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reydeam's review against another edition
5.0
“It is hard to argue that housing is not a fundamental human need. Decent, affordable housing should be a basic right for everybody in this country. The reason is simple: without stable shelter, everything else falls apart.”
Horrifying, disturbing, and profound. The complexities of poverty are far more reaching than I have ever thought; an eviction is just one aspect of life in poverty yet creates huge hardships, beyond the obvious, that deepen the poverty cycle that people find themselves stuck in.
Matthew Desmond did a superb job discussing statistics and facts while never losing sight of the humanity of those whose life stories he highlights within the book. His writing felt like a narrative that read easily and was never dull. It felt story-like. While it was a deep book, it was accessible and lent well for reading quickly.
Eviction is a must read book for all. The insights gained are ones we all should be aware of; they hold value.
Side note: Do not side-step reading the Epilogue and About This Project as they each add another layer and depth to the text. After reading these two sections, I came away feeling more impressed by the structure, writing, and context of Evicted.
I read the book, and also listened to the audiobook. The narrator, Dion Graham, did an awesome job. I usually steer away from non-fiction audiobooks because it’s hard to keep tabs on the facts presented. The audiobook was doable, and effective which is another testament to the author’s writing.
Horrifying, disturbing, and profound. The complexities of poverty are far more reaching than I have ever thought; an eviction is just one aspect of life in poverty yet creates huge hardships, beyond the obvious, that deepen the poverty cycle that people find themselves stuck in.
Matthew Desmond did a superb job discussing statistics and facts while never losing sight of the humanity of those whose life stories he highlights within the book. His writing felt like a narrative that read easily and was never dull. It felt story-like. While it was a deep book, it was accessible and lent well for reading quickly.
Eviction is a must read book for all. The insights gained are ones we all should be aware of; they hold value.
Side note: Do not side-step reading the Epilogue and About This Project as they each add another layer and depth to the text. After reading these two sections, I came away feeling more impressed by the structure, writing, and context of Evicted.
I read the book, and also listened to the audiobook. The narrator, Dion Graham, did an awesome job. I usually steer away from non-fiction audiobooks because it’s hard to keep tabs on the facts presented. The audiobook was doable, and effective which is another testament to the author’s writing.
hollydyer328's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.5
My grandmother lived in the North side of Milwaukee and I spent a lot of time in that neighborhood as a kid under her care. I don’t think I would ever expect that neighborhood to be profiled in a Pulitzer prize-winning book, especially on the poverty and evictions that satiate this low-income neighborhood, but I’m glad that this was the book to do that. Matthew Desmond takes great care in telling the stories of these individuals living in low-income neighborhoods of Milwaukee, and he does it with such detail, honor and care. These families struggle with eviction and obtaining affordable housing, which pulls them even further into poverty. He raises critical awareness on affordable housing as a basic human right and exposes the ways that landlords and the wealthy exploit the poor for profit. The ending was probably my favorite when he went at it with a searing critique and going into his ethnographic approach with the reporting. My only qualm was it felt difficult to keep tack of the many individual stories throughout.
lou_1440's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
derekpotts's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
sashapasha's review against another edition
5.0
Well-researched and well-written, Evicted documents how eviction works in poor neighborhoods in Milwaukee by following several families as they live their lives and go through the process of losing and finding housing. The personal accounts were interesting, but the part I found most fascinating was the epilogue, where Matthew Desmond describes how he went about gathering all the stories, including living in the neighborhoods he writes about and getting to know the residents. He has several insights about perception and how his identity (race, gender, background, etc) colored the things he was told and allowed to witness, and he talks about how he attempted to compensate for those factors. Overall a really thought-provoking book with important subject material, highly recommend.
melissa_bookworm's review against another edition
5.0
I finished this book a few weeks ago but haven't had time to review it yet.
Evicted explains the rental crisis in America (Milwaukee specifically). It was eye-opening. Perhaps its my white, middle class, Australian privilege but the stories that Desmond tells shocked me. I listened to the audio-book and spent a lot of the time shaking my head in disbelief. The system is so broken. Expecting people to be able to pay up to 80% of their monthly wage/benefit to rent is simply ludicrous. It also seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy once a person is hit with an eviction notice, it stops them from accessing adequate/well-managed housing. This forces them to live in sub-standard (sometimes even squalor) housing for the same, if not more, rent than a livable dwelling because landlords can decide to put the caveat 'no evictions' on the application.
I flip-flopped a lot while reading this, perhaps this is a testament to how well Desmond is portraying each point of view. You feel bad for the landlords not being able to collect their rents, but at the same time feel the injustice of the tenant who is already on the poverty line but can't get anything fixed in their rental property without being evicted for causing problems.
There are obviously other issues that Desmond touches on. Addiction and criminal convictions, just to name a few. It was probably one of the best non-fiction books I've read this year.
Evicted explains the rental crisis in America (Milwaukee specifically). It was eye-opening. Perhaps its my white, middle class, Australian privilege but the stories that Desmond tells shocked me. I listened to the audio-book and spent a lot of the time shaking my head in disbelief. The system is so broken. Expecting people to be able to pay up to 80% of their monthly wage/benefit to rent is simply ludicrous. It also seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy once a person is hit with an eviction notice, it stops them from accessing adequate/well-managed housing. This forces them to live in sub-standard (sometimes even squalor) housing for the same, if not more, rent than a livable dwelling because landlords can decide to put the caveat 'no evictions' on the application.
I flip-flopped a lot while reading this, perhaps this is a testament to how well Desmond is portraying each point of view. You feel bad for the landlords not being able to collect their rents, but at the same time feel the injustice of the tenant who is already on the poverty line but can't get anything fixed in their rental property without being evicted for causing problems.
There are obviously other issues that Desmond touches on. Addiction and criminal convictions, just to name a few. It was probably one of the best non-fiction books I've read this year.
cortg15's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.75
cleothegreat's review against another edition
5.0
‘Milwaukee renters who perceived higher levels of neighborhood trauma—believing that their neighbors had experienced incarceration, abuse, addiction, and other harrowing events—were far less likely to believe that people in their community could come together to improve their lives. This lack of faith had less to do with their neighborhood’s actual poverty and crime rates than with the level of concentrated suffering they perceived around them. A community that saw so clearly its own pain had a difficult time also sensing its potential.’
after I finished this book I found myself in tears while cleaning my own house. stable living conditions can either make or break a society-and wow, what a thing to be taken for granted. a must read for anyone that wants a perspective straight from the ones affected the most by America’s housing crisis, gentrification and poverty.
after I finished this book I found myself in tears while cleaning my own house. stable living conditions can either make or break a society-and wow, what a thing to be taken for granted. a must read for anyone that wants a perspective straight from the ones affected the most by America’s housing crisis, gentrification and poverty.