The back cover and the last chapter's 25-page evaluation are the most gripping parts of this memoir, which without a doubt originated as an attention-grabbing idea but turned out to be an obvious, repetitive, and unrealistic account of American blue-collar life. Barbara Ehrenreich sets off to do the "old-fashioned journalism," leaving behind the comforts of her air-conditioned office. She ventures out to temporarily reconstruct her life to fit the mold that an unskilled welfare reform victim is destined to live in. Moving from Florida, to Maine, to Minnesota for a month at a time, she works in menial positions earning money and trying not to "cheat" and fall back on her savings account, mimicking what she imagines is the destiny of millions of Americans affected by reduction of welfare benefits.…
