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.