival for fun, then not only proceeded to mock the people who went but called Jesus a socialist among other things I would rather not repeat. My opinion of her formed very quickly from that point. She also points out that management in one of the companies she works for were simply jerks. Granted we all know the types but she didn't even try to see it from a balanced point of view. The Maid Company she worked for had some hard rules, like no water on the job, etc., which I found to be unreasonable, however she ended up blaming the homeowners, some that she never met. She had disdain for a Buddhists home who had spiritual messages throughout his house, once again she never met this person, yet felt free to judge. Also a note to Ms. Ehrenreich , not all of us that hire outside help in our homes treat people that way. We have been blessed (yes blessed!) to have a wonderful housekeeper, landscaper and handyman who comes in quickly. NONE of them are treated like they are any less, we would be lost without them and they know it. Also as far as management is concerned, as a business owner I realize how some people are in this position but there are also two sides to a coin. She mentions how much she dislikes the people she works for with the "rules" yet in the next breath she talks about her and the "maids" in the company car driving through a nice area with the radio blarring and yelling "F*** YOU" out the car window to moms with stollers. When they cringed she mentions how she finds this behavior hysterically funny. Gee and you wonder why they have to set up rules. I wouldn't want her representing my company. The book is not balanced. Last but not least, she claims so many of these people are in poverty, yet I can't help notice how many of them have no "lunch " money yet have plenty of funds for smoking and having kid after kid. Just an observation. It's too bad really the subject matter would have been good had it not been so tainted by attitude. I have no doubt there are a great deal of working poor who are making ends meet and having a hard time. Those are the people she should have sought out. I believe she was too blinded by her anger or perhaps guilt over her own success to see it clearly.
Rating:
Summary: Worth It
Review: This book, in which journalist and essayist Barbara Ehrenreich, in an attempt to understand how the working poor get by, joins their ranks. The biggest risk is that the results will be too predictable to bother reading: Ehrenreich is a determined liberal whose point of view on such matters is hardly a secret. Even she seem conscious of this in the book's opening, wondering whether the experiment is worth it. I think it was well worth doing, and well worth reading about. While some of what happens in Nickel And Dimed is much what you'd expect, there are also plenty of surprises in her descriptions of stints as a waitress, a maid, a Wal-Mart clerk, and other jobs, and her attempts to get by on the wages she earns. It is, of course, a stressful balancing act, and Ehrenreich tells about it an engaging and economical style - and the result is a (short, 220-page) book with a momentum to it that makes it hard to put down. Along the way there's a great deal to think about. I doubt that even Ehrenreich believes the book will end the debate over the working poor, but Nickel And Dimed does much to humanize that debate. Sounds like a valuable contribution to me.
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