Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder explores the tension in American culture between the independence of the open road and the security of home. Bruder, a journalist who reports on subcultures and economic justice, profiles a growing community of transient older adults who, largely due to setbacks during the Great Recession, have taken to the road in RVs, vans, even modified sedans, traveling from one low-paying, physically challenging part-time job to another. They work as pickers and stowers at Amazon fulfillment centers in the months before Christmas, sugar beet harvesters in the late winter, and as maintenance crew at state parks and vendors at amusement parks in the summer. Lacking pension plans and facing retirement with gutted home values and savings accounts, they have eliminated the highest cost of living in the United States, paying for a fixed shelter, by making these vehicles their homes. The people she meets are generally optimistic and self-reliant, making the best of a difficult situation. One of the biggest obstacles they face is the stigma in our culture surrounding homelessness, making inhabiting their moveable homes an often illegal and always precarious situation.
What do you think? Bruder compares these transient older adults to what biologists call "indicator species," organisms that signal disruptions in the larger ecosystem. What do these nomads and the jobs they find indicate about our economy and our culture? Bruder's book is descriptive rather than prescriptive. What do you think could be done to support the people she profiles? How do you account for the odd disconnect between the American love of the open road, the open-road narrative, and #vanlife and the stigma and punitive laws surrounding homelessness? How would you define freedom? And how would you define a home? Many of the nomads Bruder meets are strong and independent women. Did this surprise you? As Bruder notes, "the nomads I'd been interviewing for months were neither powerless victims nor carefree adventurers. The truth was more nuanced . . . " How would you describe the people Bruder meets? Did anything about them surprise you? Bruder makes the journalistic choice to embed herself in the nomads' lives, even doing very brief stints at some of their part-time jobs. What do you think of her decision to include herself in the narrative? Does it give us greater insight, or does it overshadow her subjects' stories? Bruder notes that retirement is a relatively recent concept. What do you think would constitute a "good" retirement?
We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, November 6, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, November 15, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.
