The bus is running late, and Shepard returns to the shop to ask to use the phone, and discovers gasp! Shepard proceeds to insult, berate, and otherwise yell at the shop owner for the way the workers have been treated during their few hours of work and her refusal to feed them. She threatens to call security and he storms out. The scene is juxtaposed with what Shepard considers a good job.
George, a man Shepard met on a construction job for Easy Labor, has hired him to do odd jobs around his house. So on Sunday morning, Shepard goes to George's house and shovels dog crap out of the backyard for a few hours, hoses down the dog's patio, and then George comes out and asks him if he would like to go pull some weeds for a while. Sometime during the afternoon, George tells him he can stop for the day and packs him a sandwich since he missed the meal at the shelter.
George is a great guy, and Shepard returns to work for him every Sunday for months. The bags of dog crap Shepard shovels for him are emblematic of Shepard being on a path to success. I am not kidding about that - Shepard uses that metaphor himself. The other women in the book Shepard works for? One moving client is a recent divorcee who caught her husband cheating - she tells the movers about everything she had to go to catch her husband, after which Shepard comments "so that explains the cheating.
A real estate agent whose home they are moving has the nerve to ask for an estimated time that they will finish, because she has a meeting to get to, and spends the time they are there conducting business on the phone. This isn't a sign of her dedication to her career, or her discipline, to Shepard - this makes her a bad client. I could go on, but I won't. Like I said earlier, if anyone were to really take this as a rebuttal to Nickel and Dimed, there wouldn't be enough words to show point-by-point how Shepard fails at that.
In fact, if anything, Shepard proves just how right that book was. If everybody stopped and declared success where Shepard did, no one would ever get out of poverty. A good attitude is important, but it can only take you so far, and Shepard's judgment of those who don't share his attitude is unfair. View 2 comments. Aug 06, Wendy rated it it was amazing. I'm giving this book a 5 star rating not because it's elegantly written, or that the story is so gripping I couldn't put it down.
On the contrary, I read it piece-meal over the course of 3 weeks. I scoff at you Goodreads reviewers that gave him a 1 star because of gems like this: "Thank you for telling me that a single, white, college educated even if you don't put it on your resume male, who is heterosex I'm giving this book a 5 star rating not because it's elegantly written, or that the story is so gripping I couldn't put it down.
I scoff at you Goodreads reviewers that gave him a 1 star because of gems like this: "Thank you for telling me that a single, white, college educated even if you don't put it on your resume male, who is heterosexual, and healthy, finds it pretty easy to get a job, apartment, and generally succeed. Yes, he's a white, college educated, single, healthy young man. But he used determination and tenacity to get a job and succeed. He used a positive mental attitude.
He didn't quit. As much as I want to go into the realities and hardships that face those with drug problems, abuse and family hardships, I won't. He acknowledges those that he runs across that just can't get their act together because of hardships like that. I don't think he was necessarily trying to accomplish that.
Coupled with the fact that some people enjoy the freedom that homelessness provides. I've talked with men who like that they don't have bills, no taxes, no nagging family to worry about and the fact that there is always someone to give a few bucks and a free meal somewhere. Obviously, not all homelessness is that easy. Being white, heterosexual and college educated does NOT guarantee success.
There are so many more points I could expand upon, but time and space do not permit. Feb 07, Denise rated it it was ok. This young man is a go-getter, but his book, his approach and his viewpoints are so much of what is expected from a young, healthy white male, fresh out of college with a loving, supportive family at home. He has concern for those in more dire situations, but his expectations of them to just pull themselves up by their bootstraps is not realistic.
Also his expectation of those more fortunate to make sacrifices for those less fortunate so that everything will be all right with the world is not very realistic in our greedy, 'me' society. View 1 comment. The best part about this book was its premise.
Could you survive? Work your way up and achieve the American Dream? Adam Shepard decided to try it and wrote this book about his experiences. Unfortunately, his experiences just weren't all that interesting. He does a good job describing what life was like in a homeless shelter, and starting at the very bottom of the workforce as a day laborer.
He takes you with hi The best part about this book was its premise. He takes you with him as he crawls up the ladder to self-sufficiency. But, by the time he got there, I was more exited to be reaching the end of this read than I was for Shepard's success.
And then it got worse. Scratch Beginnings ' Epilogue consists of the author's conclusions after completion of his project. And Shepard comes across - instead of a kid with some interesting life experience - as a simple know-it-all. The kind of kid who just took a semester long course in an interesting field from a dynamic professor and now believes that he or she has ALL the answers in any field even tangentially related to the course.
My advice is this. Jul 02, Daniel rated it really liked it Shelves: general-nonfiction. Some of the negative reviews for this book are mystifying to me, particularly those loaded with vitriol and contempt.
The author is by my lights a well-meaning, well-intentioned young man who is conducting a simple experiment in order to refute the main contention of Nickel and Dimed, namely that it's not really possible to get by on low wages and work your way up.
Many who write reviews are pointing out that our hero lacks other obstacles, such as chronic health problems, stupidity, bad educati Some of the negative reviews for this book are mystifying to me, particularly those loaded with vitriol and contempt.
Many who write reviews are pointing out that our hero lacks other obstacles, such as chronic health problems, stupidity, bad education, and, of course, dark skin; except for the last one, however, those criticisms are all missing his point. Viewed through this modest goal, the book is a success.
In his prefatory remarks he claims not to be a very able writer, but I think the prose is well-crafted and entertaining. The editor should be disciplined, however, for not catching a number of common errors among the young; if I have to read "between Shaun and I" one more time I'm going to scream.
This young man does not appear to have a right-wing or a left-wing agenda; he is just doing something I thought of trying years ago: starting from scratch and seeing if you can really work your way up. Those who are dumping on him should spend just one night in a homeless shelter on the floor; until you've done that, I really don't think you have a right to be so hard on him.
Jul 25, Beth rated it did not like it Shelves: work. I don't recommend this. It's a quick read, but the author didn't put a lot of thought into his experiment and I disagree that this makes him "unbiased," as he claims. He is described on the back as "earnest," and I think that's a nice way of explaining that he seriously overuses the exclamation point.
Every chapter ends with basically the same thing: Now I'm on the road to success, because I have the right attitude unlike the working poor! Not a fan. Sep 03, Elliot Ratzman rated it did not like it Shelves: immersion-and-passing.
He lives in a homeless shelter for a few months while taking some hard, dirty jobs. His mildly liberal suggestions at the end are cribbed from a friend. Sep 02, Daniel marked it as to-read Recommends it for: Please see the bottom of my review. Leesa returned from Nepal a week earlier. Leesa offers to pick up Muffie at JFK.
Poor people have family problems, also. If these people are lucky enough to even have a car, it is likely out of warranty and prone to mechanical breakdowns. Kudos to the guy for setting a goal, intentionally strapping on ankle weights, and learning something.
But where did he get? Still out there hustling with his hand out for a job from someone else. Even within the premise of the book, I would have liked to have heard more about his inventive budgeting. All he really had to do was work, eat and sleep. A couple of d Kudos to the guy for setting a goal, intentionally strapping on ankle weights, and learning something.
A couple of downtime injuries or brief illness aside, he had an unimpeded march to his goal. He is a healthy, white, male just like me , and we have it oh so easy.
Plus he was unmarried, childless, and educated. He learned how to take handouts from charities and be exploited by temp agencies until he found a backbreaking job with no benefits.
How is this noteworthy? And how does it prove that the American Dream is anything like it used to be? Finally, where is the math on his wave-of-the-hand dismissal of raising the Minimum Wage? This Dave Ramsey-esque hubris of thinking one understands the macroeconomics of governments just because one can handle a home budget is rank silliness. The further I got in this book, the more I wanted to put it down. I powered on, just to say I gave it a fair shot and it was a quick read.
It is not something I would pick up twice or gift to someone else. Perhaps it was simply misaimed or mis-marketed, but its promise of being a rebuttal to anything did not come through. Jan 27, Julie rated it liked it Shelves: nonfiction , memoir. College-educated, middle class, ablebodied, heterosexual white guy proves to himself that he can start with nothing and end up with something in contemporary America.
In a year, can he have his own place to live, a car, and something like 2K in his bank account. He says he won't rely on his family and other College-educated, middle class, ablebodied, heterosexual white guy proves to himself that he can start with nothing and end up with something in contemporary America.
He says he won't rely on his family and other contacts. And he won't use his education to get a job. Except that it's one thing to not put your education on a job application.
To go for generally unskilled labor. It's another thing to not actually HAVE the education. He does mention now and then that he realizes it would be much harder if he was a single mother, or this and that. But while he intellectually might understand that, I don't feel that he gets it.
I don't think he realizes how privileged he is as this homeless-by-choice man he's made himself into. Still and all, it's an interesting look into the lives and culture of homeless people in the US. Well, homeless men in this one city in America. I can't say I didn't learn a few things. I can't say I won't look at the world a little different after having read it. But I don't think anyone should take it as proof that the American Dream is alive and well for everyone.
Even if it does work for young, fit white guys. Or at least this one white guy. Nov 14, Terrie rated it really liked it. I really enjoyed it. The pacing and style were good, and he has a real ear for dialogue. Definitely laugh-out-loud funny in a few places. All but the last chapter is a straight up narrative of his experience, so it's engrossing. It's pitched as a contrast to Nickel and Dimed , which I read several years ago and was interesting in terms of her experience but not so much the conclusions, which consisted of a lot of whining.
Shephard's take is that if you're motivated, you can lift yourself out of poverty, and demonstrates this himself as well as through examples of friends and acquaintences. Aug 27, six rated it it was ok Shelves: non-fiction , sociology , 21st-century , memoir. There are plenty of criticisms that you can heap on this book.
If a young, single, well-educated, healthy, white male with no evident mental illnesses or substance abuse problems can't make his way out of poverty, yes, there is something seriously wrong. However, his privilege has no doubt been addressed elsewhere, and anyway he addresses it in the book.
I do think that he would have found things harder had he gone to Philadelphia or New York or Los Angeles--even allowing for several years of in There are plenty of criticisms that you can heap on this book.
I do think that he would have found things harder had he gone to Philadelphia or New York or Los Angeles--even allowing for several years of inflation, some of the prices he mentioned seemed incredibly low, while his wages were probably comparable to or only a little bit less than what you could earn in a more expensive city.
The prose, meanwhile, is solidly workhorse. Not good, but saved from being bad by its being simple and straightforward. Still, I don't really hold any of that stuff against him. My problem with this book is that the author is too concerned with money as a measure of success. For him, the "American Dream" is a fat bank account and home ownership with equity accrued and a cushy retirement account.
And those things are nice, no doubt, but there are many, many reasons why people choose to check out of that system and not all of them have to do with being lazy or not being able to make a budget. Also, I found the preoccupation with the "American Dream" to be annoying. Yes, it would be a whole lot harder to get out of poverty in Guatemala, but that doesn't make American the best country on Earth.
The resources and power of a country says nothing about the intelligence, drive, or integrity of the people who live there. That was annoying. It's still an interesting book, however. First off, he makes a lot of good points. Suck it up and deal the hand you've been dealt. Stop moping about the past and worry about the future. Work hard and then work harder. No matter what you're doing, do it well. Sometimes you or at least I need to hear these things. And, as a memoir, there was a lot here, although you have to dig a bit.
Life in the shelter is dramatic enough to move despite the less than sparkling writing, but stories about being a professional mover need a bit more help. I'm not saying that there wasn't something there, but the reader has to infuse life into it. I've had this book on my wish list on a book swap site for a long, long time.
I think it was worth reading once, but I suspect that I'm going to send it off to the next person on the wish list rather than making a home for it on my shelves. Mar 14, Felicia rated it liked it. I read "Nickel and Dimed" while in college and, like the author of "Scratch Beginnings," found it to be very disheartening. This author does one better by starting out in a homeless shelter and trying to work his way to independence.
The home point is that the American dream is still possible, but it depends on the determination and initiative of the person seeking it. Help us improve this page. About this item. Specifications Number of Pages: Sub-Genre: Personal Memoirs. Format: Paperback. Publisher: Harper Perennial. Age Range: Adult. Author: Adam W Shepard. Language: English. Street Date : February 9, TCIN : UPC : Description About the Book Shepard offers a compelling and inspiring work of investigative journalism in which the author, in a sort of anti-"Nickel and Dimed" experiment, sets out to see if someone who starts with nothing can still achieve the American Dream.
The American Dream--the fable that says if you work hard and follow the rules, you'll make it--is alive and well. Shepard's Scratch Beginnings is the fascinating and eye-opening account of the grand social experiment the author undertook in response to Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed. Report incorrect product info. Shipping details Estimated ship dimensions: 0. Return details This item can be returned to any Target store or Target.
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