Customer Reviews

Without a Net: Middle Class and Homeless (with Kids) in America: My Story

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This book is just awful. I am quite sympathetic to the homeless problem and thought this book would provide me with a little more insight as to why people are homeless and how they deal with it. The truth is that this woman was not really in the kind of dire straights most homeless people are in. For one thing, her parents would have taken her in if they knew she was living in her car, regardless of their being disappointed in her. She should have been arrested for endangering her children's lives by leaving them in her car while she worked in a bar. She could have gone to a shelter or something but she didn't even try. She preferred instead to endanger her children's lives. The "happy" ending comes when she steals another woman's boyfriend who she meets at the bar. She made every stupid, selfish choice a woman in her position could have made, and we are to feel sorry for her? The only ones I feel sorry for are her children. It's unfortunate that this woman is set up to represent the homeless. If I thought all homeless people were like her I'd say, forget them all, they're idiots. I'm just glad that I borrowed this book instead of buying it...she doesn't deserve to make money from this phony-balony portrait of the homeless. In fact, she's doing them a diservice.

I have just finished Michelle Kennedy's excellent memoir "Without a Net" and am planning on giving it to friends to read, especially the female ones. Bad decisions happen to everyone and Ms. Kennedy honestly writes about her bad decisions and how they led her and her 3 children to living out of their car. The United States, being a country that is wealthy, has just as many people who are hungry and "living without a net" and Ms. Kennedy writes a powerful story. For those of us with roofs over our heads and food on our tables, we should be extremely thankful.

I was really curious about how this mother of three with a middle class up-bringing ended up homeless and living out of her car. But she pretty much spells it out for us...it's one bad decision after another and a TON of foolish pride.

While I'm pretty sure I couldn't have done what she did and have maintained my sanity I'm not so sure that what she did was what a good mother would do. I understand that she felt she had to but given that that was her thought process I think maybe there is something not quite right with her thought processing. I think she was really really lucky the way that things turned out for her in the end. And lucky for her that no one reported her to child protective services.

I didn't understand why she didn't go to her parents for help, she never gave any indication that they were anything but caring parents. I also thought it was surprising that she couldn't have found some resources to help her when she was homeless.

Bookwise...I thought it was a quick and easy read and if you want to know how she ended up living out of her car it's all in there.

Like many other reviewers, I found the author's passitivity and willingness to blame "the system" for a situation she squarely chose to put herself into maddening. Ms. Kennedy doesn't finish college (mistake #1). She has three kids in quick succession, stays home with them, and never makes an effort to get any kind of skill training for herself, or get a job, even though she knows her marriage is rocky - she just keeps depending on her husband for support, knowing the bottom could drop out at any time (Mistake #2). She passively sits by while her husband makes some incredibly stupid decisions that she knows threaten the economic survival of her family (Mistake #3). She then sits around blaming her husband for his inability to take care of the family rather than getting off her duff and doing something herself that will bring in income (Mistake #4).

Then she ends up homeless and makes her kids live in the family car, because she's too proud to ask her family, or social service agencies, for help. She gets a series of menial jobs and makes her kids stay in dangerous and threatening situations so that she can make an attempt at earning a living. The worst part? This isn't a "down-and-out mom makes good by pulling herself up by her bootstraps" story. Ms. Kennedy's way out of homelessness and poverty isn't hard work - it's latching on to yet another man who will support her, and having another baby.

As a feminist this book made me sick. Women ending up without resources to support themselves is absolutely the reason why the feminist revolution occurred - to give women options so they can earn a living and not end up living out of a car with their three kids. Instead, the author makes poor choice after poor choice and then seems to blame society for her dire situation, rather than herself. The bottom line is that no woman, in this day and age, is helpless to help herself and her children out of a bad situation. There are social service agencies, there are job-training programs. You do not have to rely on a man for support unless you choose to. Ms. Kennedy chose to travel the path of passitivity and inaction, it wasn't chosen for her. There are some major Cinderella Complex issues here, that Ms. Kennedy chooses to overlook. The answer to poverty isn't having baby after baby with no means of supporting them other than relying on whatever guy you're hooked up with at the time, it's getting educated and learning some skills so you can earn a decent living.

I can only hope that young women in dire straits reading this book don't think their only way up and out of poverty or homelessness is latching onto a man. Because that isn't true. Women today have many options besides the "have a baby so your man will stick around to support you" scheme. It's a shame Ms. Kennedy couldn't have created her own story about success without having to resort to that tired tactic. I don't recommend this book to any strong woman who has pride in her ability to create a future for herself through hard work and effort. Because that's not what the author did.

If I could give this book 0 stars, I would! I bought this book, read it in a night and have never been so upset in my life. This is basically the story of a selfish, thoughtless woman who stumbles through life pulling her three children with her. Why would you get married just to get a better financial aid package ? Why couldn't she take leave of absence, work, & save up money for school ? Marriage is not supposed to be used as a convenience to more easily fund your education. You do what I did - work in the summer, work during the school year and take education loans. Then, why would you continue to get pregnant knowing that your husband doesn't seem to really be involved with you or the children ? And finally, why on the earth would you move with your three children to a log cabin in the woods of Maine with just a wood fire for heat & no running water ? Had I been one of her neighbors, I would have called Child Protective Services to have the children taken away from her - children should have adequate food, clothing, shelter and supervision which she was unable to give them. Additionally, why didn't she pursue her husband for child support so that she could have enough money to pay for the kids ??

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! If you want to read about the truly homeless and/or working class, buy Nickel & Dimed, The Working Poor, Getting By On The Minimum, and many other good books.

if you don't buy this book, you're not missing out on much.this book was very disappointing.it's not a true depiction of a homeless life ,for the author is homeless only for 3 months in her life[thank god] .even though it's great that she found a stable life soon , 3 months is not enough to describe how a homeless person feels and what he or she goes through.the author does describe each daily routine in detail but never really explains why she can't disclose her homelessness to her parents .she keeps saying that they [her parents]are already very disappointed with her and that she doesnt want to worry them any further , but never really shares with us why that is so.why is homelessness her only option?she fails to explain that or give any insight on that matter altogether.she's not rich to begin with ,then why does she keep having babies?the only reason she gives for her growing brood is that she's allergic to condoms....surely, there are other ways to prevent conception.furthermore,the author seems to be a selfish person in the sense that just because she doesn't have a stable life ,she snatches someone else's boyfriend[even though he reminds her , 'this is not right' ]to make a life of her own.she sheepishly justifies this action by informing the readers that his girlfriend and he[the author's love interest] had been having some problems anyway.on the whole this book is very unsatisfactory .it explains what it wants to it and leaves out the rest.you get the feeling , that the author isn't being honest about her experiences as a homeless person .she only tells you what will get her pity and conveniently cuts short the less noble deeds.this story ,of a mother;homeless for 3 months , with her 3 young kids could have been written much better i'm afraid.

I read this book in 3 days! Hard to put down even at night when reading in bed and tired! Amazing what this woman did with 3 kids and how she got thru such a time. I don't even know how she lived in that cabin with her ex-husb. Maybe that helped her live out of her car?? Most would have tried to live with friends or family but she didn't want people to know and toughed it out. I'm sure there are more people out there like her that we don't know about. We only see the people who sleep on the park bench or beg for money at the over pass. She did what she had to to survive. How wonderful that her story has a happy ending.

I waited 2 years for this book to come out! I read an excerpt from the book that was published in a magazine. Having kids myself and an unsteady income I could really see how someone like myself could become homeless. What I was dying to know was how she got out of it. Therefore, I was sorely disappointed when I got the book and learned that her way out was becoming pregnant and letting someone who had a crush on her take care of her.
However, I couldn't put the book down. I read it in one day, staying up well into the night to finish it. Any book that has that effect is worth a read!

While this short book has an interesting and personal story--as described in many earlier reviews here--it probably is more of a "based on true events" type of memoir.

Many of the people and situations described in the book feel embellished or contrived. Also, a March 1999 New York Times article contains quotes from the author (she says she's a college graduate and runs an investment advice website, among other things) which don't match the book's narrative.

All this is fine, as long as readers know not to approach Without a Net as literal truth. At the end of the day, the book is an interesting read but the author should have included a disclaimer to let readers know the story is semi-fictional (or selectively true) in places.

Readers mainly interested in social criticism or descriptive accounts of homelessness won't be very satisfied by Without a Net. It is essentially an oral history with a finding-my-true-love story layered on top.

This book should be titled, "Without Goals." The author doesn't graduate from college, despite vague yearnings in that direction. She practices the haphazard method of birth control - with unsurprising results. Then, she follows her husband to a remote cabin and chooses to spend her meager earnings on feeding and caring for a team of sled dogs. She experiences years of frustration with her husband and dissatisfaction with her life, but fails to PLAN her escape - such as, saving some of her earnings so she can leave him.

That she finds herself homeless with three kids is not a surprise. The only surprise is she acts stunned that it happened. This book is less of a doctrine about how easy it is to be homeless as it is a treatise on how not thinking ahead can have dire consequences.

That said, she is honest with herself (and in doing so, the reader) in some areas, and the book is a fast read. Also, I got a very clear picture of living on the beach in Maine - good descriptions on her part. However, I still found myself shaking my head at such decisions such as her choosing to stash her money in her glove box rather than opening a savings account or buying traveller's checks, where the money would have been replaced if lost or stolen. She left far too many things up to chance.