Barbara Ehrenreich, undercover in low-wage America working as a waitress, a cleaning person, a nursing home aide and a retail clerk, picked a spectacular form of field work which helped her build a compelling narrative ('Will she be found out? Will she even endure it?') and which offers itself to being passed on as a sensational anecdote ('Do you know what she did to be able to discover these things?').
Still Ehrenreich's presentation of the events is rather understated concerning the dramatic action involved, and one line in particular stayed with me after first reading
Nickel and Dimed:
There's no way, for example, to pretend to be a waitress: the food either gets to the table or not.
[Read the full introduction
here.]
No comments:
Post a Comment