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A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education
by Stephanie Land
From the New York Times bestselling author who inspired the hit Netflix series about a struggling mother barely making ends meet as a housecleaner - a gripping memoir about college, motherhood, poverty, and life after Maid.
When Stephanie Land set out to write her memoir Maid, she never could have imagined what was to come. Handpicked by President Barack Obama as one of the best books of 2019, it was called "an eye-opening journey into the lives of the working poor" (People). Later it was adapted into the hit Netflix series Maid, which was viewed by 67 million households and was Netflix's fourth most-watched show in 2021, garnering three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Stephanie's escape out of poverty and abuse in search of a better life inspired millions.
Maid was a story about a housecleaner, but it was also a story about a woman with a dream. In Class, Land takes us with her as she finishes college and pursues her writing career. Facing barriers at every turn including a byzantine loan system, not having enough money for food, navigating the judgments of professors and fellow students who didn't understand the demands of attending college while under the poverty line—Land finds a way to survive once again, finally graduating in her mid-thirties.
Class paints an intimate and heartbreaking portrait of motherhood as it converges and often conflicts with personal desire and professional ambition. Who has the right to create art? Who has the right to go to college? And what kind of work is valued in our culture? In clear, candid, and moving prose, Class grapples with these questions, offering a searing indictment of America's educational system and an inspiring testimony of a mother's triumph against all odds.
"Bestseller Land catalogs her experiences juggling housecleaning jobs, childcare, and graduate school while battling poverty in this frank and captivating memoir...Eye-opening and heartrending, this will provide succor for readers who've faced similar hardships and essential education for anyone who hasn't. It's another stirring personal history from one of the foremost chroniclers of 21st-century economic anxiety." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"In candid, compelling prose, Land describes balancing child care, multiple jobs, and school over the oppressive hum of poverty...This book serves as an illuminating portrait of a part of the higher education experience that is often ignored...Land's recurring bitterness, however, somewhat sours the narrative...Still, the overall quality of the writing and the importance of the story make for a powerful read. Part memoir, part manifesto: Fans of Maid will enjoy this next installment from a dedicated writer and mother." —Kirkus Reviews
"An incredible and heart-wrenching memoir that ruminates on higher education, class, and single motherhood...as infuriating as it is inspiring, and it should be considered required reading for anyone with even a passing interest in narratives of wealth and work, the lived experience of prejudicial U.S. safety net systems, or social justice." —Shelf Awareness
"A beautiful memoir that's an honest portrayal [of] persistence and life and writing and children. Stephanie Land did the work, and it shows." —Neil Gaiman
"Land is a great writer, particularly when conveying the relentless nature of poverty and the systems that work against women, especially...this book will serve as quite the mirror for the inherent biases many people hold about who can do what and why." —Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist
This information about Class was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Stephanie Land is the author of the New York Times bestseller Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive, called "a testimony…worth listening to," by the New York Times and inspiration for the Netflix series Maid. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, the Guardian, the Atlantic, and many other outlets. Her writing focuses on social and economic justice and parenting under the poverty line. She is a frequent speaker at colleges and national advocacy organizations.
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