The end of retirement? From the beet fields of North Dakota to the National Forest campgrounds of California to Amazon’s CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older Americans. Finding that social security comes up short, often underwater on mortgages, these invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road … to the road by the tens of thousands in late-model RVs, travel trailers, and vans, forming a growing community of nomads: migrant laborers who call themselves “workampers.”
On frequently traveled routes between seasonal jobs, Jessica Bruder meets people from all walks of life: a former professor, a McDonald’s vice president, a minister, a college administrator, and a motorcycle cop, among many others–including her irrepressible protagonist, a onetime cocktail waitress, Home Depot clerk, and general contractor named Linda May.
In a secondhand vehicle she christens “Van Halen,” Bruder hits the road to get to know her subjects more intimately. Accompanying Linda May and others from campground toilet cleaning to warehouse product scanning to desert reunions, then moving on to the dangerous work of beet harvesting, Bruder tells a compelling, eye-opening tale of the dark underbelly of the American economy–one that foreshadows the precarious future that may await many more of us. At the same time, she celebrates the exceptional resilience and creativity of these quintessential Americans who have given up ordinary rootedness to survive. Like Linda May, who dreams of finding land on which to build her own sustainable “Earthship” home, they have not given up hope.
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A moving and thought-provoking account of, really, what our world is coming to. The book is both profoundly sad and profoundly hopeful. It portrays the “houseless” nomads with compassion and dignity and gives you a glimpse into lives that are untethered from social norms and conventions, but also extremely tenuous and fragile. I read this after seeing the great film version, but I would recommend reading the book BEFORE you see the movie because for one, it’s very different (there’s no Frances McDormand character at all) and two, it gives great context.
Like the chroniclers of the Dust Bowl/Great Depression era, Jessica Bruder holds up a mirror to modern America, forcing us to examine a little-known scar on its social underbelly. Nomadland is populated by the hapless and forgotten, those who, for a variety of reasons, lost everything (or never had it) and packed up what was left in a camper van or trailer and hit the road. And yet It’s not the people that trouble us–they’re proud survivors, and in a way, their freedom is something to be envied. What’s disturbing is the cruel reality that you can work hard, pay your taxes, and live a clean life and still fall so easily through the cracks. Nomadland is the kind of muckraker journalism we need in this age of uncertainty and lost priorities.
I really enjoyed the book and learned so much. The movie stands alone but, the book is a great read.
A true account of the inequality’s facing our aged. Heartbreaking, surprising, and true. Yes being older is now being on the edge of overwhelming poverty. Nowhere to live, not enough money to eat, not enough money to get lifesaving prescriptions. These are the surprising facts facing our society. We have known that the baby boomers have been coming into retirement. This is no surprise. But even those who saved for their retirement, they too are coming into an environment where what was enough, is no longer enough. It made me angry, and it makes me determined to find a way to stop this spiraling down into invisibility.
Interesting story about the plight of so many people. Unfortunately this is a precursor of the tidal wave of more baby boomers who have for various circumstances ended up broke and without financial resources. This should be a wake up call to those living on the edge and paycheck to paycheck. For those not planning for the future this could become a reality.
After reading this book, I felt as though I’d really gotten to know the people behind the story. I found it enlightening, and horrible at times when I consider how Amazon treats their employees. I also marveled at the human spirit and what these people endured on the road. An excellent look into the daily lives of the ‘houseless’.
My son bought this book as a gift for me since I’ve been interested in the vanlife movement for a while now. The author did an amazing job capturing what it is to survive in America the last decade or so. The struggles highlighted in this book resonated. I think many who read it will be able to relate – and the book will be eye opening for those who cannot.
this is my review of the audiobook: (soon to be a film on HULU starring Frances McDormand)
*Jessica Bruder. Nomadland. Surviving America in the twenty-first century. Read by Karen White. 8 CDs. 10 hrs. HighBridge.
Journalist Jessica Bruder interviewed many jobless, retired Americans (“In mind-set and appearance they are largely middle class”) devastated by the great recession in 2008 – who find they cannot live on their social security or other retirement funds (if they have any at all) and have ‘hit the road,’ as people did during the Great Depression, in search of temporary work to pay basic expenses like food and gas. They consider themselves not homeless but “houseless” and, rather than remain fixed and homeless or a burden to their families in one place, these travelers have chosen to live in small vehicles (trailers, vans, RVs) on the road. Bruder packed up her own van and joined the caravans, traveling for “three years and 15,000 miles” from North Dakota to California to Arizona and Texas to research for Nomadland. Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century. Most give their vans creative names; one Bruder followed closely called her small trailer “The Squeeze Inn” because visitors had to ‘squeeze in’ to get inside. Bruder named her own “Van Halen.”
This community of intrepid travelers is rich with experiences and information. Meet-ups, like the annual one in Quartzsite Arizona, provide classes taught by fellow travelers/temp workers, for example: installing solar, how to be safe on the road, how to park “stealthily” even in urban areas. Many also write and manage informative and personal blogs. They engage in political action. Temporary jobs included cleaning and maintaining camping facilities in state and national parks and in private campgrounds. In a particularly poignant section Bruder describes in detail Amazon.com’s “camperforce” initiative in Amazon “fulfillment centers” (i.e. warehouses) where temporary workers endure 10-hour work days, on their feet, constantly moving, “picking and packing” stuff America wants fast and cheap at. The work is brutal, but the pay is decent and workers can park their vans for free nearby. Machines dispense non-prescription pain killers (Ibuprophen, aspirin) for free to the workers. Amazon finds these elderly workers to be more desirable hires because they are more reliable and upbeat than younger workers. One camperforce worker told told Bruder she even lost weight walking the 10,000 plus steps daily. Bruder also joined workers at Amazon’s Camperforce and even at the more back beaking work picking and processing sugar beets in 12 hours shifts.
Bruder explores health care on the road. Many simply take care of each other. She even travels with one intrepid soul to Mexico for excellent affordable dental work. Some are driven to be victims of vulture pay-day loans.
At the end Bruder asks: “In the widening gap between credits and debits hangs a question: what parts of life are you willing to give up, so you can keep on living?” She points out that too many of these nomads are no longer able to share their talents and brainpower for the greater good at decent paying jobs because of the massive and increasing income inequality that is limiting investment in this country that could produce jobs, provide affordable housing, provide healthcare, reduce debt, and reinvigorate prosperity for the common good.
Narrator Karen White’s no-nonsense, energetic reading sounds like an enthusiastic reporter researching and reporting every aspect of a topic she cares deeply about. Eye-opening and moving. Highly recommended.
This book introduces us to people who are living in campers and traveling around to find work – much of it back-breaking and low-paid. They work as campground hosts, seasonal workers in Amazon warehouses, harvesters in beet fields, and wherever they can get work. A community develops among the nomads, and they help and encourage each other. It’s a hard life, and many of them become injured doing the long hours of physical labor. It’s kind of a modern-day “Grapes of Wrath.” I will appreciate the beets I buy in the grocery story and the packages I get from Amazon, knowing that there is a human cost to the things I enjoy.
Absolutely eye opening and empathetic. With dignity for those chronicled. Can’t wait for the movie…
Eye-opening portrayal of people suffering, or not, from economic downturns and setbacks. I had no idea there is an entire subculture of people who travel for seasonal jobs. This topic seems depressing, but is actually inspirational based on the characters’ positive attitudes. I highly recommend.
Educational and revealing. Explains with exemplary simplicity and accuracy the trials of the misfortunate majority that our country forgets . The story of the havenots and the ever widening gap that exists in today’s america.
A good expose on current explosion of people living in rolling homes due to high cost of living, losing their homes, “downsizing” to try to eat or pay for prescriptions, manage in spite of hardships…
Don’t know whether to laugh or cry, or just breathe a sigh of relief. I’m a retiree who had my share of employment struggles, but somehow my spouse and I are now enjoying a comfortable retirement. It’s one of those there-but-for-grace-of-God-go-I books. But maybe that’s not fair. Many of the new nomads feel like they enjoy a high quality of life, mostly because of the relationships they forge with one another. What would be hard for me is not having an expiration date on the obligation to keep working, never having quite enough money to get by, and having to replenish one’s income every few months by submitting to the indignity of minimum wage labor at the hands of organizations happy to exploit you. And if the author is right, this is how more and more people will be “enjoying” their golden years.
Inspirational to see how some people make the most of a difficult situation. Shows the perseverance of humans. I enjoyed getting to know these men and women and admired their drive.
Highly recommend. A thought provoking book. I will read this one again!
This is a great book.
My husband and I worked as camp hosts in the summer years ago. We had a 1976 Argosy Trailer. I’m a painter he is a professor. We were in the Snowy Range In Wyoming.
This is an illuminating book on the decline of the middle class. And , a testament of heroic people who are surviving.
God bless you all !!
This book was chosen out of the hat for our book club read. So, I was determined to read and finish it. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this (while interesting) wasn’t it. I was hoping more for a story or tale based on the research into the vandwellers.
The good: I learned about the struggles facing people my age and how they are fighting for survival. They have found ways to establish a life filled with hard work, friends, and community.
The not so good: I thought the portrayal of the life and challenges was very politicized and condemning. There were also lots of trivial details that bogged down the reading at times. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to feel or respond to the comments about Amazon and society in general. I also thought the writing rambled a good bit – I didn’t really understand what was being reported until well into the book. I didn’t know the author was embedding with the RVers right at first.
I have read non fiction books before that did a better job of making the information into more of a story, which I find easier and more interesting to read, but that may just be my preference.
So many of us nearing and in retirement romanticize about living in a trailer or van and traveling the country. I even dreamed of working for Amazon… until I read about what was involved. This is an eye-opening investigative report of the people that live the nomadic life. It changed my perspective.
A touching and engrossing exploration of modern-day “Rubber Tramps,” mostly elderly mobile temp-workers who live in their modified vans and RVs, seeking freedom and opportunity as it comes. Van Halen, DonoVan–their vehicles have funky names. They work their tails off for low wages, here and there. And everywhere.
But they have also found a way to create their own version of “vanily,” and to pursue their hopes and dreams.
Mortgage-free.