Scratch beginings: Me, $25 and the American Dream

In a book review mood these days!

Written by relative stranger to the writing world, Adam Shepard takes a sociological experiment and writes about his experiences with it. He is not a trained writer, but he is a keen observer and clever fellow, had a university degree and some ambition. He states that he was inspired by 'Nickel and Dimed' by Barbara Ehrenreich, and wanted to 'prove' her wrong.

The premise of the story is he drops himself into a city with the clothes on his back, $25 in his pocket, a tarp and a duffel bag. He then must make $2500, find an apartment and a job within 365 days. Tall order, but he wants to see if it is possible go to from rags, to slightly nicer rags. He cannot use his degree or connections at all. Nobody knows him or his education, he starts on ground zero but without a drug addiction.

I liked this book. It's a little disingenuious, as the author tends to focus hard on the positives and ignore the gritty underside that would make this book even more fascinating. It reminds me of immersion journalism like 'Black Like Me' by John Howard Griffin but with less...texture.

He lives in a homeless shelter, had a rough time getting a job, gets a job, and even then it's not all smooth sailing. Unfair job conditions, illnesses and a broken toe plague Shepard in his journey. He shows the benefits that down on their luck people have, but he also shows how truly hard it is to 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' when you suffer from addiction, illnesses, mental illness or injury. It's not always easy and poverty will always exist.

What I wanted to see was a bit more detail about his early life in his journey. He skims over the difficulties, like fights, stabbings, addiction problems. It's not all cotton candy and fluff, but as a reader we need more depth. There, I said it. The characters aside from the ones he really focuses on are 2-dimensional.

But, Shepard is not a trained writer so we'll cut him some slack. He is very good at showing how the 'blame game' is played with the disenfranchised, particularly when store people hire him and other homeless to hang clothes, and then kick them out at lunchtime instead of inviting them to share the luncheon. They also accuse a worker of stealing when it was clear he had no opportunity to do so, and what homeless man would want baby clothes?

Is poverty really a cycle? It can be for some people, not good at budgeting, addictions, single parents...And for some it is an excuse to not buckle down. Shepard doesn't shy away from the fact that some people are just lazy and can't focus.

In a sad part in the end, Shepard reveals that both his parents have cancer, so his 'experiment' becomes all too real when his mother is unable to support her self & pay for cancer treatments. He leaves his experiment, takes up a job near his mother and must support her as well as himself. This bit of sad truth only shows how real the game has become for him and other Americans.