The New York Times Book Review - Arlie Russell Hochschild
In this stunning and beautifully written book, Bruder…describes her journey with Linda and her other interviews conducted in five states over three years…[a] brilliant and haunting book…
The New York Times - Parul Sehgal
…an important…work influenced by such classics of immersion journalism as Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed…Bruder is a poised and graceful writer.
Barbara Ehrenreich
"In the early twentieth century, men used to ride the rails in search of work, sharing camps at night. Today, as Bruder brilliantly reports, we have a new class of nomadic workers who travel in their RVs from one short-term job to another. There’s a lot to cringe at here—from low pay and physically exhausting work to constant insecurity. But surprisingly, Nomadland also offers its residents much-needed camaraderie and adventure, which makes this book a joy to read."
Ted Conover
"The campsite as the home of last resort, the RV used not for vacation but for survival: these are the makings of a new dystopia. Nomadland is a smart road book for the new economy, full of conviviality and dark portent."
Arlie Russell Hochschild
"Stunning and beautifully written. . . brilliant and haunting"
San Francisco Chronicle
"A first-rate piece of immersive journalism."
The Nation - Astra Taylor
"At once wonderfully humane and deeply troubling, the book offers an eye-opening tour of the increasingly unequal, unstable, and insecure future our country is racing toward."
The New Yorker - Margaret Talbot
"A remarkable book of immersive reporting.…Bruder is an acute and compassionate observer."
Louise Erdrich
"This is an important book.… A calmly stated chronicle of devastation. But told as story after story, it is also a riveting collection of tales about irresistible people—quirky, valiant people who deserve respect and a decent life."
Timothy R. Smith
"[A] devastating, revelatory book."
Pacific Standard - Peter C. Baker
"Some readers will come because they're enamored of road narratives, but Bruder's study should be of interest to anyone who cares about the future of work, community, and retirement."
starred review Booklist
"[A] powerhouse of a book. . . . In the best immersive-journalism tradition, Bruder records her misadventures driving and living in a van. . . . Visceral and haunting reporting."
Minneapolis Star Tribune - Kim Ode
"Important, eye-opening journalism."
Rebecca Solnit
"People who thought the 2008 financial collapse was over a long time ago need to meet the people Jessica Bruder got to know in this scorching, beautifully written, vivid, disturbing (and occasionally wryly funny) book. Nomadland is a testament both to the generosity and creativity of the victims of our modern-medieval economy, hidden in plain sight, and to the blunt-end brutality that put them there. Is this the best the wealthiest nation on earth can do for those who’ve already done so much?"
O Magazine
"Stirring reportage."
Buffalo News - Peter Simon
"Bruder tells [this] story with gripping insight, detail and candor. In the hands of a fine writer, this is a terrific profile of a subculture that gets little attention, or is treated by the media as a quirky hobby, rather than a survival strategy."
New York Times - Parul Sehgal
"Bruder is a poised and graceful writer."
JANUARY 2018 - AudioFile
This audiobook explores a subculture of Americans who have taken to life on the road in response to financial stress. Don’t call them homeless, though; these nomads, most of them victims of the disappearing middle class, prefer “houseless.” Author Jessica Bruder immersed herself in their world for three years and reports in depth on the positives and negatives of such a lifestyle. Karen White’s narration is capable, if a little mechanical. She doesn’t hit as many emotional beats as one would expect with a story that is, at its heart, about people struggling for survival. The overall result is still a fine piece of journalism—but one that doesn’t fully capture its own humanist spirit. A.T.N. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2017-05-09
Journalist Bruder (Burning Book: A Visual History of Burning Man, 2007) expands her remarkable cover story for Harper's into a book about low-income Americans eking out a living while driving from locale to locale for seasonal employment.From the beginning of her immersion into a mostly invisible subculture, the author makes it clear that the nomads—many of them senior citizens—refuse to think of themselves as "homeless." Rather, they refer to themselves as "houseless," as in no longer burdened by mortgage payments, repairs, and other drawbacks, and they discuss "wheel estate" instead of real estate. Most of them did not lose their houses willingly, having fallen victim to mortgage fraud, job loss, health care debt, divorce, alcoholism, or some combination of those and additional factors. As a result, they sleep in their cars or trucks or cheaply purchased campers and try to make the best of the situation. At a distance, the nomads might be mistaken for RV owners traveling the country for pleasure, but that is not the case. Bruder traveled with some of the houseless for years while researching and writing her book. She builds the narrative around one especially accommodating nomad, senior citizen Linda May, who is fully fleshed on the page thanks to the author's deep reporting. May and her fellow travelers tend to find physically demanding, low-wage jobs at Amazon.com warehouses that aggressively seek seasonal workers or at campgrounds, sugar beet harvest sites, and the like. The often desperate nomads build communities wherever they land, offering tips for overcoming common troubles, sharing food, repairing vehicles, counseling each other through bouts of depression, and establishing a grapevine about potential employers. Though very little about Bruder's excellent journalistic account offers hope for the future, an ersatz hope radiates from within Nomadland: that hard work and persistence will lead to more stable situations. Engaging, highly relevant immersion journalism.
