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A review by iina
We Need to Talk about Money by Otegha Uwagba
2.0
So, I didn’t realise this was supposed to be a memoir until I was finished with the book… That sure didn’t help.
This was a mixture of personal anecdotes and histories, the author complaining about how all her friends are more rich and privileged than her (get new friends if it’s such a problem?) and facts and figures about money, gender, etc. I liked the less personal content more, as I felt like Uwagba failed to account for her own relative privileges — posh education, being able to quit her job and live at home to figure her career out, the fact that she could buy a home at 30 — whenever she talked about how everyone else is better off than her. Race, gender and class all of course account for a lot when it comes to money, but I feel like a lot of the more essay-style content here failed to make that last 10% push that would’ve turned it great instead of simply stating facts already familiar.
Still, there was some good stuff, too, and the commentary, when not too ‘woe is me’ was sharp and witty, so it wasn’t all bad.
This was a mixture of personal anecdotes and histories, the author complaining about how all her friends are more rich and privileged than her (get new friends if it’s such a problem?) and facts and figures about money, gender, etc. I liked the less personal content more, as I felt like Uwagba failed to account for her own relative privileges — posh education, being able to quit her job and live at home to figure her career out, the fact that she could buy a home at 30 — whenever she talked about how everyone else is better off than her. Race, gender and class all of course account for a lot when it comes to money, but I feel like a lot of the more essay-style content here failed to make that last 10% push that would’ve turned it great instead of simply stating facts already familiar.
Still, there was some good stuff, too, and the commentary, when not too ‘woe is me’ was sharp and witty, so it wasn’t all bad.