Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder | Review

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder
Narrator: Karen White
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company
Audio Publisher: Highbridge
Release Date: September 19, 2017
Length: 320 pages (9 hrs. 57 min.)
Buy on Amazon

{A Bit of Backstory}

Single Sentence Summary

Jessica Bruder shares her amazing 3-year investigation of life on the road for a population of retirees who often don’t have the funds to maintain a home AND pay their bills.

From the Publisher

“From the beet fields of North Dakota to the National Forest campgrounds of California to Amazon’s CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older Americans. Finding that social security comes up short, often underwater on mortgages, these invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in late-model RVs, travel trailers, and vans, forming a growing community of nomads: migrant laborers who call themselves “workampers.”

The Draw

• I hadn’t read any nonfiction for a couple of months.
• The subject matter was both fascinating and a little scary to me.
• Elle’s list of 27 Books to Read this Fall.

{My Thoughts}

What Worked For Me

The “H” Word – Homelessness resonates throughout Nomadland yet many of the people featured in Bruder’s investigation avoid that word, preferring instead “houseless.” Thinking of themselves as homeless only makes these nomads feel worse. Few want to acknowledge that they’re not all that different from true homeless people. “Accepting poverty is a hard thing.” Some worry about the way they might be perceived as they travel from job to job, campsite to campsite, their homes in tow, making a little money along the way.

The Nomad Population – While the nomadic population Bruder was studying certainly included some young people, her true focus was on the much, much large group of retirees. Many were people who lost their homes and much of their retirement in the recession. Others had never fully prepared, often because they worked day after day just to make ends meet and feed their families. Some didn’t realize soon enough that Social Security wasn’t going to cover their retirement needs. As a result in their retirement years this population is cutting expenses by living in campers, trailers, RVs, and vans and they’re still working. But, what surprised me most about this group was their resilience, their “can do” attitude, their hopes for uncertain futures, and their zest for life.

Painfully Hard Work – I was both appalled and fascinated by the drive and stamina of the retirees Bruder followed in Nomadland. This was a group who really had been dealt some very hard blows in life and yet, they remained cheerful and positive in such difficult situations. These are people who as they should be slowing down, were instead doing hard, physical labor just to survive.

“Depending on the time of year nomads are sought to pick raspberries in Vermont, apples in Washington, and blueberries in Kentucky. They give tours of fish hatcheries, take tickets at NASCAR, and guard the gates of Texas oil fields.”

And those are the easy jobs! Bruder took us to the beet fields of North Dakota where retirees would harvest pound after pound of beets in the bitter cold. She followed retiree Linda May as she hosted at campgrounds for a summer job. Work that included dealing with intoxicated campers and cleaning bathrooms. And most shocking for me was Amazon’s Camper Force, a relatively cheap way for Amazon to get the extra help they need around the holidays. They very actively recruit this group of people, sometimes even providing campsites. They pay is better than some, but the work is brutal. Filling order after order, Camper Force employees lift heavy boxes, often cover more than 10 miles a day on their feet, and are provided with a constant supply of generic analgesics. The people need the money, but Amazon does not shine here. Bruder herself only lasted one week, yet many retirees come back year after year.

What Didn’t

Too Many Tangents – When the book stayed focused on the retirees and their lifestyle it truly shone, but several times Bruder veered off on tangents that added little to her investigation. For example, she spent quite a bit of time on the history of the van living movement, which seemed really unnecessary. Quartzsite, Arizona is a place where campers gather each winter to share ideas and meet up with friends. The parts focused on the nomads’ times at Quartzsite were great, but I didn’t need to know the town’s history.

{The Final Assessment}

Nomadland took me to places I had no idea even existed. It made me sad to think of all these people who should be enjoying a simple home and time with their grandkids, but are instead doing backbreaking work. I grew to admire the spirit and resilience of this unlikely workforce who continued day after day unbroken. I couldn’t do it! Grade: B+

Narration – Nomadland was a perfect book to listen to. The writing was well organized and easy to follow, with little need to ever look back. I though that Karen White’s reading of it was very good. She used inflection for some people, which brought them more fully to life. I’d have liked to have heard a little more of that and just in general a bit more variance in her tone and pace, but overall still very easy to listen to.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Associate links included within this post.