Just finished "Class" and was so disappointed in it!

[Anonymous]

I was a huge fan of Stephanie Land's first book, "Maid," though I thought the Netflix series was actually better than the book--it invented/showed her relationship with the father of her child; her mother's mental illness was so clearly and devastatingly present, etc.
I was rooting for Stephanie and her daughter throughout the whole book (I'm still rooting for them!)
At the end of Maid--so much hard work and legal/financial struggles for custody of her child--she ends up a student at the University of Montana. It was a very moving journey.
With "Class," an account of her final year at the university, her struggles were harder for me to root for, somehow. Though I learned A LOT about the horrors of our student loan system, and she was MUCH older than the other students, plus she had a child, and men treated her badly, she still had a lot of support with friends and she didn't really need to sleep around that much. Spoiler alert: She got pregnant twice more. Had one abortion, and then another child.
I appreciated her explaining that the English program did NOT prepare you, financially, for a life as a writer, even a freelance writer. That she had to learn on her own.
But basically, the book wasn't well-written and I feel disappointed in her and in myself--she's such a fighter! Why didn't I care as much about her, this time around?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a huge fan of Stephanie Land's first book, "Maid," though I thought the Netflix series was actually better than the book--it invented/showed her relationship with the father of her child; her mother's mental illness was so clearly and devastatingly present, etc.
I was rooting for Stephanie and her daughter throughout the whole book (I'm still rooting for them!)
At the end of Maid--so much hard work and legal/financial struggles for custody of her child--she ends up a student at the University of Montana. It was a very moving journey.
With "Class," an account of her final year at the university, her struggles were harder for me to root for, somehow. Though I learned A LOT about the horrors of our student loan system, and she was MUCH older than the other students, plus she had a child, and men treated her badly, she still had a lot of support with friends and she didn't really need to sleep around that much. Spoiler alert: She got pregnant twice more. Had one abortion, and then another child.
I appreciated her explaining that the English program did NOT prepare you, financially, for a life as a writer, even a freelance writer. That she had to learn on her own.
But basically, the book wasn't well-written and I feel disappointed in her and in myself--she's such a fighter! Why didn't I care as much about her, this time around?

There is no English program that prepares you, financially or otherwise, for life as a writer. Freelance or not. Even the MFA programs don't do that.

[Anonymous]

I haven't read Class and don't plan to. I didn't enjoy Maid and was surprised that it was such a big hit. I thought Stephanie lacked a lot of self reflection on how she was in her spot and things she could have done to make it better. The book seemed heavy on ways other people in the situation were wrong.

[Anonymous]

Because any idiot knows writers generally can't make a middle-class living off writing, let alone support two children the way you'd like to raise them. Ergo, she's kind of an idiot. She should have gotten a degree in something more practical and written as a hobby. Even now, her life is a hot mess.

[Anonymous]

I was disappointed as well. I read an interview where she said the book wasn’t supposed to be part 2 of her memoir, but a book profiling people across the country who were working to make ends meet or something along those lines. I believe she was supposed to start traveling to do interviews around March 2020. So her publisher let her change course and write Class instead.

The book was supposed to be about class — as in low income people don’t have it easy vs higher income people with means. The book just read about how hard it was for her to get to class — because her kid didn’t want to go to day care/ kindergarten, her problems finding care for her child, etc.

Also— she also says somewhere (the interview I read? In the book?) about how she wants her daughters to read the book someday. She probably should have left out some details about her sex-capades and poor judgement. I had to look up how old Stephanie is b/c her actions and judgements were those of someone a decade+ younger. (She is in her mid-forties now.)

[Anonymous]

NP.
OP, have you read Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich? You may like it. I found it really engrossing.