Reissue Review 19: Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Reissue Review #2: On occasion revisiting and reissuing reviews from the days before my blog postings. This is one to not miss.

A recent read: finished on September 24, 2018.


My reaction to this book surprised me. The book is about people who are in their retirement years who still need to do some work to supplement their income. Not only that, but their house is not a fixed four walls, but something with wheels, that they do move around. They are nomads or work campers "workampers" and rubber wheel tramps.

Most of the people came to the solution of living out of a van or RV out of necessity, but there are a few who have chosen this life. And we meet a few people who advocate it, and help out those new to the camper living. The author Jessica Bruder is a reporter and saw this story about the growing number of seniors living this life just to get by. In the several years of gathering their personal stories, she also bought a van and lived it and tried out a few of the jobs, such as the amazon warehouse temporary workers and on the sugar beet farm. They are not easy jobs, physically demanding and Bruder didn't stay long at them, just enough to know how tough these jobs really are. And it makes you wonder how long these seniors can continue in this way.

Despite the books fairly depressing state for many nomadic seniors, these are mostly positive and upbeat portrayals. Most of these people described are more optimistic and happy than one might expect. They love to name their traveling homes with cute pun names like the "Squeeze inn" and the author's van "Halen" named after the band. They are helpful and friendly to each other and quickly develop friendships that feel more like family.

So this is where I was surprised because the freedom they enjoy and camping for months as camp hosts sounded like fun. Since I haven't been camping in a few years, I do miss it, so yeah, being out in nature for months at a time sounds great. Then touring around the country, your home with you as you explore, wow. But for me that would be a vacation, not a life. No, definitely not what I'd like to do when I'm of retirement age; and no, don't sign me up to work in a warehouse or picking beets or any other fruit or vegetable.

I'm sure this book wasn't to "inspire" people to the lifestyle. Instead it is to report on part of the fallout from the great recession, what it did to those who lost their retirement savings and now have to rely on a small check of social security. It doesn't often cut it. Some of these people were college professors, business owners and construction workers. It isn't just people who worked in low wage jobs all their life, although there are a few of those as well.

It feels like there's a little more to say...but really, just read the book. Interesting take on those who don't consider themselves homeless, but houseless.



I received a free copy of this book at a library conference. I was not required to write a review, but felt like it and, of course, the above opinions are my own.