Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do by Studs Terkel Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do
Book Review: "dangerous" social critique
Summary: 5 Stars
I feel compelled to respond to brothersjudddotcom. Nowhere in Terkel's book do I get the notion that he believes people "don't want to work." I imagine Terkel loves his own work. The subject of the book is the way that most jobs (even "good" jobs) have become dehumanizing. Robotizing.
One of his interviewees, a filmmaker, comments on an "educational film" she saw, one intended to inspire "ghetto kids" to pursue their dreams. She remarks that the "most (financially) successful" subject in the film, a businessman, spoke about his money and his possessions while a "less successful" sculptor led a tour of his studio and spoke about his actual work. She says that she feel people are being deprived of the potential joys in work when we are trained to focus too much on status and salary.
He also interviews actor Rip Torn, who laments that actors are expected to be "shills" to tailor their performances to the selling of products. For example, Torn tells a story about being required to smoke cigarettes rather than cigars in a particular role. Historically, the character would not have smoked cigarettes; the sponsor was a cigarette company. Torn felt that both his art and his intelligence, as well as that of the audience, were sold out by this demand.
Far from being "badly dated," Terkel's critique is monstrously accurate today. Now, as contrasted with the 1970s, in many families, both parents "devote" 10+ hours to power games at work at the expense of family time, personal health, community, etc.
I believe that Terkel believes meaningful work to be essential to the human spirit. Problem is, as amount of work increases, meaning seems to be decreasing.
Book Review: I wish it were required reading at every level of education.
Summary: 5 Stars
Studs Terkel wanted to write a book about working for a living. So he sat down with a grocery store cashier and interviewed her about her job. He didn't ask very many questions; he just turned on a tape recorder and let her pour her heart out. She explained what she did for a living, how and why she came to do it, what she liked and disliked about her job. She talked about the little dramas and boredom that filled her working hours and the toll it took on her private life. When she was finished talking she had created a vivid "snapshot" with words of what it's like to work as a grocery store cashier.Then Studs interviewed a bartender, a teacher, a pro athlete and dozens of other people from dozens of professions. They each created in their own words unique self-portraits of themselves at work. The book Working is like an art gallery filled with these detailed self-portraits.
And just like strolling through an art gallery looking at paintings will give you a feel for the visions of a variety of artists, reading Working will give you a taste of the flavor of the working lives of it's subjects.
Book Review: Moving Oral Narrative
Summary: 4 Stars
Studs Terkel is a master at getting people to open up, and careful to include several interviewees whose gripes help reinforce his liberal agenda. We hear a stockbroker, trucker, priest, hooker, teller, cops, teachers, autoworkers, and many others discuss their livelihoods. Readers come away appreciating the unique challenges of each job, and the powerlessness that afflicts many employees. These interviews occurred primarily in Chicago during the early 1970's, when the workplace featured fewer women and more jobs in heavy industry. We meet Mike, a steelworker annoyed by his lack of skills who senses that his union job may vanish - as occurred a few years later when US Steel shut their Chicago South Works. Barbara is a young advertising executive forced to deal with a level of office sexism one hopes is now pass?. Ex-railroaders Bill and Louis each lament the shriveling of their once-vital industry from separate perches as retiree and washroom attendant. "Working" has many similar, compelling tales. The book may be slightly dated, but it remains a highly informative read.Book Review: Engrossing, moving, insightful first-person narratives
Summary: 5 Stars
I had always meant to read "Working," but had never gotten around to it. Then I picked up another book loosely based on it ("Gig"), so decided to get the original "Working" as well."Working" is moving and brilliant and a million times better than "Gig." Somehow, Terkel lets the people do their own talking, but it's never monotonous, never repetitive, and they always have profound things to say. Reading these people tell their stories is mesmerizing. Terkel steps in just the right amount, organizing the stories into themes (sometimes very creative ones), but never drowning out his interviewees' voices.
Although "Working" came out in 1972, it feels surprisingly recent. The world of work hasn't changed all that much in thirty years. Still relevant, still entertaining, still thought-provoking. And the professions are indexed in the back, so one needn't read them in order.
Book Review: Very readable contemporary history.
Summary: 5 Stars
The drugstore owner, the hooker, the ex-stockbroker and steel worker, the nurse, the school teacher, etc., all these people have committed their working life's experience to tape from which Studs Terkel then puts this great book together. And whilst the stories are all fascinating, they do seem to suffer from a kind of homogeneous quality, as if, no matter who the interviewee is, the characters' voices all seem to sound like the same person, only the details determining their sex or experience, adding any differentiation. A minor point, I know, but it tends to veil the individuals beneath a worn down resignedness of whether their experiences were good, bad, or so, so. I was alerted to this book when reading a Stephen King article about banned books in American colleges, this being one of them, after a school kid used it as the basis for a homework exercise and his mother threw a fit over it. I can't see why myself, but there you are.
Working, is nearly thirty years old now. Nonetheless, its just as relevant today as when Studs Terkel wrote it. And fine reading it is, too.