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A review by zoe_271
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.75
This book was an important read. While I don't live in the US, Evicted starkly displayed how systems and policy intertwine in a way that disadvantages people. If anybody in 2024 somehow still thinks that people in poverty are 'choosing' to be there, don't wish to work and want to live off benefits - you need to read this book.
Evicted follows several real people in poverty between 2008-09, Desmond having lived among them for months to get as true a look into their lives and struggles as possible. He masterfully depicts how hopelessness and struggle can keep people down. The importance of having a stable roof over one's head truly cannot be understated, and yet this is a privilege the richest, supposedly most well-developed nation on the planet does not choose to prioritise, allowing children to grow up in cockroach-infested drug-ridden homes, not through parental failure, but policy choices.
I cannot emphasise the need to read this book enough for anybody wanting to understand the intersectionality of poverty. Desmond displays fantastically what we all know - home is the centre of our lives, and for that to be unstable tilts everything else off-balance.
Evicted follows several real people in poverty between 2008-09, Desmond having lived among them for months to get as true a look into their lives and struggles as possible. He masterfully depicts how hopelessness and struggle can keep people down. The importance of having a stable roof over one's head truly cannot be understated, and yet this is a privilege the richest, supposedly most well-developed nation on the planet does not choose to prioritise, allowing children to grow up in cockroach-infested drug-ridden homes, not through parental failure, but policy choices.
I cannot emphasise the need to read this book enough for anybody wanting to understand the intersectionality of poverty. Desmond displays fantastically what we all know - home is the centre of our lives, and for that to be unstable tilts everything else off-balance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use
Moderate: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, and Fire/Fire injury