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loiskitt's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
tuc03229's review against another edition
3.0
So this anthology is very worth reading and had a lot of great contributors (including a former professor of mine). However, I found it very draining to read because a lot of the entries were very depressing (expected, but still hard, especially the ones involving incest) and were so short they didn't really have time to wrap/sum things up very well. A lot of similar themes emerged over the course of the book: violence, food, healthcare, and use of time seemed to be the major ones, not to say that the entries were repetitive but it did seem like a lot of the writers were telling similar stories. There was also a lot of what seemed to me like misplaced rage. I totally support working class people having a space for anger but some of the entries literally said, we hate anyone who isn't working class, they are ugly, we don't want to be like them at all, and that just didn't seem very productive to me, it seems more like a weapon of the richest classes to get the working class and middle class to squabble amongst themselves. I'm glad I read it, it gave me a lot of food for thought, but I would've liked to see more diverse perspectives and more... hope, I guess? The front cover blurb said something about this not being a book of sob stories but I sort of left it feeling like a lot of it was sob stories.
cinnachick's review against another edition
3.0
There were a few essays I really liked, but the book just became depressing and too similar after a while. I like the concept, I like the belief behind the pieces, I like Michelle Tea, but the book itself left me wanting more. I wish I knew of other books that handled this subject better to suggest people read instead. And sadly I identified with many people in this book. Or not so sadly. Reading these essays made me want to write my own.
booksandbecoming's review against another edition
4.0
an interesting collection of essays about class, representing a diverse array of voices.
roxana1989's review against another edition
4.0
Lots of good stories and perspectives. I really appreciated this.
bluerose's review against another edition
5.0
This. Book. It should be a bestseller in the front of every book store. In an age of economic struggle for many millennial women, this book was a warm hand on the shoulder saying "YOU ARE NOT ALONE!".
The short stories in this book offered a wide variety of experiences of lower / working class women across race, gender and generation.
My personal favorites were:
Farm Use by Joy Castro
The Prison we Called Home by Siobhan Brooks
Winter Coat by Terri Griffith
Blueprinter and Hardwires by Cassie Peterson
Getting Out by Frances Varian
Fighting by Bee Lavender
The short stories in this book offered a wide variety of experiences of lower / working class women across race, gender and generation.
My personal favorites were:
Farm Use by Joy Castro
The Prison we Called Home by Siobhan Brooks
Winter Coat by Terri Griffith
Blueprinter and Hardwires by Cassie Peterson
Getting Out by Frances Varian
Fighting by Bee Lavender
iguana_mama's review
5.0
I enjoyed this collection of short essays about working class women from a wide variety of backgrounds as they struggle through poverty, inadequate health care, humiliation, inferior housing, poor working conditions, unemployment, dead-end jobs. Their stories were raw, personal, sometimes depressing, yet always engaging. These women may be victims, but they are also strong and resourceful survivors.
bashbashbashbash's review
3.0
Engaging. Some of the pieces are more interesting than others. Four that stood out in my mind: 1) Dorothy Allison's piece about stealing books from college professors and then replacing them (usually a few days later) with passages she liked underlined; 2) a piece about dressing in traditionally feminine manner (makeup, short skirts, et cetera) as being a form of class statement and working class female resistance to middle and upper class feminist pressure to conform; 3) an essay about a (working class) lesbian working in construction with a bunch of working class men; 4) a piece about a woman whose mother had been a prostitute, and of her acceptance of her mother and also her own experience in sex work.
Michelle Tea's introduction insists on the autonomy of poor and working class American women and resists the idea that they are lifeless or mute victims of class. There's not enough of that kind of writing around, so it was a pleasure to read.
Problems: there is certainly a tone of explanation in many of the essays, as though the book is written primarily to/at a middle class audience. Some of the essays were far less engaging/focused than others.
However, overall "Without a Net" is definitely worth reading, and probably worth a re-read, too.
Michelle Tea's introduction insists on the autonomy of poor and working class American women and resists the idea that they are lifeless or mute victims of class. There's not enough of that kind of writing around, so it was a pleasure to read.
Problems: there is certainly a tone of explanation in many of the essays, as though the book is written primarily to/at a middle class audience. Some of the essays were far less engaging/focused than others.
However, overall "Without a Net" is definitely worth reading, and probably worth a re-read, too.