Nomadland

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder
Nonfiction - Sociology
2017 W. W. Norton & Company
Finished on May 28, 2019
Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

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 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."

In a secondhand vehicle she christens "Van Halen," Jessica Bruder hits the road to get to know her subject more intimately. Accompanying her irrepressible protagonist, 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.

When my husband and I first started talking about our retirement plans, traveling around the United States in an RV was high on our list of things we hoped to do. We bought a 19 foot travel trailer shortly after we moved to Oregon and took several trips, learning the ins-and-outs of RV camping, while enjoying the beautiful forests and coastlines of Washington, Oregon and Northern California. We both follow several RV blogs and YouTube channels (my favorites are Less Junk More Journey, Long Long Honeymoon and Gone with the Wynns) and the more we read and watched, the more we began to consider someday living full-time in an RV. We decided to sell our trailer and buy something with a little more space and wound up with our 26 foot Four Winds Class C RV. After just two years and well over 10,000 miles on the road, we are still in love with RV travel. 

There have always been itinerants, drifters, hobos, restless souls. But now, in the second millennium, a new kind of wandering tribe is emerging. People who never imagined being nomads are hitting the road. They’re giving up traditional houses and apartments to live in what some call “wheel estate”—vans, secondhand RVs, school buses, pickup campers, travel trailers, and plain old sedans. They are driving away from the impossible choices that face what used to be the middle class. Decisions like: Would you rather have food or dental work? Pay your mortgage or your electric bill? Make a car payment or buy medicine? Cover rent or student loans? Purchase warm clothes or gas for your commute? For many the answer seemed radical at first. You can’t give yourself a raise, but what about cutting your biggest expense? Trading a stick-and-brick domicile for life on wheels?

When my book group chose Nomadland for our June selection, I was eager to read about the other side of RV living. The folks who make up the bulk of Bruder's highly readable narrative are not out on the road in RVs, enjoying their retirement, but rather living hand-to-mouth in campers, vans, utility trucks, converted school buses, and even a Prius! They move about the country earning a meager living, working at Amazon fulfillment centers, acting as camp hosts in state and national parks, harvesting beets in Colorado, North Dakota and Minnesota, as well as many other minimum wage and temporary positions. Many boondock on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land or stealth camp (legally and illegally) in towns and cities across the United States. Rod and I have boondocked at Walmart, Cracker Barrel and on forest roads, but only as an overnight stay on our way to a more desirable campground. What these folks are doing in Bruder's engrossing book is not a glamorous or even comfortable retirement and the more I read, the more sad and depressing these lives sounded. 

I was sucked in from the opening pages, but began to grow tired of the repetitive nature of the anecdotes. Bruder has previously written articles about this subject for Wired and Harper's (which can be found here) and I would have been happy reading those rather than an entire book focusing on the life of the workamper society. Actually, Nomadland reads like several articles pulled together in a somewhat disjointed manner. I'm anxious to hear what the members of my book group think of the book and I wonder if any of them will be interested in seeing the movie (starring Frances McDormand and David Strathairn), which is still in production. I love both actors, so I know I'll be watching. I also now know I have no desire to ever work at an Amazon fulfillment center!