I compiled a short list of books tackling the issues of poverty, social injustice, financial instability and lack of opportunities written by the authors from different countries: USA, France, Tibet, Zimbabwe, and Ukraine. I hope this list will inspire you to pick up some of the titles listed below.
1 The Night Always Comes by Willy Vlautin
The Night Always Comes by the American writer, Willy Vlautin is a ruminative poignant and compelling exploration of poverty, economic inequality, human misery and despair caused by daily financial anxieties, the meaning of the American Dream, how people from so-called working class exist rather than live in the 21st century, and the impact of poverty on one’s emotional and physical health where no matter what one does they will never get ahead in life.The novel portrays a very gloomy picture of life, its limitations as well as the challenges imposed by the outside world due to lack of financial security. This is a profoundly moving novel imbued with noir elements. Vlautin crafted a tale of high emotional intensity, and heightened sensitivity holding a magnifying glass over the working – poor class where people constantly live on the edge, often in isolation caused by financial instability. Earning a minimum wage, often a below living wage affects how people socialise with others and whether they can socialise at all, how they maintain relationships and connect with others. Written in evocative prose, The Night Always Comes captures the plight of a 30-year-old woman, Lynette living in Portland who is constantly exhausted by work and pushed to the edge of her own limits, both emotional and physical while desperately trying to secure a stable future for herself, her mother and her developmentally disabled brother. Over the years Lynette has been working multiple low paid jobs often waking up at 3.30 in the morning to start her day at the bakery, going to school in between her morning shift and her evening shift bartending, taking care of her disabled brother, just to save enough money for the deposit to buy the rundown house they are currently renting. We witness the horrific impact that economic inequality, jobs that don’t pay a living wage have on people’s physical and emotional health as well as their social relationships with others. We see Lynette’s history of depression and mental health challenges, constant exhaustion caused by work and by simply existing. Lynette making bad decisions, and breakdown in her relationships have always been somehow related to money or rather lack of it. The novel leaves us with a rather grim realisation that despite working so hard for many years Lynette will not be able to have her own home, or any idea of security. She is too exhausted to go to school to gain additional skills and even additional education is rarely a guarantee of better opportunities that might make difference to her social status, especially with her mental health being affected by the conditions of her life. Support for her emotional well-being also heavily depends on her finances.Throughout the novel we feel Lynette’s exhaustion, and how little she asks for — that her debts are paid off, that people stop taking advantage of her, that they keep their promises and that her working multiple jobs and her strong work ethics would mean something, lead to a better and stable future for herself, her brother and her mother. These are simple things – but they appear unattainable for Lynette and people living in similar circumstances to hers. The Night Will Always Come is one of my favourite reads. Vlautin weaved a beautiful tale of deep emotional intensity. As someone who in my youth worked multiple low paid jobs and attending school, depiction of Lynette’s mental and physical exhaustion seems to me as one of the most accurate portrayals of someone who is working – poor, someone who despite strong work ethics and sacrifices is unable to better themselves. It’s a devastating novel but definitely much needed. FULL REVIEW
2 Flowers of Lhasa by Tsering Yangkyi
By portraying the traumas of young women at the start of their so called best years who are trying to find their place in the world,
Flowers of Lhasa by a Tibetan writer, Tsering Yangkyi, offers a compassionate image of fragile lives marred by lack of opportunities, poverty, and resignation. Flowers of Lhasa is a powerful tale of four young women, migrant workers : three Tibetans, and one Chinese, who leave their close-knit rural communities behind to look for a better life for themselves and to support their impoverished families in the city of Lhasa, a religious and cultural capital of Tibet. The titled ‘flowers of Lhasa’: Drolkar known as Dahlia, Xiao Li known as Cassia, Yangdzom known as Azalea, and Dzomkyi known as Magnolia live in a small rented room, their temporary shelter, their home where they share their joys and sorrows.When they first come to Lhasa, lowliest odd jobs are the only employment they are able to find. Their income is not enough to cover their own basic bills, let alone allow them to support their elderly parents in the countryside.Throughout the novel we learn about these young women’s struggles, abuse they experience on the hands of the ‘luckier ones’, more privileged ones when they initially work as waitresses, housemaids, shopkeepers.We witness how they navigate that tragic life which was given to them, how they try to fulfil their dreams, longings, and hopes with always having the obligations towards their families on their mind. We see them constantly battling the social status quo. With an enormous level of empathy, the author portrays the human toll of poverty, lack of financial support on people’s psychological, emotional, and physical well-being, especially women without financial resources, and born without privilege.In addition, Flowers of Lhasa illuminates a variety of social and cultural issues, one of them being the critique of the inequalities and how they affect women. The novel also portrays the tension between tradition and modernity, division between rural and urban reality, rural community and urban solitude, and how soul-destroying jobs can provide an adequate level of income for those coming from the impoverished background. Despair and stress levels caused by lack of money or not enough money has been present throughout the book. One of the women’s health and her hospital treatment was dependent on money showing how the most basic needs are connected to one’s ability to earn a fair income. FULL REVIEW
3 This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga
This Mournable Body by the Zimbabwean writer, Tsitsi Dangarembga, tells a story of a middle-age woman, called Tambu living in Harare (Zimbabwe) who is trying to find her way in this world. Tambu leaves her stagnant job as a copywriter with hope that she will find a better job where she is treated with respect and appreciation. Every time there seems to be some hope for a better future and life, Tambu is served again with another disappointment and humiliation. Her life is far more depressing than the one she have imagined. This book portrays the essence of human condition in the current times, when there is no hope, just despair and constant struggle to exist. Dangarembga explores the contemporary Zimbabwe, the impact that the past and present have on the life of an ordinary individual with high dreams, and how those dreams and hopes are shattered. It is an excellent depiction of the Zimbabwean society, urban versus rural life, traditional norms versus push for modernity when it comes to social customs. This Mournable Body is also a very universal tale; it tackles many social issues including poverty, lack of financial stability, opportunities and resources.
4 A Woman’s Battles and Transformations by Édouard Louis
A Woman’s Battles and Transformations by the French writer, Édouard Louis is a profoundly moving piece of auto fiction telling a story of the author’s mum, her transformation in the later part of her life, at the same time contemplating the working-class universe. This book explores the meaning of social status, social background where a simple gesture, our way of speaking reveals our social inferiority.It is also about a fundamental desire of one human being to exist as a woman with her dreams and hopes as opposed to non-existence that’s imposed on her due to the succession of accidents and historic events. The meaning of the violence is discussed in this book – violence that one experiences when passing from one social class to another because of one’s inability to adapt or to read social codes of the new reality they enter into.The exploration of SHAME is another subject that Louis explores in his book – ‘shame’ because of one’s social status, poverty, different social norms, one’s parents , their lack of ‘education’ , their lack of fine clothes, fear of being at the bottom of social ladder, repetition of the same destructive patterns by the following generations, experiencing love as the space where only one gives or receives orders. The language is also presented as an important instrument to mark one’s place on social ladder, how inferior or superior one is forced or entitled to feel; this includes the way one uses the language, words, various expressions.Louis respectfully allows us to have a glimpse into his mum’s life. He also recalls his grandma’s life and other women he has met. Those women have lived the modest existence consisting of cooking, cleaning, ‘while the men talk and help themselves to more wine’, frequent visits to food banks, emotional suffocation, being subjected to domestic violence and all sorts of social violence and humiliation, social housing being the only option, industrial grey town, where the only way to get out of the vicious circle of poverty is ‘to find another man’, constant suffering , odd physically and psychologically demanding jobs such as helper, washing elderly people, cater, cleaner. FULL REVIEW
5 Returning to Reims by Didier Eribon
In Returning to Reims Didier Eribon discusses suffering, pain and shame related to one’s social background. Through showing his personal story of social exclusion, cutting ties with his working class origins, Eribon explores a number of important themes including the history of France over the last 100 years, how France political sphere has changed, how working class people moved from voting for the left-wing to now the right-wing parties. A large part of this book is dedicated to the issue of shame related to one’s SOCIAL IDENTITY in context of SOCIAL and ECONOMIC INEQUALITIES. As a young man Eribon thought that the reason why he had such a strong urge to get out of that small town was due to his sexual orientation. He thought that in order to feel free he just needs to move to a bigger, cosmopolitan city. With time, however, he realised that it also had something to do with his attempt to get out of his social class, social identity he was born into. Once in Paris, he felt accepted because of his sexual orientation but, on the other hand, he experienced a difficulty in relation to his working class background. The academic circles he was a part of did not seem to be so eager to accept his social origins despite the fact that they fetishized ‘working class‘ in their work. As a result of social constructs, while living in the provincial France, Eribon felt shame because of his sexual orientation; while living in Paris, he also had to deal with the feeling of shame but associated with his social identity. The diagnosis that Eribon gives is that these days ‘working class’ received ‘a better offer’ from the right-wing parties than from their left-wing counterparts. While the left-wing politicians and thinkers talk about the ideas using an elitist language, they often forget what the reality looks like for men and women working physically an eight / twelve – hour long shift often for the minimum wage with no benefits whatsoever. FULL REVIEW
6 Lucky Breaks by Yevgenia Belorusets
Lucky Breaks by Ukrainian writer and photojournalist, Yevgenia Belorusets in translation of Eugene Ostashevsky is a collection of vignettes accompanied by a series of black and white photos. The book centres on women – women from all walks of life, all backgrounds, all ages, women whose age is difficult to decipher because “they are young but tired (…), they can be mistaken for someone twenty years older”. Many of the protagonists are painfully lonely in their despair to rebuild their lives in Kyiv and other parts of western Ukraine, longing for relationships, love but often sticking to their wartime habits. Their daily existence amounts to the mere survival in the ruins of war, being displaced and out of place, without social network, with no social status, with no ability to articulate profound trauma that penetrates every aspect of their lives. The protagonists we encounter in these stories often have no words to describe their emotions, their state of mind and being. Their daily behaviour is affected by what they have experienced. They rarely receive any substantial support for their permanent psychological wounds. In order to exist they must go to work, to pay bills. They are all traumatised souls, ‘ordinary women’, without financial security and comfort, without any safety net. In all cases portrayed in Lucky Breaks the issue of class and economic status is crucial and profoundly impacting daily existence of these women.Some stories include elements of the supernatural to emphasize how ‘supernatural’, almost unreal it feels for those displaced by war to exist in their daily life. They feel disoriented, in constant grief, lost without their families, without life they had built in Eastern Ukraine, forced to find a new employment in a new place, forced to deal with the indifference, often stuck in poorly paid jobs, the only jobs they can get. Stories depict the lives of women, sisters, friends, those who are completely lost, confused living in a confused reality. We meet the midwife in her 50s. We meet a florist from Donetsk who is ‘great at flowers, but unsuited for real life’, who knew how to exist only within the walls of her flower shop – which was the meaning of her life. We meet a woman who medicates herself with the visits to a cosmetologist. We meet an affluent, educated, lonely woman who used to run a major company in Eastern Ukraine and now with her home and company destroyed, she is working as a cleaner in Kyiv. We witness a woman who loses her ability to walk in the middle of the street because of trauma. We meet a woman who must take up three jobs in Kyiv to survive. We meet a woman with a degree in economics and an interest in arts and culture who cannot find a suitable job, but her bills are piling up. She lives in constant stress of not having enough money on top of dealing with trauma of being a displaced – out of place person. In one of the stories, the protagonist mentions that we, as a society, love celebrating women but only a certain type of women. We often forget about the women ‘in some backwater, small places, remote places’ – they are often invisible, especially older women, disabled women, single women. FULL REVIEW
