Nomadland

Two books in one: Bruder in part explores the aftershocks of the 2007 collapse that left so many people in deep poverty; she also dives into some of the systems that keep people trapped there. The book, in part and in whole, serves as a distressing indictment of our American need for Cheap Crap™.

The Premise: a disturbing number of people lost jobs and homes in the crash. Some of those have resorted to living in vehicles, quasilegally hopping between campgrounds, parking lots, and streets, chasing livable temperatures across the seasons.

The Twist: when you can’t change your situation, change your perspective. These people (justly) take great pride in their resourcefulness; many go the next step, calling it a blessing, or liberating; an escape from the consumer rat race. They’re actually psyched about it. This is a core element of the book, one which Bruden analyzes from many angles.

The Catch: even nomads need money. Large corporations (notably, but not only, Amazon) prey on these vandwellers, offering physically and emotionally grueling jobs for pitiful pay, with the promise of free van parking. No insurance, obvs, but who cares? When workers are injured or killed, there are more lining up. There are always more and more desperate people; our system depends on it (and guarantees it).

The writing is disjointed, the timelines confusing. Only cursory and slightly sheepish acknowledgment of white “privilege” (if such a word can be used in this context): vandwellers are predominantly white, because, duh, think about it for two seconds. I found myself wondering often: vandwelling may be a last resort, but it’s one not available to all. How much worse are things for the darker-skinned poor?

Quibbles aside, five stars because it taught me and made me think; and because more people need to be aware. If you’ve read [b:Nickel and Dimed|1869|Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting by in America|Barbara Ehrenreich|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442378091l/1869.SY75.jpg|1840613] and/or [b:The Working Poor|11095|The Working Poor Invisible in America|David K. Shipler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388266050l/11095.SY75.jpg|430062], you probably want to read Nomadland.

I have to be honest, I technically listened to this whole audiobook, but I only did it with half an ear. I found the stories repetitive so I did the audio equivalent of skimming, letting my mind wander as I listened. People seem to love this book, but I feel like I could've gotten the same information and appreciation for the subject matter (retirees on the road, working seasonal jobs to try to bring in some money) through a concisely written article in The Atlantic.

The one thing that will stick with me from this book: when we're camping, I won't view the campground hosts the same. I always assumed that was a choice gig for retirees who just loved camping and getting to meet new people. I hadn't realized that they are generally responsible for cleaning the toilets, that many of them are doing it because they need the money, and that it pays a pittance.

I listened to the Audible version of this book. I sort of echo the sentiments of other Audio listeners here on Goodreads when I say that the narrator was pretty flat throughout the tape. I probably wouldn't recommend listening to this book.

Anyhow, I did find the information in this book fairly interesting and Bruder's work serves as a good companion for other "working-class America" books that have appeared on shelves in recent years. The difference, though, between Nomadland and books like Heartland, Hillbilly Elegy, and Maid is that the former is not a memoir but a piece of investigative journalism more in line with something like Dopesick.

Bruder's work examines the lives of American "Workampers"—predominately white, 60 year old+ itinerant workers who live in vehicles and RVs and travel across American in search of temporary work at Amazon warehouses, national parks, and agricultural processing. Through the lives of these workers, Bruder argues that "retirement" has become, for most Americans, an unattainable dream due to failing social security, economic recession, and rising cost of living in many regions of America. Upon closer examination, however, most of the individuals that Bruder interviewed seem to have in common events that caused acute economic distress and dislocation: expensive divorces, disability, hefty medical bills, job loss, etc. Typical is the experience of one worker that Bruder interviewed who, earlier in life, had well-paying jobs but lost almost all of his retirement and his home to an especially acrimonious divorce later in his life. He now roams American in an RV looking for temporary work and living on meager social security income. Bruder seems to bury the lede here, as I constantly found myself questioning how typical this experience is for America's retirees considering the majority of those interviewed here experienced some type of major life crisis that produced such a state of insolvency.

Bruder does make a good case for women being particularly vulnerable to "houselessness" in old age. This is partly due to the fact that women, on average, outlive men and thus need more retirement savings to live on through old age. At the same time, though, because women are generally paid less than men for similar work it means they will receive far less in their annual stipend from social security than their male counterparts. For example, one woman interviewed by the author received a meager $500ish dollars per month from social security—not even enough to pay rent on a small apartment.

As a side note, Bruder's chapters about life toiling in an Amazon warehouse are especially well-written and provocative. The image of a septuagenarian Amazon temporary employee working third-shift, earning 11ish/hour, and walking upwards of 15-18 miles per day on hard concrete to "pick" items for shipment is unsettling, at best. To make matters worse, lower levels of Amazon management within the warehouse facilities as pictured as petty tyrants who constantly seek ways to ratchet up the productivity levels of their elderly workers.

Overall, Bruder produces a unique story about a marginal and vulnerable group of American workers that, I imagine, is atypical of the experience of the majority of Americans yet offers valuable lessons about the need to strengthen the economic safety net for our nation's retiring generation of workers. This book is less a continuous narrative than it is a series of snapshots (some have said magazine articles, which I think is fair) about different aspects of the "Workamper" lifestyle. I think Bruder leaves the overall message muddled for the reader, primarily because she seems to at times promote this sort of lifestyle as an escape from the constraints of debt servitude and consumerism and, at other times, rail against corporate greed and worker exploitation.

3/5 Stars.