Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs at the Turn of the Millennium (Hardcover)

by John Bowe (Editor), Marisa Bowe (Editor), Sabin Streeter (Editor) "I'm sixty-six years old and I'm a greeter at the Wal-Mart Super Center in Columbia, Missouri, just off of Highway 63..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Merrill Lynch, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
A regular feature in the Web zine Word is a column called "Work," conceived as an updated homage to Studs Terkel's 1972 book, Working. A selection of these Word columns, augmented with some new material, has been collected under another monosyllabic title, Gig. The slightly more effusive subtitle describes precisely what the book offers: Americans Talk About Their Jobs at the Turn of the Millennium. Word conducted interviews with and accepted submissions from a wide range of people with an equally wide range of jobs. The editors have organized the entries into rough thematic groups such as Plants and Animals (lawn maintenance man, buffalo rancher, dog trainer), Bodies and Souls (palm reader, orthopedic surgeon, telephone psychic), and Artists and Entertainers (video game designer, Elvis Presley "interpreter," art mover).

This is a casual book of over 120 brief first-person narratives. It is not a survey or an anthropological study, but a window onto how other people spend their days and nights. A few of the people are famous (supermodel Heidi Klum, painter Julian Schnabel), but most are not, and the latter are in some ways more interesting, not least because we already hear so much about the former in the welter of entertainment coverage that already graces our TVs and newsstands. The joy of Gig lies in its conversational tone and intimate peeks into occupations that many would never even know existed (who knew you could be a "clutter consultant"?). So, if you've ever wanted to ask the human resources director of a slaughterhouse how her day was, Gig is for you. --J.R.

From Publishers Weekly
Edited by Word.com's Marisa Bowe (editor-in-chief), John Bowe (freelancer) and Sabin Streeter (senior editor), here's an engaging oral history for the dot-com era. This fat book originated as a weekly column on the site of Word.com, a hip, general-interest e-magazine; it's a smart, Studs Terkel-like examination of how we work nowAtemporary and permanent; at home and in cubicles; 20 and 100 hours a week. In place of a seamless, analytical account, the book instead collects more than 100 personal testimonies from a range of workersAfrom the anonymous (a flight attendant, a UPS driver, a pretzel vendor, a dog trainer) to the famous (Heidi Klum, Julian Schnabel, Debra Messing, Barney Frank). Each testimony reflects a history, an identity and an age. Nonfiction and fiction lovers, employed and unemployed alike, will enjoy this book and its captivating real-life characters. In one account, a transvestite prostitute speaks of the dangers of working the streets, his $150,000 home in Queens, N.Y., and his early "retirement." In another testimony, a retired educator, now a Wal-Mart "greeter," declares, "My favorite thing about the job is just the fact that I have a job." By grouping these personal testimonies according to broad categories such as Workers and Managers, Buyers and Sellers, and Bodies and Souls, this well-considered, expertly crafted book manages to illustrate how work defines our lives while successfully dodging the tendency to impose a political angle on workers and their work. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 588 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1 edition (May 23, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609605887
• ISBN-13: 978-0609605882
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #309,589 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Oddly Fascinating, May 29, 2000

By A Customer

When first starting into Gig, I got the immeadiate sense that this was going to be a "dump on the employer" forum for different industries employees. What it turned out to be was a thoughtful collection of essays that let you see the inner workings of many kinds of jobs and the people who do them. Above all else it gave me a sense of the people who preform these jobs everyday and the thoughts that go into daily business transactions. Though not perfect, it is worth reading simply for the peek behind the curtain at today's industry. You learn that not only do you have to be sixteen to work the Fry Machine at McDonald's, but that if you don't tip the UPS guy at Christmas, you're not going to see an early delivery any time soon.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly fascinating survey of people from all walks of life, May 26, 2000

By A Customer

This is the kind of book I try to ration to keep from reading cover-to-cover during the first sitting, but end up devouring anyway. Each one of the stories in it is immediately intriguing, and each one you read makes you more curious about the next. The stories are full of fascinating tidbits of information and insight into the everyday lives of Americans from all walks of life. It's the kind of information you can't and don't get from the media, even in in-depth articles and reports. If you've ever wondered what goes on in the lives of people you interact with only tangentially, buy this book. It makes for an amazingly engrossing and enjoyable read.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Listen to the people., May 27, 2000

By	bongo (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews

If you liked Studs Terkel's working you will like this book. The folks form word.com talk to people from every possible occupation, such as coporate lawyer, stripper, taco bell worker, CEO, etc. Each of them gets a couple of pages at least, and they talk freely about what their work experience is like. Some people love their jobs, some people plan on quitting soon. It is like talking to these people yourself. Gig is a fun read. There are lots of nicely obsereved details. The UPS guy talks about having to wear certain color t-shirts. An artist talks about liking the smell of paint. A temp guy talks about the need to look busy. It has a very high hard-to-put-down quotient. Also, I think it is a important book. This is the way people really think about their livlihood. A nice antitdote to coporate bs. Best read I have had in a while.