Uneducated: A Memoir of Flunking Out, Falling Apart, and Finding My Worth

by Christopher Zara

Overview

In this “hilarious and heartbreaking...must-read memoir” (Publishers Weekly), Christopher Zara breaks down his winding journey from dropout to journalist and the impact that his background had in the world of privilege.

Boldly honest, wryly funny, and utterly open-hearted, Uneducated is one diploma-less journalist’s map of our growing educational divide and, ultimately, a challenge: in our credential-obsessed world, what is the true value of a college degree?

For Christopher Zara, this is the professional minefield he has had to navigate since the day he was kicked out of his New Jersey high school for behavioral problems and never allowed back. From a school for “troubled kids,” to wrestling with his identity in the burgeoning punk scene of the 1980s; from a stint as an ice cream scooper as he got clean in Florida, to an unpaid internship in New York in his thirties, Zara spent years contending with skeptical hiring managers and his own impostor syndrome before breaking into the world of journalism—only to be met by an industry preoccupied with pedigree. As he navigated the world of the elite and saw the realities of the education gap firsthand, Zara realized he needed to confront the label he had been quietly holding in: what it looked like to be part of the “working class”—whatever that meant.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316268974
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	05/16/2023
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	497,829
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Christopher Zara is an author and journalist who writes about culture, media, business, and technology. He is a senior editor at Fast Company, where he runs the news desk, and was previously a deputy editor at International Business Times, a theater critic for Newsweek, and managing editor of Show Business Weekly. Christopher lives on the Upper West Side with his wife, Christina D'Angelo, and their cat, Jimmy Carter McPickles, who is officially on the lease.

Editorial Reviews

★ 03/27/2023

Zara (Tortured Artists), a senior editor at Fast Company, takes an incisive, enlightening look at his trials and triumphs navigating the New York journalism world without a college degree. After completing 10th grade in Trenton, N.J., in 1986, Zara (who later obtained a GED) left high school and embarked on a series of minimum-wage jobs, picking up a heroin habit along the way. After getting clean and landing an unpaid internship at Show Business Weekly (which conveniently didn’t inquire about his educational background), he secured a full-time position at the publication, later becoming a contributor to Condé Nast Traveler and Wired and a full-time reporter at Newsweek. All the while, Zara found himself just outside the industry’s inner circle: “No matter how disparate and diverse my coworkers seem, they all share a collective experience—the college years and the college friends—that’s completely foreign to me.” Zara’s tale is perfectly paced, told with powerful prose and invigorating candor. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, this must-read memoir offers hope to anyone who worries the weight of their past stands in the way of their future. Agent: Ryan D. Harbage, Fischer-Harbage. (May)

Publishers Weekly

A thoughtful, often funny, memoir that also examines journalism over the past two decades as it has been forced to change and change again.”—Manhattan Book Review

"In a world that can be preoccupied with achievement — like the kind that is measured by way of degrees and credentials — this book is a thought-provoking memoir...A much-needed look at the higher-education system, what it means to have a degree (and not), who decides the importance of credentials, and why, all illustrated through Zara's story."—Book Riot

“A powerful story paired with gorgeously crafted writing...Zara's memoir goes beyond the average story of personal adversity. Through it all, he matches each setback with a palpable sense of hope; readers can’t help but cheer for him...a necessary and inspiring story about how we are more than our educational histories.”—Booklist (starred review)

"Zara’s tale is perfectly paced, told with powerful prose and invigorating candor. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, this must-read memoir offers hope to anyone who worries the weight of their past stands in the way of their future."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"In a brisk, entertaining narrative, Zara recounts his bumpy path from a checkered school career that included many detentions, suspensions, and, finally, expulsion to an impressive position at a major media venue. [...] A savvy account of an interesting life path."—Kirkus Reviews

”Maybe traditionally uneducated, but Christopher Zara is the valedictorian of the school of hard knocks. His ups and downs are told here with sly wit, candor, and heart. I loved every page of this eye-opening cri de coeur, the bad times and bad jobs revisited with self-blame but refreshingly without bitterness.”—Elinor Lipman, author of Ms. Demeanor, Good Riddance, and other novels

“A sometimes painful, always compelling story of a high-school dropout who hungered for a life as a journalist but lacked the ticket for admission: a college degree.”—Peter Goldman, bestselling author and former senior editor at Newsweek

“Christopher Zara’s Uneducated is a piercing, heartbreaking, heartwarming memoir of triumph in the face of the societal challenges that confront so many of us. He offers a clear-eyed view of America’s education gap, as well as the implosion of media over the past decade, that none of us can afford to ignore.”—Nick Kolakowski, author of How to Become an Intellectual and editor of Lockdown: Stories of Crime, Hope, and Terror During a Pandemic

“An inspiration for anyone who has ever felt othered and forged their own path—I was rooting for him every minute.”—Patricia Black, creative director, actor

"Whatever happened to that weird-looking introverted kid in high school who just disappeared one day? An engrossing read, honestly told and at times both hilarious and heartbreaking, Uneducated is a universal tale of defying the odds, of proving to yourself and to others that, yes, there is a place in the world for people who fit outside the mold."—Angela Di Carlo, comedian/singer-songwriter

From the Publisher

2023-02-23
A memoir that demonstrates how to succeed in business without a pedigree.

A journalist and senior news editor at Fast Company, Zara never graduated from an elite college. In fact, unlike most of his colleagues in journalism, he never went to college at all. A high school dropout, his only educational credential is a GED diploma. In a brisk, entertaining narrative, Zara recounts his bumpy path from a checkered school career that included many detentions, suspensions, and, finally, expulsion to an impressive position at a major media venue. Serious behavioral problems landed him in a psychiatric hospital when he was 16. In his teens, he was a punk rocker; by 22, he was a heroin addict working menial jobs to support a habit that he repeatedly tried to quit. Finally, after nine years living in Orlando and Seattle, he kicked drugs. In 2005, at the age of 35, he arrived in New York City. Searching for work, he found that the lack of a college degree loomed as a major impediment to his future no matter what job he applied for: “The educated, as a category, have a stranglehold on power and influence that is impossible to escape.” Zara deliberately omitted listing his education on his resume, and even on dating apps, and he was consumed by worry that an interviewer would probe his background. One who didn’t offered an unpaid internship at Show Business Weekly. Zara soon became the dying magazine’s overworked editor. As he pursued his career as a writer (he got an agent and a book contract) and editor, he felt recurring anxiety at being “on the wrong side of the diploma divide,” yet skepticism, too, about the value of higher education. “In a meritocracy,” he writes, “there is no higher reward than to cast a smug eye on an ultra-successful career and say, I did it my way.”

A savvy account of an interesting life path.

Kirkus Reviews

”Maybe traditionally uneducated, but Christopher Zara is the valedictorian of the school of hard knocks. His ups and downs are told here with sly wit, candor, and heart. I loved every page of this eye-opening cri de coeur, the bad times and bad jobs revisited with self-blame but refreshingly without bitterness.

Elinor Lipman

An inspiration for anyone who has ever felt othered and forged their own path—I was rooting for him every minute.

Patricia Black

Christopher Zara’s Uneducated is a piercing, heartbreaking, heartwarming memoir of triumph in the face of the societal challenges that confront so many of us. He offers a clear-eyed view of America’s education gap, as well as the implosion of media over the past decade, that none of us can afford to ignore.

Nick Kolakowski

Whatever happened to that weird-looking introverted kid in high school who just disappeared one day? An engrossing read, honestly told and at times both hilarious and heartbreaking, Uneducated is a universal tale of defying the odds, of proving to yourself and to others that, yes, there is a place in the world for people who fit outside the mold.

comedian/singer-songwriter Angela Di Carlo

A sometimes painful, always compelling story of a high-school dropout who hungered for a life as a journalist but lacked the ticket for admission: a college degree.

bestselling author and former senior editor at New Peter Goldman