Variety

IN-DEPTH LOOK AT CLASS IS SHALLOW

In 1998, New York Times journalist Barbara Ehrenreich entered the American
workforce to take a realistic look at how lower-class America gets by.

In "Nickel and Dimed," Ehrenreich plows through work as a waitress, a hotel
maid, a nursing home aide and a Wal-Mart sales clerk while simultaneously
trying to find affordable rent in Florida, Maine and Michigan.

Ehrenreich goes about this investigative task as fairly as possible. Her
resume, which includes holding a doctorate in biology and a job as an NYT
reporter, is replaced with one of an unskilled divorced woman lacking
experience.

While Ehrenreich may have shed certain elements of herself in order to make
it believable, she failed to shed a condescending tone and mockery of
people below her.

I may be in a critical minority -- praise of Ehrenreich's work takes up two
pages in the front of the book.

However, I felt that Ehrenreich's voice was not only embarrassingly
immature for a NYT reporter, but also detrimental to the objectivity of the
project.

Ehrenreich immediately takes issue with drug testing.

She reveals that she has been smoking marijuana throughout the project,
forcing her to, at first, avoid all jobs involving drug tests.

For a professional examining why the lower class cannot pay rent given
their low wages, it is surprising that the elimination of an expenditure
such as pot is not among the first logical things to do.

I found Ehrenreich's descriptions of people inappropriate. It seems
irrelevant whether a coworker has all of his teeth or how demented she
finds her Alzheimer's patients to be.

In terms of the monetary findings, the descriptions of the difficult labor
and the stories of people in these situations, the book is humbling and
interesting. "Nickel and Dimed" does serve a purpose in generating awareness.

Unfortunately, "Nickel and Dimed" is failed potential in that Ehrenreich's
personal issues and opinions cloud the journalistic integrity I had hoped
to find from such an intriguing project.