In Stephanie Land’s second memoir, she picks up where Maid left off, again plumbing her experience as a single mother struggling to raise a daughter while cleaning houses for low wages. In Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education, Land realizes her dream of attending college and pursuing an English degree. She is mired down, however, with trying to support herself and her daughter while also keeping up with her studies. Adding further weight to her burden is her abusive ex-partner, who balks at paying child support and cancels visits with their kid.
Through clear, inviting prose, Land vividly captures the realities of being a student and parent living in poverty while surrounded by condescending professors and college kids who cannot begin to understand her. She raises important questions about who has access to a higher education and who can pursue a creative profession, showing how class greatly impacts the paths open to you in life. Even with the odds stacked against her, Land manages to graduate and pursue a writing career. Her story is a compelling indictment of both the American educational system and the larger systems that kept her trapped for so long.
Image courtesy of Atria/One Signal Publishers
