Nickel and Dimed

On (Not) Getting By in America

By: Barbara Ehrenreich

Narrated by: Cristine McMurdo-Wallis

Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

This engrossing piece of undercover reportage has been a fixture on the New York Times best seller list since its publication. With nearly a million copies in print, Nickel and Dimed is a modern classic that deftly portrays the plight of America's working-class poor.

A successful author, Barbara Ehrenreich decides to see if she can scratch out a comfortable living in a blue-collar America obsessed with welfare "reform". Her first job is waitressing, which pulls in a measly $2.43 an hour plus tips. She moves around the country, trying her hand as a maid, a nursing home assistant, and a Wal-Mart salesperson. What she discovers is a culture of desperation, where workers take multiple thankless jobs just to keep a roof overhead.

Often humorous and always illuminating, Nickel and Dimed is a remarkable expose of the ugly flip side of the American dream.

©2001 Barbara Ehrenreich (P)2004 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

• Book Sense Book of the Year Award Finalist, Adult Non-Fiction, 2002
• Alex Award Winner, 2002

"One of today's most original writers." (The New York Times)
"A close observer and astute analyzer of American life, Ehrenreich turns her attention to what it is like trying to subsist while working in low-paying jobs....Her narrative is candid, often moving, and very revealing." (Library Journal)
"Delivering a fast read that's both sobering and sassy, she [Ehrenreich] gives readers pause about those caught in the economy's undertow, even in good times." (Publishers Weekly)

great

wonderful footnotes and great information. had to read this for a poverty law course and would recommend for anyone interested in policy or how our society has ingrained poverty into the social structure

Still Relevant, Even More So

The narration is perfect, too.
Read this book! Teachers, assign it.
Most Americans are in the dark about what causes poverty. This book will help.

Still 100% Relevant Almost 25 Years Later

This is a classic for a reason. It's informative, though heartbreaking and enraging. This narrator is perfect. Thank you to whoever made the choice to not have a 25-year-old narrate,-- the author was in her fifties when this was written. Very informative, eye opening, and deeply empathetic.

Great insight!

It was very interesting to hear the perspective. Her journey is one everyone needs to listen to.

Good read, but take with a grain of salt

I agree with those who believe this author imagines, due to her own privileged background, that people who start out with no advantages have few options and little hope. As someone who had nothing at all handed to me and now, in my early forties, makes more than many of my friends who hold an MBA (I never went to college), and in a very normal white collar business where I simply dedicated myself and worked hard from the very bottom up, I obviously have a very different perspective on what people with a good work ethic and determination can accomplish. It's all about personal responsibility and, sometimes, hard choices (choose not to have 2-3 kids out of wedlock if you want to increase your chances of success, for example). Even so, speaking objectively, it's still a worthwhile read and story - I am always someone who wants to read the other side and consider.

I started to tip more

If you want to call a book eye opening, this is it. I can no longer "see" waitresses, maids, or the people at WalMart the way I did before the book. I want my kids to listen when they get to be around 15. Maybe they will understand just how lucky we are and the costs of leaving others behind. The insights are gripping. The listen is engrossing. And I am a better person for having heard this book.

pull yourself up by your bootstraps ?

Listening to this book can be a real downer. Americans like to think that anyone who works, and works hard enough, can rise in our socio-economic hierarchy. In fact, however, the poor (i.e. low-paid wage workers) are basically locked into a system that keeps them poor. The author paints a bleak, depressing picture of the very real obstacles to "moving up" from the bottom in American society. The author's months spent "posing" as a late entry to the work-a-day world (as a waitress, an institutional health-are worker, a house cleaner, and a Wall-Mart jack-of-all-trades) paints a grim, grim picture of a reality that might likely break most all of us (i.e. non-entry-level low-wage workers).

As the gap between the richest and poorest strata of our society widens, we owe it to ourselves to revise our bootstrap myth realistically. It's not a fun read, but it's certainly an important one.

One might have wished, though, that the narration was a bit more engaging.

Perfect Narration

Nickel and Dimed / B002V1BOFQ

I cannot praise highly enough "Nickel and Dimed"; it's one of those few books that I honestly think pretty much *everyone* should read. It's depressing and heartbreaking to see, first-hand through the on-the-ground journalism of Barbara Ehrenreich just how hard it is to get by in America as a member of the working poor, even with the numerous starting advantages that she began with.

The audiobook maintains the same high quality of this book by providing perfect narration. Maybe I'm unusual in this respect, but the ultimate goal for me as a reader is to hear what the author intended -- the humorous inflections, the wry disappointments, the sarcastic quips -- as though the author were reading hir own work to the reader. Cristine McMurdo-Wallis nails this novel perfectly, to the point where it's almost difficult to remember that this isn't the author we're listening to. For me, that's pretty much the Holy Grail of narration.

If you enjoyed reading "Nickel and Dimed", I can pretty much guarantee you'll like this unabridged audiobook version of the same. And if you haven't read the book before, I think you'll still get a lot out of this audiobook, and I recommend it highly.

~ Ana Mardoll

Eyeopening.

This book opened my eyes on how true american low wage workers live and have to sacrifice their basic human rights for the welfare of other. Definitely a great book.

Good book. Great audio.

I recommend this book for every college student and hard working person.