Nickel and Dimed
Nickel and Dimed is an inspiring story of how Barbara Ehrenreich, the most original social critic, left her home in 1998 and decided to survive as a waitress, nursing-home aide, a cleaning woman, a hotel maid, and a Wal-Mart sales clerk. She goes undercover as an unskilled worker to reveal the dark side of American prosperity. During these times, she lived in crumbling residential motels and trailer parks. Nickel and Dimed reveals America in all its tenacity and surprising generosity, and a thousand desperate stratagems for survival. Ultimately, this book offers a rare view of how prosperity looks from the bottom.
“Captivating . . . promise that you will read this explosive little book cover to cover and pass it on to all your friends and relatives.”
― The New York Times
“Impassioned, fascinating, profoundly significant, and wildly entertaining . . . Nickel and Dimed is not only important but transformative in its insistence that we take a long hard look at the society we live in.”
― Francise Prose, O, The Oprah Magazine
“Valuable and illuminating . . . Barbara Ehrenreich is our premier reporter of the underside of capitalism.”
― The New York Times Book Review
“Jarring . . . fully of riveting grit . . . this book is already unforgettable.”
― The New York Times
“Barbara Ehrenreich is smart, provocative, funny, and sane in a world that needs more of all four.”
― Diane Sawyer
“Reading Ehrenreich is good for the soul.”
― Molly Ivins
“Ehrenreich is passionate, public, hotly lucid, and politically engaged.”
― Chicago Tribune
“Ehrenreich's scorn withers, her humor stings, and her radical light shines on.”
― The Boston Globe
“One of today's most original writers.”
― The New York Times