From the author of the eye-opening and controversial essay on poverty that was read by millions comes the real-life Nickel and Dimed, as Linda Tirado explains what it’s like to be working poor in America, and why poor people make the decisions they do.
We in America have certain ideas of what it means to be poor. Linda Tirado, in her signature brutally honest yet personable voice, takes all of these preconceived notions and smashes them to bits. She articulates not only what it is to be working poor in America (yes, you can be poor and live in a house and have a job, even two), but what poverty is truly like—on all levels.
In her thought-provoking voice, Tirado discusses how she went from lower-middle class, to sometimes middle class, to poor and everything in between, and in doing so reveals why “poor people don’t always behave the way middle-class America thinks they should.”
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“As someone who has lived in the
trenches of desperation, Tirado explains that being poor is difficult not just
in attempting to scrape by but also in processing the cultural perception and
resultant condescension and degradation from unsympathetic onlookers…Tirado’s
raw reportage offers solidarity for those on the front lines of hardship yet
issues a cautionary forewarning to the critical: ‘Poverty is a potential
outcome for all of us.’ Outspoken and vindictive, Tirado embodies the cyclical
vortex of today’s struggle to survive.”
—
Kirkus Reviews