Going To Extremes by Barbara Ehrenreich

Have you read ‘Nickel and Dimed’ by Barbara Ehrenreich?  This was an extremely popular, almost notorious book based on the undercover journalism of the author.  She decided to spend some time as a low-paid unskilled worker in various occupations, using none of her acquired qualifications and experience, nor her financial advantages, in order to obtain a well-paying job or secure decent accommodation.  Instead she would have the same chance of survival, sink or swim, as any other blue-collar or pink-collar worker.

The book has been widely hailed as a classic and still has a place on my bookshelf.  It's not precisely cheery reading: there are many dark moments and disagreeable revelations about how our society is ordered within it.  But it is beautifully written, just the same, and many of the people Ehrenreich met along the way command respect for their honest labour, dignity and determination.

'Going to Extremes' is a book of essays by Ehrenreich written subsequently to 'Nickel and Dimed'.  It is published by Granta in the UK and was released in 2008.  Is it also worth the price of admission?  The book is a series of, ah, ragingly satirical rants about working conditions, money, power, class, social elites, politics, economics, big business, health care etc. etc. in America in the present day.  In my estimation of the writing style involved, it is rather heavy on the sarcasm and light on the detail, subtlety, insight and human interest.  (There are none of the character thumbnail sketches from Nickel and Dimed that elicited such sympathy and human interest.)  If anything, the book reads as something of a 'cash-in' on the success of 'Nickel and Dimed' with the liberal-minded book-buying public.  (And who else reads books these days?)

I won't say the book isn't worth reading, although on balance, knowing what I know now, I would only pick it up at a discount or bargain price, not the full RRP.  (Fortunately I actually got it technically 'free' by using the Nectar points issued by British supermarket Sainsbury's via their reward card.)  Lots of the essays have good solid points to make: they're just made at high volume in an angry voice.  The healthcare articles especially are pertinent in an unnerving, disquieting way.

Should you buy it?  Well, if you've appreciated Ehrenreich's other books – then truthfully, it's not quite as good.  But you're probably the target market, and if you're looking more to feel enraged and despairing after finishing a book, rather than enlightened and inspired, then this is the one for you.


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