Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education

by Stephanie Land

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Maid set the bar incredibly high for Stephanie Land, opening up a whole discourse on working conditions and the lives of those with the chips stacked against them. Class sees that bar, and raises it. Weaving together themes of motherhood and ambition, it is deeply personal, universally felt and profoundly moving.

"When Stephanie Land set out to write her memoir Maid, she never could have imagined what was to come. Maid was a story about a housecleaner, but it was also a story about a woman with a dream. In Class, Land takes us with her as she finishes college and pursues her writing career. Facing barriers at every turn including a byzantine loan system, not having enough money for food, navigating the judgments of professors and fellow students who didn't understand the demands of attending college while under the poverty line -- Land finds a way to survive once again, finally graduating in her mid-thirties. Class paints an intimate and heartbreaking portrait of motherhood as it converges and often conflicts with personal desire and professional ambition. Who has the right to create art? Who has the right to go to college? And what kind of work is valued in our culture? In clear, candid, and moving prose, Class grapples with these questions, offering a searing indictment of America's educational system and an inspiring testimony of a mother's triumph against all odds."--

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781638089865
Publisher:	Center Point
Publication date:	01/01/2024
Series:	Platinum Nonfiction
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.86(w) x 8.64(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Stephanie Land is the author of Class and the New York Times bestseller Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive, which inspired the Netflix series Maid and was called “a testimony...worth listening to” by The New York Times. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, and many other outlets. Her writing focuses on social and economic justice and parenting under the poverty line. She is a frequent speaker at colleges and national advocacy organizations. Find out more at @Stepville or Stepville.com.

Editorial Reviews

"A universal story."
—Good Morning America (November Book Club Pick)

“Intimate, utterly revealing ....Land bares her soul and psyche, offering readers a look at her inner life with excruciating honesty.”
—New York Times

"Raw and inspiring."
—People

"Maid set the bar incredibly high for Stephanie Land, opening up a whole discourse on working conditions and the lives of those with the chips stacked against them. Class sees that bar, and raises it. Weaving together themes of motherhood and ambition, it is deeply personal, universally felt and profoundly moving."
—B&N Reads

"In her trademark raw, vulnerable writing style, she interrogates the idea of money and privilege, parenthood and poverty: should entry to the college classroom only be for those of a certain socioeconomic class? This book will open your eyes, challenge your preconceived notions, and ultimately leave you rooting for Land, and for every person who dares to dream when the odds are stacked against them."
—Amazon, Best Books of November 2023

"Whenever I read Land, I’m filled with the cathartic release that comes from a skilled writer pointing a finger at the small hypocrisies of life."
—Marie Claire, Best Books of 2023

“Land is a great writer, particularly when conveying the relentless nature of poverty and the systems that work against women, especially....this book will serve as quite the mirror for the inherent biases many people hold about who can do what and why.”
—Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist

"Land’s English degree didn’t provide a golden ticket out of poverty....but it gave her pride and dignity."
—New York Post

“Captivating....Eye-opening and heartrending, [CLASS] will provide succor for readers who’ve faced similar hardships and essential education for anyone who hasn’t. It’s another stirring personal history from one of the foremost chroniclers of 21st-century economic anxiety.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A beautiful memoir that's an honest portrayal [of] persistence and life and writing and children. Stephanie Land did the work, and it shows."
—Neil Gaiman

“An illuminating portrait of a part of the higher education experience that is often ignored...a powerful read.”
—Kirkus

“An incredible and heart-wrenching memoir that ruminates on higher education, class, and single motherhood....as infuriating as it is inspiring, and it should be considered required reading for anyone with even a passing interest in narratives of wealth and work, the lived experience of prejudicial U.S. safety net systems, or social justice.”
—Shelf Awareness

“A riveting new memoir about life as a single mother trying to finish her college education and build a writing career after escaping poverty and abuse. Land crafts a poignant and eye-opening story about a failing educational system and the barriers and gatekeeping she faced both personally and professionally on the way to fulfilling her dreams.”
—BookBub

Select Praise for Maid:

"A single mother's personal, unflinching look at America's class divide, a description of the tightrope many families walk just to get by, and a reminder of the dignity of all work."
—President Barack Obama, "Obama's 2019 Summer Reading List"

"More than any book in recent memory, Land nails the sheer terror that comes with being poor, the exhausting vigilance of knowing that any misstep or twist of fate will push you deeper into the hole."
—The Boston Globe

"Stephanie Land's memoir [Maid] is a bracing one."
—The Atlantic

"An eye-opening journey into the lives of the working poor."
—People, Perfect for Your Book Club

"The particulars of Land's struggle are sobering, but it's the impression of precariousness that is most memorable."
—The New Yorker

"[Land's] book has the needed quality of reversing the direction of the gaze. Some people who employ domestic labor will read her account. Will they see themselves in her descriptions of her clients? Will they offer their employees the meager respect Land fantasizes about? Land survived the hardship of her years as a maid, her body exhausted and her brain filled with bleak arithmetic, to offer her testimony. It's worth listening to."
—New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

"A beautiful memoir that's an honest portrayal [of] persistence and life and writing and children. Stephanie Land did the work, and it shows."

Neil Gaiman

2023-09-09
The bestselling author of Maid returns with a gripping account of her struggles balancing higher education, parenthood, and poverty.

Land picks up close to where her previous memoir left off. After years of struggling as a housekeeper and single mother, the author moved to Missoula to study English at the University of Montana. However, despite the realization of a long-held dream, her battle to become financially stable continued. In candid, compelling prose, Land describes balancing child care, multiple jobs, and school over the oppressive hum of poverty. “It was common for me to only have ten bucks in my bank account and live off peanut butter for the final few days of the month,” she writes. “Long-term financial planning is for people who aren’t living in poverty. I didn’t have the time or the energy to calculate how much debt I was in or how much interest I paid every month or how much interest I would pay on my student loans….All I cared about was a continued ability to feed, clothe, and house my kid.” The author sheds necessary light on the challenges of anyone living in poverty, especially parents. While many of her teenage classmates were able to direct their focus on school exclusively, Land spent countless hours navigating government assistance programs and mothering her child. This book serves as an illuminating portrait of a part of the higher education experience that is often ignored. Land’s recurring bitterness, however, somewhat sours the narrative. Though she is a successful writer, she harbors a surprising amount of rancor about her rejection from Montana’s graduate creative writing program. Still, the overall quality of the writing and the importance of the story make for a powerful read.

Part memoir, part manifesto: Fans of Maid will enjoy this next installment from a dedicated writer and mother.

Kirkus Reviews