Brown Bag Book Discussion

Paul McNeil will lead a discussion of Matthew Desmond's sobering book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. Participants are encouraged (but not required) to read the book in advance. Ask for a copy at the library’s information desk.

A starred review from Publisher's Weekly :

Gripping storytelling and meticulous research undergird this outstanding study, in which the author, an associate professor of sociology at Harvard, explores the impact of eviction on poverty-stricken families in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Living first in a rundown trailer park with predominantly white tenants and then in an African-American inner-city neighborhood. The book reveals the concentrated suffering of people repeatedly faced with the loss of their homes. He shares the stories of Lamar, a double amputee raising adolescent boys; Scott, who tries to conquer his heroin addiction and return to his nursing career; single mom Arleen, her sons, and their cat, Little; and five other families. In one gut-wrenching scene, Desmond  shadows a moving crew as they evict numerous households in one day, finding in one tenant’s face “the look of someone realizing that her family would be homeless in a matter of hours.” Desmond identifies affordable housing as a leading issue of our time and offers concrete solutions to the crisis.

Accolades:

• New York Times Bestseller
• Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
• Winner of the 2017 Hillman Prize for Book Journalism
• Winner of the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize
• Named best book of the year by: The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, The New Yorker, Buzzfeed, Bloomberg, Esquire, Kirkus Reviews, Amazon, Library Journal, and Booklist among others