3.5
Class
ByPublisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A Good Morning America Book Club Pick
A New York Times Most Anticipated Books of Fall
From the New York Times bestselling author who inspired the hit Netflix series about a struggling mother barely making ends meet as a housecleaner, a “raw and inspiring” (People) memoir about college, motherhood, poverty, and life after Maid.
When Stephanie Land set out to write her memoir Maid, she never could have imagined what was to come. Handpicked by President Barack Obama as one of the best books of 2019, he called it an “unflinching look at America’s class divide…and a reminder of the dignity of all work.” Later, it was adapted into the hit Netflix series Maid, which was viewed by sixty-seven million households and was Netflix’s fourth most-watched show in 2021, garnering three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Stephanie’s escape out of poverty and abuse in search of a better life inspired millions.
Maid was a story about a housecleaner, but it was also a story about a woman with a dream. In Class, Land takes us with her as she finishes college and pursues her writing career. Facing barriers at every turn including a byzantine loan system, food insecurity, the judgments of professors and fellow students who didn’t understand the demands of attending college while under the poverty line—Land finds a way to survive once again, finally graduating in her mid-thirties.
Class paints an intimate and heartbreaking portrait of motherhood as it converges and often conflicts with personal desire and professional ambition. Who has the right to create art? Who has the right to go to college? And what kind of work is valued in our culture? In clear, candid, and moving prose, Class grapples with these questions, offering a searing indictment of America’s educational system and an inspiring testimony of a mother’s triumph against all odds.
A Good Morning America Book Club Pick
A New York Times Most Anticipated Books of Fall
From the New York Times bestselling author who inspired the hit Netflix series about a struggling mother barely making ends meet as a housecleaner, a “raw and inspiring” (People) memoir about college, motherhood, poverty, and life after Maid.
When Stephanie Land set out to write her memoir Maid, she never could have imagined what was to come. Handpicked by President Barack Obama as one of the best books of 2019, he called it an “unflinching look at America’s class divide…and a reminder of the dignity of all work.” Later, it was adapted into the hit Netflix series Maid, which was viewed by sixty-seven million households and was Netflix’s fourth most-watched show in 2021, garnering three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Stephanie’s escape out of poverty and abuse in search of a better life inspired millions.
Maid was a story about a housecleaner, but it was also a story about a woman with a dream. In Class, Land takes us with her as she finishes college and pursues her writing career. Facing barriers at every turn including a byzantine loan system, food insecurity, the judgments of professors and fellow students who didn’t understand the demands of attending college while under the poverty line—Land finds a way to survive once again, finally graduating in her mid-thirties.
Class paints an intimate and heartbreaking portrait of motherhood as it converges and often conflicts with personal desire and professional ambition. Who has the right to create art? Who has the right to go to college? And what kind of work is valued in our culture? In clear, candid, and moving prose, Class grapples with these questions, offering a searing indictment of America’s educational system and an inspiring testimony of a mother’s triumph against all odds.
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3.5
“The title “Class” was very clever. With such a title, I expected to read about the struggles the author had, due to her socio-economical class, while taking college classes. After reading her first book, I thought this one would be more about the struggles of being a single mom while trying to get a higher education. While there is some writing about this, the focus is more on her social/personal life than her family life. It felt more like a biography than a bring-to-awareness-book like her first one was. I didn’t really care about her social life, friends, etc.
With all that being said, I did learn some nonsensical “rules” that government assistance programs have about what actually counts as an education - apparently getting an English major does not count. Also going to school apparently does not excuse someone from working, you must work AND go to school for a minimum number of hours and make so much money all while taking care of your kid/s. I always believed that a good education is the way to bring people out of poverty. However with the current system (as Land writes it), it doesn’t even make sense for someone under the poverty line to pursue an education which just traps them (and their dependents) in the poverty cycle. Additionally, the education that she got was ok but there was no guidance on how to get a job with her degree. We all put emphasis on pursuing higher education, but no one in these higher education institutions are actually helping students on how to shape their career. These institutions just collect money from tuition, provide you with professors that are supposed to be knowledgeable in their field only to teach you about the subject and not really about how they got their jobs; finally, they graduate you and wish you luck THEN they ask you for donations since you’re an alumni! I just wish that the author focused more on these issues and bringing the social services issues that she struggled more to the forefront than her personal/social life. I would’ve like to be more enlightened by someone who has been there done that since this helps gives the issues more life. The “rules” all sound good on paper, but clearly are poorly executed.”
About Stephanie Land
Stephanie Land is the author of Class and the New York Times bestseller Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive, which inspired the Netflix series Maid and was called “a testimony…worth listening to” by The New York Times. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, and many other outlets. Her writing focuses on social and economic justice and parenting under the poverty line. She is a frequent speaker at colleges and national advocacy organizations. Find out more at @Stepville or Stepville.com.
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