Customer Reviews

The MYTH OF THE WELFARE QUEEN: A PULTIZER PRIZE-WINNING JOURNALIST'S PORTRAIT OF WOMEN ON THE LINE

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David Zucchino has written an unsentimental yet powerful narrative describing life in the trenches of the welfare system. His recountal reminds us that we cannot disregard the urgency of poverty,as it affects all of us, regardless of our economic situation or our opinion of welfare recepients. Zucchino's attempt to deconstruct the myth of the welfare queen exposes many unsavory details about life below the poverty line ; trash-picking, sex for money, children left in charge of other children. This book requires that the reader step into the shoes of a desperately poor person, leaving behind moral judgments and uninformed opinions. The reader must also remember that Zucchino's intent is not to essentialize the lives of welfare recepients by focusing his record on a few women, but to highlight the insanity of the welfare system and its effects on disenfranchised individuals; the interminable red tape, the constant harrasment by bureaucrats, and the poor distribution of funds and materials. After reading this book, we should reexamine the ways in which we show our moral obligation to those who need help.

This is not the book to read if you are trying to make up your mind about welfare issues or reinforce the ideas that you already have. It is an amazingly unjudgemental look at the lives of those on welfare in the inner city that will at times make you raving mad, whether at the people who refuse to work with the system for the sake of their children or at a system that fails those who give everything they have to take care of children they only want the best for, and sometimes have no direct responsibility for (grandchildren, children they have taken in). It puts real situations and struggles in the place of the abstract idea of public assistance. Within the pages you will meet kindhearted, incredibly nonbitter people, like Odessa, who you will admire and, at the same time, long to reach out to. Those who you would pity for their horrible circumstances if only you could not tell from reading about their lives that they are far too good of people to need or want pity. You will also meet people who you cannot feel sympathy for. People you will want to just slap for their irresponsibility and for not putting their children's needs before their own whims. This book shows just how complex the issue of welfare is, and that a set of laws or policies is not going help some people who are just stuck between a rock and a hard place. It will show you that there is no typical welfare recipients, even among those living in one neighborhood. Though some of the people are unbelievably good , and some horrible individuals, it will show the many greys in between. It is a portrait of those suffering for the nation's view of the "Welfare Queen." Those with huge hearts and horrible circumstances infinity entitled to whatever they need to do the job that we would not want to (raising troubled grandchildren amd great-grandchildren with meager means like Odessa, or being the self-appointed guardian of the homeless like Cheri). It is also a portrait of those who stubbornly refuse to help themselves, and fully live up to the idea of the irresponsible, neglectful mother who rather hang out with different men and continue to get pregnant than think of her own children. This is not a book that will make up your mind, but it is one that will give you an understanding of why this is such a hard issue to even begin to think of any sort of solution for.

"Myth of the Welfare Queen" is a sympathetic portrayal of impoverished American families who depend on Welfare to support themselves. As a character in the book notes, welfare recipients are among the most despised segment of our nation's population. While it may be easy to denigrate those who eke out a livlihood supplemented by welfare as "Cheats" and "Lazy", this book probes beyond these prejudicial stereotypes and humanizes these otherwise faceless poor who have not benefited from so called "trickle-down" economics. In addition to offering sympathetic portraits of urban indigence, the book addresses important social issues that cannot be overlooked in judging the worth of our "welfare state." If our government is willing to subsidize Mike Eisner with $300,000 for firework shows and McDonald's with $466,000 to advertise chicken McNuggets in Turkey, can we in good conscience begrudge taxpayer money to feed and clothe American children just because we disapprove of their parents'life choices? Zucchino's book challenges some basic assumptions of those among us who live comfortably. "Myth" forces readers to confront unpleasant issues. Not all of the characters portrayed in this book deserve sympathy. Some of them even reinforce our worst stereotypes about Welfare. Zucchino forfeits his objectivity by repeatedly projecting himself into the narrative. Parents may become extremely frustrated with the poor decisions made by irresponsible adults who are charged with caring for the children in this story. Except for two leading figures in the book, most of the remaining cast is flat and one dimensional. But the suffering and emotions of these people are made real and palpable and we are made to care about them.(Remember the New Deal quote of FDR in 1934? "Better the occasional faults of a govt. that lives in a spirit of charity than . . . a govt. frozen in the ice of its own indifference.") Zucchino's book humanizes the welfare state. His investigations prompt us to think and reexamine our attitudes toward the poor. Those factors alone make "Myth" worth reading.

The beauty of this book is the simplicity with which it is written. There are not technical terms to maneuver around. It takes a very candid look at a world many of us will never experience. It shows the very human characteristics of single mothers on welfare. The book never gets boring because it reads like a story. This is a non-fiction piece with all the compelling attributes of a fictional novel. This is not just a light rainy-day read either. It forces you to look into the lives of these women. Zucchino describes Odessa and Cheri's horrible necessicities like dumpster diving and prostitution so flippantly, it makes you want to scream, "But these women shouldn't be living like this!"

This book serves as a very interesting look into the lives of two welfare recipients. Unfortunately, this book does not live up to its title - various characters live up to different aspects of the welfare queen "myth" (having children to make money, drug usage, making money in ways that circumvent the system, etc.) but do a fair job of showing how hard it truly is to live on the scant amounts handed out. Neither of the two main women focused on could be considered an average welfare recipient though, especially Ms. Honkala, a prominent activist. The book does a fair job of portraying the women realistically and deserves praise for that, but fails to bust the myths it sets out to - rather it shows that the supposed myth has some substance to it, while being overall flawed and condescending to welfare recipients. A follow-up to this book, after welfare "reform", might be more interesting, as we get to see both the harsh and positive effects of this policy. The former obviously are more important for us middle-class folks to see, as the media has covered the positive aftereffects in considerable detail. Only by talking to current and former welfare recipients ourselves can we find the flaws - something many middle-class folks would be hesitant to do. Thankfully this book does a good job of making people human rather than the simplistic, animalistic stereotype fed to us by Rush Limbaugh and his ilk.

This book brings about a huge reality check. You realize how much the typical "welfare queen" makes it all work. You realize all they have to deal with on a daily basis when most of us do not give a second thought to letting our kids go to the park. I thought this and Jonathon Kozol's Amazing Grace were so similar. They paint a clear picture of what it is like to live in a poor city, and having to deal with the everyday trials. Odessa is a strong woman and that shines through the book, she is a caring woman who is taking care of her grandchildren and her great grandchildren. Even though she raised her children, she continues to raise her grandchildren. She has amazing strength and an amazing way to make life for her children a little easier. I loved this book, and our class had the ablity to go and meet Odessa, she is a wonderful and admirable woman. This book will grab your attention and keep it. Once you read this book then go on to Jonathon Kozol's Amazing Grace. They will give you a new sense of reality. It will make you realize that no matter what happens to you, there is someone out there that has it worse than you in some way.

I was hoping for more academic writing, studies, statistics and other tools used to debunk the myth of the welfare queen.

The writing is engaging and effectively humanizes the individuals involved, taking your through their trials and tribulations, but doesn't seem to prove anything beyond the idea that people on welfare are, in fact, people. Now that I think about it, that might be a radical idea for some.

A very eye-opening portrait of urban poverty and the economic circumstances that lead to it in addition to the dysfunctional relationship with money and lack of "personal responsibility" that aggrevate it.

The first few chapters deal with the economic changes in America's inner cities since the 70's such as job loss and factory closings and outlines, through Odessa, the dysfunctional family dynamics that have arisen out of that situation. The author makes no judgements of the lifestyles of these people, especially the children who don't take care of their own kids or want to live off the dole (not all do, some are hell bent on getting off welfare and working, a nice refutation of that old stereotype) merely offering these facts and allowing the reader to decide, and I greatly appreciate the author's willingness to inlude that information. However, I admire Odessa for being such a determined person and trying her hardest to keep the rent up and raise those children right and keep them out of trouble.

Cheri, I don't have as much sympathy for, but I'll leave it at that.

Overall, a nice, easy read about life in modern urban america.

This book gave a first hand account of the life of welfare moms (and grandmas and great-grandmas) living in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Philadelphia. The book gives no answers for how to solve the problem of urban poverty but it does show you how these families live, day in and day out. You see that some women are trying to make wise choices, such as education, while others have given up hope and turned to drugs, prostitution and laziness. One grandma is getting job training so she can get a good job until her teenage daughter falls asleep during the day while her 2 young boys set the house on fire.

This book also shows the incredible value placed on family in this culture. When these fires occur (there are more than one), the whole family comes together to rebuild. When one mom succumbs to prostitution, the grandmother takes in her 3 children and raises them as her own. On Thanksgiving day, everyone is invited and included -- the prostitute, the drug user, the jail bird -- because family is family.

The book also follows the life of a activist fighting for the rights of the homeless. She is frustrated with the bureaucracy of the city's homeless solution and attempts to house the homeless herself in a tent city, in an abandon church and finally in abandoned homes meant for those who have worked the system. She is clearly breaking the law and yet it is hard to say who is helping the homeless more.

At the end of the book I had more questions than answers.

David Zucchino's Myth of the Welfare Queen proved to be a tremendous disappointment. Far better to read the book jacket than the actual book itself. Zucchino focuses on two extraordinary women - Cheri, a political activist, and Odessa, who is raising her grandchildren after her own children have abdicated their roles as parents. Neither woman paints a true picture of the average welfare recipient in America. Better studies may have been done on Odessa's children and grandchildren (Iesha, Odessa's grandchild who is content to receive welfare, have babies, and make no effort whatsoever to improve her lot in life), or some of the women involved with Cheri at KWRU). Additionally, the author has an annoying habit of inserting himself in the book in unexpected and inconsistent ways (eg, buying mittens and hats at the discount store when Odessa ran out of money. The reader didn't even know the author was AT the store with Odessa). David Kotlowitz and Jonathan Kozol are much more adept at chronicling the lives of the forgotten in America, and are able to account for their presences in these peoples lives in a less unexpected and intrusive manner. While Odessa and Cheri are well constructed, the remaining characters are flat, lifeless and one dimensional. A great deal of sympathy or empathy is not engendered for these people. Odessa and Cheri are survivors, and that comes through - however, Odessa's failure to pass her survival skills along to her children is blatant and unexplained. Cheri's supplemental income as a topless dancer does not endear her as a character, either, and dimininshes her role-model function. Where did Cheri's political fire come from? While this is a fascinating topic, it is not handled with the skill and sensitivity seen in the books of Kotlowitz and Kozol. I was left thinking "Big deal. Where's my next book?"