Hello dear Readers,
Below my book review of Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land.
Title: Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Genre: Biographies/Memoirs
Author: Stephanie Land
Publisher: Hachette Books
Publication Date: January 22, 2019
Publication Date: January 22, 2019
Language: English
Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Evicted meets Nickel and Dimed in Stephanie Land's memoir about working as a maid, a beautiful and gritty exploration of poverty in America. Includes a foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich.
At 28, Stephanie Land's plans of breaking free from the roots of her hometown in the Pacific Northwest to chase her dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer, were cut short when a summer fling turned into an unexpected pregnancy. She turned to housekeeping to make ends meet, and with a tenacious grip on her dream to provide her daughter the very best life possible, Stephanie worked days and took classes online to earn a college degree, and began to write relentlessly.
She wrote the true stories that weren't being told: the stories of overworked and underpaid Americans. Of living on food stamps and WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) coupons to eat. Of the government programs that provided her housing, but that doubled as halfway houses. The aloof government employees who called her lucky for receiving assistance while she didn't feel lucky at all. She wrote to remember the fight, to eventually cut through the deep-rooted stigmas of the working poor.
Maid explores the underbelly of upper-middle class America and the reality of what it's like to be in service to them. "I'd become a nameless ghost," Stephanie writes about her relationship with her clients, many of whom do not know her from any other cleaner, but who she learns plenty about. As she begins to discover more about her clients' lives-their sadness and love, too-she begins to find hope in her own path.
Her compassionate, unflinching writing as a journalist gives voice to the "servant" worker, and those pursuing the American Dream from below the poverty line. Maid is Stephanie's story, but it's not her alone. It is an inspiring testament to the strength, determination, and ultimate triumph of the human spirit.
My Thoughts
"The Alchemist's theme, this Personal Legend, pulled at me. I'd wanted to be a writer for nearly twenty-five years."
I cannot explain with enough words how much I can relate with that sentence. That line, this entire book gave me one more reason for wanting more than ever to pursue what I really want in life. And that part in reference to The Alchemist, which just happen to be my favorite book.
I cannot imagine how hard it was to go through what Stephanie went through. Our stories are different in that sense, but as Stephanie and many other women out there, I can relate to the desire of wanting a better life for me and the love ones around me, of having to go through difficult times in life and doing whatever it takes to make it better, to be better, to pursue our dreams and make them happen.
I have seen many comments and reviews on this book where people consider it to be a display of pity, a person seeking attention and sympathy. I respect all these people's opinions, you cannot expect everybody to like one's story but I cannot feel and have other than respect and admiration for the author. I respect their opinions but I also think if you have not been in a given situation, can you really understand and relate with what other people's lives are and what they go through?
It is not easy to share with the world your struggles and hardships in life. I don't know if being in the situation I would be brave enough, open enough to share my story. But as a reader who loves reading books about other people's lives and a writer who writes about her life, I always appreciate the honesty and openness of other writers, authors.
That is what I see in Stephanie's book. Honesty, a person sharing her story in an honest and open way, a human being sharing her difficulties in life, the daughter, the mom, the worker, the writer, the friend, the partner, the human.
Wendy
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