When I began reading this book it reminded me of the documentary television series created by the guy who made SUPERSIZE ME! In it, he does basically the same thing with his wife, seeing how the two of them would be able to survive on minimum wage barely scraping by as a couple. The one thing that was missing from Ehrenreich's novel, and the thing that created possibly the most tension in the television series was the difficulty in maintining an intimiate relationship while struggling with the very real possibility of poverty.
Ehrenreich's life in this novel is potentially "doable" but she leaves no room for close personal connections. He life conisists of eating, sleeping, and working; with work far outweighing the first two. Even an event such as a church social is in itself an event for her. She has to take into account gasoline prices to drive there, and sacrfice the sleep she needs to enthusiastically complete her next day of work.
The thing that I found most troubling about her life is that while it can certainly exist, it does so for the sole purpose of survival. Beyond her fellow employees, she has no real interaction with people, and those relationships themselves are expendable. They will be over as soon as she gets a new job or someone gets fired. While she is mainting a standard of living, it is a standard of living that is by no means desired.
With all that aside, I enjoy this book because she doesn't necessarily preach to the audience, rather she lets facts like the $2.30 wage for tipped workers speak for themselves. Ehrenreich shows a style of life that is as shocking to the reader as it is to her.
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