Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams 1st Edition critical book review

Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams 1st Edition

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Critical Book Review

Presented to

Jennifer Saxton

Arkansas Tech University

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PS 4543

Workplace Supervision

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by

Montell D. Doucet

Student T Number

Date Submitted
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Lubrano, A. (2004). Limbo: Blue-collar roots, white-collar dreams. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Introduction

Limbo, written by Alfred Lubrano. Alfred Labrano is a reporter for the Philadelphia

Inquirer, a contributing editor to GQ and has been a commentator for National Public Radio

since 1992. He has won various national and state awards, and has contributed to several

magazines and anthologies on writing.

Alfred Lubrano puts his reported and editorial skills to use in this power packed book.

Limbo gives us a heaping scoop of class in America also known as the C word. The book starts

us out with some facts and information of growing up in working class homes, then in the middle

leads us into seeing how things transition into being good for straddlers (people who are in the

middle of blue-collar home, but now are white collar people). He also feeds us information on

how people cope with their individuality. He also informs the readers of how the simple why you

talk can play a role in determining your collar of choice or class.

Summary

Limbo is a powerful thought infuriating book that had me take a step back and analyze

my own situation. Limbo is all about growing up blue collar, but living white collar. Alfred

Lubrano tells about his life through the pages of this book along with other opinions of growing

up in the same situation. Being Lubrano was raised as the son of a brick layer, he grew up of

course in a blue collar house. But wanting to get more and advancing he is now a white collar

author and working for a newspaper. Lubrano explains the feelings of transition from blue collar

life to the life of a white collar worker. He also going to going back home or facing your original

roots once youve reached you new white collar status.

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Lubrano largely argues that Americans who believe that social status is solely a positive

force that with hard-work, ambition, and a bit of luck, an American born with humble beginnings

can launch their self from the scarcity and into a life of plenty in the middle class.

Lubrano gives us interviews he conducted of a nine-month period from his straddlers

meaning people that started in blue collar lives, but are in between blue collar and white collar.

These interviews gave me real insight into that the author was driving at. He is driving hard to

prove that there is still some-what of a void in that area, something lacking, and something that is

not taught when a blue collar moves to a white collar. I like what one interviewee said what was

real honest to me born blue-collar, I still never felt completely comfortable among the tough

guys. That speaks volume because you cannot be you for fear of what your past friends and

people you grew up with will say.

Critical Evaluation

I fell that the author has genuinely hit is point with the book. He is driving the

point that people that grow up as blue-collar, do not know how to handle themselves once they

reach white-collar status, or have difficulty dealing with the change and fell judged and not good

enough for the white-collar status. He hit these points by proving he is not the only person that

feels the way he does by conducting interviews of one hundred individuals.

Lubrano comes straight forward with the information. Its like he says the things Ive

thought about and was sometimes scared to say. I took interest in this book when I found out it

was not about race. When I first began reading it I was like thinking oh goodness, this is going
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to be about how whites are more privileged than blacks, but it wasnt and I thoroughly liked

that.

The chapters of the book fulfill the meat and bones to the book! They match perfectly; I

was not left without knowing what I read after finishing a chapter. I can actually say that the flow

of the book worked for what I like to read. I also like the fact the book was descriptive and

provided examples and just did not rely on philosophy.

I have to agree with the author when he says that blue-collar kids are taught by

their parent/parents to work hard to achieve. This is true considering most white-collar kids feel

that they are entitled to things they want and do not have to work for what they want.

Conclusion

I enjoyed this book because I personally did not know other people were going

through the same thing I am going through. Coming from a single parent home and being an

African American male, I always felt that I had to prove myself to people. I had to show them

that Im not like the rest, that I actually care what I do and where I go. In my current job at a

hospital, I am a Systems Administrator for the Information Technology Dept. which is a white

collar job, which I wear proudly every day. Yes my own family has judged me harshly, because

they feeling that sense I have a degree and working towards a masters that I am automatically

better than them. Just because my mother exposed me to different things at a younger age, and

kept books in the home, kept my mind going, and kept taking me places and giving me different

options, how his that my fault that they did not have the chance to experience the same things I

got to experience.
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Ive already asked a close friend of mine if he would consider reading the book, because

we are in the same situation and I feel he could gain more from it that I did. I feel he can gain

more because he is working towards his PhD, and has moved out of state for a better living for

him and his family and has caught some flak from his family at home.

Reading this book has opened a new door. I found myself agreeing with so much that he

had to say until I could not hold my piece. Ive learned that even though I am currently a straddle

I still am young and can become the true white collar I want to become. Ive also learned that

Im not going to let what my so-called friends stop me from getting the education I want and

not feeling bad for them. We all have been offered the same options; I decided to take the

education route while they opted for handouts.