Friday, October 29, 2021

Reading for all seasons

Blogista C.  an interesting, hugely talented,  rl friend who went and moved away, and is now an engaged long-distance blogista, gave me yet another great book reminder, on the subject of van life.

I now have it  borrowed from the library on my Kindle and it's very worth reading. There's a movie, but I hadn't realized it was originally a book, not a screenplay.


Here's the movie shot. 
And here's the book


It's a very readable account of the other world of van life, the side where there's no choice, because all the other housing and work options have vanished, and relatives are themselves struggling so can't bail them out. 

Quite different from the people we were just talking about, who choose tiny homes for the freedom and mobility, and are self employed on the road. Not affluent, but keeping solvent. Often they're young and usually very fit, outdoor types.

Many of these other modern nomads, driving their whole lives' possessions around in old vehicles, are what used to be called retirement age. But they've seen their jobs and businesses and homes go, often in the recession, or the housing crisis, or because their products became obsolete or offshored.

Many have degrees, some were college instructors, all are bravely sharing the skills of living in vehicles often not designed for living in, while driving the country doing seasonal work. 

It's usually low paid, physically demanding and takes all the grit a person can summon up to survive each day. Always one car repair away from disaster, like the workers in Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, but typically with more education, they see no prospect of retiring.  

It's grim but important reading, because you realize how it could happen to a  supposedly secure, middle class, employed, person, through no fault of their own. Layoffs, a divorce, an illness, can quickly wipe out the security of savings if they had any. 

And trying to reestablish a work-life as an unemployed middle aged or older worker is close to impossible today. Ask any unemployed tech or management worker, for instance,  whose job was offshored or wiped out by technological advances, or deleted from the client's budget.

If you need a bit of lighter relief, I'm also reading this,
by an Australian writer, about a young woman in the sixties, fighting to be a reporter in Sydney and London. The women's and social pages are the only way  for a woman to get hired at that point.

It's fiction which also draws in a lot of the news of the time, and the obligatory love interest.  It's not all royals, though there's enough to please Margaret watchers, not all clothes, though Mary Quant shows up, not all scandal though Christine Keeler, the lady who brought down a government, features, too. 

So that's us Chez Boud today. If the promised storms keep off, it's knitting group. If not, it's  something else, TBD!

Cheers!

Anyway, fun read.

14 comments:

  1. I haven't read the book, but I did see the movie "Nomadland." The real problem it illustrates is the almost complete lack of a social safety net in today's USA. That's the real tragedy underpinning the plight of these seniors.

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  2. Pretty much what I said. Agreed.

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  3. I have not read the book or seen the movie but I do remember when Nomadland came out. There was quite a bit of talk about it and the sad social situation that creates such a life. It was not at all the same as what we see in the people that prepare and choose such a life. After your post about tiny homes the other day you got me started looking at them on YouTube! I found the retired couple living in the school bus named Greensleeves. They seemed to have what they needed and got to travel the country as well. Enjoy both of your books!

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  4. I, too, thought of "Nickle and Dimed" when I was reading your description of "Nomadland". That book was profoundly mind-opening to me. I mean I knew...but I did not know. And it made me hate Walmart even more than I did.
    I haven't seen "Nomadland" or read the book. I'll get around to either or both eventually, I am sure.

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  5. Agree with Boud and Debra Who Seeks. I didn't realize it was a book; I just put it on hold at our wonderful library. And: early voting today - done!

    Chris from Boise

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  6. Mary, Wal-Mart is one store I have never set foot in. Likewise Starbucks, for similar reasons.

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  7. Chris, let us have your take when you read it. I talked with my book group, and I think they'll add it to the upcoming selections.

    And thank you for voting!

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  8. What a great review of Nomadland. I read it and feel much the same way. I have the movie here on DVD and will watch it again, the first time left me feeling it went by too fast. And I will get the second book. I lived in London for two and a half years in the early 1960s, right before London became the city of the Beatles, Mary Quant and Ms. Keeler. Thanks for letting me know about the book.

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  9. I'm glad you got a bit of value from the post! And the reporter book is fun as well as serious.

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  10. Nomadland was an enlightening, but sad read.

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  11. As I read further I find that she too noticed how white the van community is. Probably danger from police so much higher than for white people, aside from racism noticed in the community.

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  12. I just saw the movie this evening. I want to read the book now.

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  13. Interesting discussion, both from what you said as well as the comments. It's hard to imagine being forced into that lifestyle through circumstances that are no fault of your own. Here in Canada living in trailers would be extremely difficult in the winter months. Our oldest son, when he was in university, befriended a homeless guy that 'lived' close to the school. #1 son tried really hard to convince him to go to a shelter in the bitter cold but he refused because he said that in those places everything you own gets stolen while you sleep. He preferred to be outside. We wondered why our son was telling us he had his winter coat stolen and why blankets were disappearing but we found out the reason later on. This guy had only one leg and when he lost the other one he lost his job, his family and his entire lifestyle. He refused to take money from the students but would accept 'things' and often our son would buy him a sandwich and a coffee. He taught the kids a valuable life lesson.

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