Congratulations to you and your healing. This book is beautiful ♥️🙏 thankfully it is not as heart breaking as maid. This one is about the ups and downs. What came next. ♥️
Thank you netgallery for letting me read this title.

Congratulations and that you Stephanie for sharing your journey and letting us heal with you ♥️

DNF.
Truly was not enjoying this memoir at all and it was not for me. The voice felt whiny and like a giant pity party/author feeling like a victim constantly. It was not in any way inspiring for me to read so I will not be finishing.

My ARC was provided by Atria Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am likely to be a minority among reviewers of Class, a memoir by Stephanie Land. While I am aware of her previous book, Maid, and its widespread popularity, I have not read that book, nor have I watched the Netflix series based on it. However, I found Class to be an engaging and thought-provoking standalone memoir. Since Land was pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in the University of Montana’s creative writing program, it follows that she’s an excellent writer. She balances her storytelling (mostly about her unreliable ex-husband and failed relationships) with the point of the book: the grueling journey of navigating the social welfare system as a single-parent college student living in poverty. Her story is sad, but interesting and very important.

Picking up after her move to Montana for college, Land recounts her years working for her degree while struggling to provide for herself and her daughter. While I did not think CLASS was as good as MAID, and there were a couple of scenes I wish had not been included in this book, I recommend CLASS to those who read MAID or watched the Netflix adaptation and feel invested in Stephanie’s story. I found the most impactful parts of the memoir to be when Land discussed the difficultly of navigating government assistance programs, and in showing the very real strain their circumstances had on her and her daughter.

Class by Stephanie Land. Pub Date: November 7, 2023. Rating: 3 stars. First off, I have read this author's first novel, Maid, and really found it informative, enlightening of poverty and full of grit. This novel, which is a continuation of the author's journey as a single mother, was not as impactful to me as a reader. I found the author making repetitive mistakes, lacking ownership of her mistakes and being judgmental to the government system when she was not getting the help she felt she needed based on repetitive mistakes she was making. I get the government system is not perfect, but I felt the author lacked personal self reflection on her actions in the endless cycle she was in. I wanted to enjoy this novel and learn more, but I found it hard to have empathy while reading this novel. Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review. #class #netgalley

Thank you @netgalley and @atriabooks for the ARC of the book "Class" by Stephanie Land.  I have not yet read "Maid" and while the book "Class" absolutely irritated me to no end, I am still interested in reading "Maid".  The book "Class" left me annoyed by the author's lack of personal responsibility or care for her life and subsequently her children.  It was very hard to get behind her cause and her reason for writing the book because of her "give me because I am poor" attitude.  I continued to get a sense that she thinks that taxpayers owe her for her mistakes and that they should just help her pay for school, food, clothes without her giving anything back.  I felt very judgy about the way that she spent her loan money and financial support on alcohol and concert tickets.  A person who is on financial assistance does still deserve to enjoy what anyone else enjoys but it seems crazy to me that she can whine so much about her predicament but then be so wasteful.  I was a good 75% through the book when I realized that this woman is 5 years younger than me and was acting like a college student in their early 20s rather than a college student trying to make it in her mid 30s!  I learned through a quick Google, that she was not born into a life of poverty by any means and while her mistakes as a youth shouldnt punish her in her middle years, she clearly didnt learn much from her errors.  The one thing I did really like though: she put on full blast the hypocrisy of the 3rd man who impregnated her.

After liking the previous book “Maid” and loving the adaptation tv series on Netflix, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Land’s follow-up, “Class.” However, this nonfiction follow-up lacked the pizazz that I found in its predecessor memoir. While I don’t like to pass judgments or be too critical of one’s own personal story, it seemed that Land was making a lot of rather questionable choices in her life that led to some of her difficulties and not the classist system. I was a bit surprised at the lack of self-awareness in this regard. This was a gritty read and I didn’t find myself taking as much from it as I did her earlier work. 3 stars ⭐️ . Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy for review.

Stephanie Land follows up her best selling book, Maid, with this book. This sequel follows her life as she moves away from her abusive ex, takes college classes, and raises her daughter mostly on her own. If I’m being honest there were times I was so frustrated with some of her decision making. It seemed as though she consistently made bad choices when it came to spending money, taking classes, and in relationships. I had to remind myself that there is a such a thing as poverty mindset and while many of these things made no sense to me, I have never feared being hungry or wondered how I would stay warm. There is a lot of this book that is just about sheer survival and while as an outsider looking in I am able to judge her decisions, I have never walked in her shoes. I can see this being on Netflix and really resonating with many people.

A continuation from Land's Maid, Class is an intimate and at times heartbreaking look at parental guilt, the battles between personal ambition and single parenting, and personal desire and finances. Who has the right to take the time for an education? Who has the right to have children? What kind of work is valued in our society? Class is written in clear, honest prose. It offers an indictment of our educational system as well as identifies the gaps and hoop-jumping of our welfare and assistance programs. At its heart, it is an inspiring testimony of a mother’s triumph against all odds.

I find it hard to rate memoirs. I was interested to read because I am currently watching maid on netflix and wanted to read more of the story. I felt it was a story worth reading and I feel like I learned some things but was disappointed I some of the choices she made. Overall worth the read. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an e ARC of this book.

I’m not sure this book was quite as compelling as Maid, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I could relate to the struggles of single parenting with a difficult ex and limited finances. I admired Land’s determination to succeed and follow her dreams despite her circumstances. I will continue to read memoirs by this author.

This book brought up a lot of thoughts and feelings from my own life that I thought I had gotten past. I was an older, non traditional college student as well. I was told many times that I was selfish for going to school and then that I was selfish for going back to further my career. I was also in an unhealthy relationship at the time and struggled to pay the bills, feed the kids, and not lose my mind trying to navigate life in an unhappy marriage. Her descriptions of juggling bills, car repairs, and minimum payments is all too accurate. I didn’t always agree with her choices but they were hers to make. I think that’s the abuse in her past likely influenced the choices she made in who she dated and in how she was reluctant to get too close to anyone. I enjoyed this book and it made me think about a lot of things.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher and author for the ARC.

Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education (Atria/One Signal, 2023) is Stephanie Land’s detailed account of her time acquiring an undergraduate degree in Creative Writing at the University of Montana, Missoula.

A standalone memoir, as well as an excellent twin to her New York Times bestselling book Maid, Land highlights the socioeconomic disparities among many students attending college, especially those who are first-generation, single mothers, and/or living without familial support. Land also stresses the toll that food and housing insecurity, including fifteen homes at age five for her daughter extracts from energy that she could spend studying, with her child, or even working.

The double entendre of the book’s title “class” piqued my curiosity, but I also realized that there was a third meaning (triple entendre?). In addition to socioeconomic class and college classes, part of Land’s life was colored by the behavior, the class(isness), of other people in her day-to-day. Without naming specific professors who, perhaps, lacked empathy for her experiences, I would like to emphasize that the professor and author, Walter Kirn, was written about so fondly that I might pick up another one of his books soon.

Particularly adept at cutting through the mirage of platitudes, red tape, and false narratives on college attendance and how single moms are utilizing social services Stephanie Land successfully presents another humanistic, socioeconomic treatise, and gender studies book for the decades: right up there with Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America and Tara Westover’s Educated: A Memoir.

Thank you to Stephanie Land, Atria/One Signal, and Net Galley for the eArc.

So many people I know read and loved Stephanie Land’s first book, Maid. I read it then watched the Netflix series and thoroughly enjoyed both. I was completely gripped by her story and her struggles. I sympathized with her determination and wanted to see her succeed.

Class, her follow-up, recently came out, and it details her desire to continue her education and her ongoing struggles. I was so excited to dig in where we left off in Maid, and see how Stephanie’s life unfolded since. She is a fantastic writer, that’s for sure, and she certainly has talent.

I didn’t feel the same amount of sympathy in this book and couldn’t relate to her constantly poor choices and risky behavior. Her attitude rubbed me the wrong way and when I finished the book, I felt lukewarm about it. I wanted to see her succeed, but this book didn’t leave me feeling the same as her first.

Plot:

When Stephanie Land set out to write her memoir Maid, she never could have imagined what was to come. Handpicked by President Barack Obama as one of the best books of 2019, it was called “an eye-opening journey into the lives of the working poor” (People). Later it was adapted into the hit Netflix series Maid, which was viewed by 67 million households and was Netflix’s fourth most-watched show in 2021, garnering three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Stephanie’s escape out of poverty and abuse in search of a better life inspired millions.

Maid was a story about a housecleaner, but it was also a story about a woman with a dream. In Class, Land takes us with her as she finishes college and pursues her writing career. Facing barriers at every turn including a byzantine loan system, not having enough money for food, navigating the judgments of professors and fellow students who didn’t understand the demands of attending college while under the poverty line—Land finds a way to survive once again, finally graduating in her mid-thirties.

Class is Stephanie Land’s follow up to her book, Maid. In this book, Stephanie balances parenthood, life as a student, and daily responsibilities. She discusses the mental and physical tolls of poverty.

I really love Stephanie’s writing style. Her story is an incredibly heart wrenching perspective of her experience as a member of the working poor. Throughout her experiences, she was forced to persevere and put on a brave face. Her story highlights the inequities in our country, but ado acknowledges her privileges as a white woman.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an ARC copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Stephanie Land's Maid is a book that I have never forgotten (The "Netflix" series---not so much). Land and her struggle to raise her child and clean homes, all while making next to nothing, has stayed with me. I have long admired her strength to leave an abusive relationship and find the will to seek a better life. Class is the follow-up to Maid. In Class, Land is seeking a Masters degree in Fine Arts. Her goal is to be a "real writer." There is more struggle, a lot more struggle in this memoir. Stephanie ends up having another child---while baring her soul and being so damn honest. Some may judge her for her life and her choices. I find her drive and strength---and her choices----a triumph. I know this book will be a "miss" for many---but it's a hit for me. Land is her own woman, and I respect the hell out of her!

I remember sitting in my college classes as an 18-year-old woman and thinking how strange it was to see someone in their thirties taking the same class. They seemed out of place, and I don't remember talking to them much. However, now I wish I had. I have to assume that there is a cool story about why someone in their thirties would go back to college. I truly missed out on an opportunity.

Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education by Stephanie Land opened my eyes of what it would be like to try to raise as a child as a single mother, attend college courses in order to attain a degree, all while living in poverty.

Land is the bestselling author who inspired the series, "Maid," on Netflix. This book takes place during Land's last year in college. She invites us in to share the highs and lows of her last year in college as a thirty-something as she aspires to become a writer.

I have not read Land's previous book, but I did enjoy this one. I will now have to go back and read it.

I gave this book four out of five stars for my honest review.

Reviewed in Literary Mama
Reviews | November/December 2023

Writing Her Way Through Poverty: A Review of Class
By Shellie Kalinsky
Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education
by Stephanie Land
Atria/One Signal Publishers, 2023; 288pp; $28.00
Buy Book
It’s not easy to follow your dreams when you’re an outsider. As a fifty-four-year-old mother and grandmother in graduate school for creative writing, I sometimes feel like the oddball of my MFA cohort. Fortunately, I have a strong support network of family and friends that I can lean on while pursuing my education. Stephanie Land did not have the same kind of support, and that’s one of the themes of her new memoir, Class, which explores how Land earned her degree as a single mom navigating school, work, and parenting while living in poverty.

Class book cover
Class continues the story Land started in her debut memoir, Maid, a book that became a New York Times bestseller and Netflix series. Maid tells how Land escaped an abusive relationship with the father of her child and found a path to college through the help of scholarships, loans, and public assistance.

In Class Land is now a 35-year-old undergraduate and a single mother living in poverty with her kindergarten-aged daughter, Emilia, in Missoula, Montana. In honest, clean prose, she describes their life on the margins. “Most of my time as a mother had been spent weighing the pros and cons between a horrible and not-so-great situation. There was hardly ever a good choice.” A broken-down car means no way to get to school or work; no money means nothing to eat but peanut butter until next month’s government SNAP benefit is deposited into her account. Their apartment thermostat won’t heat above 65 degrees. It gets worse when the temperature falls below freezing outside. When it becomes a matter of survival, Land brings portable heaters into the house. “I stopped caring if my landlords would find out,” she says. “I tried to imagine a baby crawling on the freezing floor. Add that to the feral cat who lived under the front porch of the house that Emilia and I were allergic to, the mildew and mold growing in the bathroom, and it was a perfect formula for constant illness.”

Land’s situation is both precarious and humiliating. Each time she submits paperwork to recertify her eligibility for food stamps, she is forced to undergo a microscopic examination of her life, as if she were attempting to cheat the government. “These invasions of privacy caused me to fidget and squirm but I submitted to them, like everything else, because it was another means to an end,” she recalls. On Emilia’s first day of kindergarten, the cafeteria cashier loudly calls Emilia “a free meal kid.” When Land later receives her SNAP recertification, the benefit has been reduced because Emilia is now in school during the day. Readers feel the discomfort and shame heaped on Land’s shoulders. It’s both heartbreaking and infuriating.

In addition to government assistance, Land combines funds from a partial scholarship, Pell grants, and student loans to cover her education and living expenses. Some readers might wonder why she doesn’t leave school, work full-time until Emilia is older, then return to her studies later. But all mothers who have faced the impossible task of shrinking our career aspirations into smaller and smaller vessels while we pour ourselves into our children understand why Land presses on.

When Land was younger, she was obsessed with writing. Before motherhood she claimed her diaries would be the first thing she’d grab if her house caught fire. Later she reflects, “Now I had to dig them out of my basement. This downright poetic indication of their lower status in my life created an indescribable discomfort in the deepest center of my chest. The last time I had looked at these things, motherhood hadn’t yet consumed me.”

Then, in Land’s senior year at Montana’s creative writing program, a professor calls her writing “solid gold.” Another professor predicts Land’s success: “This is going to be a book. This is going to be a movie!” Their words inspire her to apply to the university’s prestigious MFA program, despite pressure to earn wages. When a judge in her child support case says she is “voluntarily underemployed” and insinuates Land is a grifter because she lacks full-time employment, she thinks: “This was a child support hearing, not a criminal case, but I felt like I’d been charged with negligence or worse, and I needed to defend myself for going to college.”

At times I wondered whether Land would fall into deeper debt or successfully claw her way out of poverty. Her monthly budget covers only minimum payments on student loans she accrued from her undergraduate studies in Alaska, she needs roommates to help cover her rent, and she runs out of food and money before the end of the month. She says of her student loans, “Given the monumental sum, I knew with certainty that I would have that debt for the rest of my life.” Almost every decision Land makes is measured against its cost. When she takes Emilia for a special ice cream treat, the moment is clouded by the knowledge that money spent on ice cream is money unavailable for groceries. Unlike her carefree classmates who party hop every weekend or the well-dressed married moms who mingle at the bus stop, Land navigates these hardships alone. “My desire was for the overwhelming feelings of desperation, of panic and having nowhere to turn and disaster always breathing down my neck, to end.”

At one point in her studies, Land seeks guidance from the program’s director, a woman who had attended graduate school as a single mother, written a book about it, and gone on to lead the department. Land hopes the director will be a mentor, but she turns out to be another gatekeeper who tells Land the department won’t be able to help her with graduate school. Later she criticizes Land’s writing, calling it relentless. Land uses her disapproval as fuel for her work. In her notebook she writes, “My life may be relentless but goddammit so am I.”

The most compelling part of Land’s story is that despite all of these obstacles, she keeps going: “Every time I wanted to cry from the crushing hopelessness that life seemed to bring, something inside me hissed you must not allow yourself to fall apart.” She does it for Emilia. “I needed her to know I was good at this thing I fought so hard to become.”

As a mother there were times I chose to put my education and career on hold because I couldn’t juggle it all. I felt like I had failed. Reading how Land found a way through all of her difficulties inspires me to keep going with my own writing now. It reminds me that the only way through the hard moments is to never give up.

Land narrates her journey with a straightforward voice that seeks neither praise nor pity. “It’s not that I wanted things to be easy, but a little less hard would be nice,” she says. From navigating the byzantine financial aid process to finding student housing as a single mother, her story exposes indignities in our socioeconomic structure and reveals the inequitable nature of higher education. “I had forgotten the part of the game where no one’s education mattered more than the money the university could make from your opportunity to soak up all that learning. God forbid they would make it affordable or easy.”

At its core, Class is about how deeply a mother can love her child while at the same time trying to love herself. Land wants more than anything to be a writer—and a mother. Against impossible odds, she is both.


https://literarymama.com/articles/departments/2023/11/writing-her-way-through-poverty-a-review-of-class?utm_campaign=nd23011&utm_source=su&utm_medium=email&utm_content=reclass

CLASS by Stephanie Land (Maid) is subtitled "A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education." It's an eye-opening non-fiction work that describes the difficulties of attending college as a single mom. Land relates her own experiences while also exploring social justice issues like food and housing insecurity, pointing out: "The fight to make rent, eat, and find childcare was constant. I never got a break from it." Her struggles and loneliness will elicit empathy from readers while also encouraging them to think about questions such as "Who has the right to go to college? And what kind of work is valued in our culture?" For a preview of her writing style, see the Op-Ed piece in The New York Times. There she weaves in statistics like "23 percent of undergraduate students and 12 percent of graduate students face food insecurity" while also relating a harrowing after school experience for her young daughter. CLASS received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and is a LibraryReads selection for November. Land says that she shares these stories in order to let people know their feelings are valid: that life does indeed feel impossible at times. If you are interested in hearing more, Land will be speaking at an upcoming Family Action Network event on November 13 at 7:00pm. Access is available via Zoom.

Thank you Atria for this copy (and to S&S BookClub favorites for a physical copy). Class by Stephanie Land is excellent, I am the kind of reader who wants to dive into themes on college and learning in memoirs, I loved Educated, The Glass Castle and this fits in with those memoirs at least for me. At times it's important to sit with the ideas about who gets to go to college, who gets to be successful in college (and what is success in college anyway), and then to think about bigger themes on art and creativity and motivation. What does it mean to dream big but struggle with day to day challenges?
I appreciate the advocacy Stephanie Land does and her openness to using her voice, her writing, and her experience to highlight challenges and inequities in education.