Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs (Paperback)

~ 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)
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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

“Amazing . . . a gem of a book that uses only the strength of the human voice to tell an American story -- sometimes dark, always fascinating.”
-- USA Today

“The accounts are wonderfully revealing, with gritty and almost shockingly honest detail. For all their variety, they weave a cohesive, passion-filled story of what people bring to their work. It's an addictive read.”
-- Harvard Business Review's Best Business Books of 2000

“Keen, disturbing, and deeply felt . . . the stories in Gig deliver a more rousing political wallop than those in Working . . . remarkable and strangely moving.”
-- Susan Faludi, The Village Voice

“I love this book! It's surprising and entertaining and makes the world seem like a bigger and more interesting place. Gig manages to document everyday life and give pure narrative pleasure at the same time. One feels proud to live in the same country as the people in this book.”
-- Ira Glass, host of This American Life

“A fascinating compilation of what the American workforce has to say about itself.”
-- George Plimpton

“Eye-opening . . . more revealing than any theories a sociologist could concoct.”
-- The Industry Standard

“Entertaining, sobering, validating . . . Ordinary people discuss their jobs with extraordinary candor.”
-- US Weekly

“In the age of advanced spin, this book accomplishes a very rare thing. It actually lets workers speak for themselves. . . . The result makes for a fascinating read.”
-- Andrew Ross,

director, American Studies Program at New York University

“Emotional and eye-opening, each compelling description offers insight about the job itself and, more important, an intimate view of a single human life.”
-- Austin Chronicle

“An engaging, humorous, revealing, and refreshingly human look at the bizarre, life-threatening, and delightfully humdrum exploits of everyone from sports heroes to sex workers.”
-- Douglas Rushkoff, author of Coercion, Ecstasy Club, and Media Virus

From the Inside Flap

?Amazing . . . a gem of a book that uses only the strength of the human voice to tell an American story -- sometimes dark, always fascinating.?
-- USA Today

?The accounts are wonderfully revealing, with gritty and almost shockingly honest detail. For all their variety, they weave a cohesive, passion-filled story of what people bring to their work. It's an addictive read.?
-- Harvard Business Review's Best Business Books of 2000

?Keen, disturbing, and deeply felt . . . the stories in Gig deliver a more rousing political wallop than those in Working . . . remarkable and strangely moving.?
-- Susan Faludi, The Village Voice

?I love this book! It's surprising and entertaining and makes the world seem like a bigger and more interesting place. Gig manages to document everyday life and give pure narrative pleasure at the same time. One feels proud to live in the same country as the people in this book.?
-- Ira Glass, host of This American Life

?A fascinating compilation of what the American workforce has to say about itself.?
-- George Plimpton

?Eye-opening . . . more revealing than any theories a sociologist could concoct.?
-- The Industry Standard

?Entertaining, sobering, validating . . . Ordinary people discuss their jobs with extraordinary candor.?
-- US Weekly

?In the age of advanced spin, this book accomplishes a very rare thing. It actually lets workers speak for themselves. . . . The result makes for a fascinating read.?
-- Andrew Ross, director, American Studies Program at New York University

?Emotional and eye-opening, each compelling description offers insight about the job itself and, more important, an intimate view of a single human life.?
-- Austin Chronicle

?An engaging, humorous, revealing, and refreshingly human look at the bizarre, life-threatening, and delightfully humdrum exploits of everyone from sports heroes to sex workers.?
-- Douglas Rushkoff, author of Coercion, Ecstasy Club, and Media Virus

Product Details

• Paperback: 688 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (August 21, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609807072
• ISBN-13: 978-0609807071
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12,062 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic and in depth, although not a page turner, December 3, 2003

By	Jay Friedman (Dallas, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Briefly, this book conducts about 100 interviews with people with different jobs that truly run the gamut. UPS worker to mega-producer. Porn star to funeral home director.

I'd say about one in every seven is absolutely fascinating and eye-opening. 5 in 7 are just good reading and then one in seven drags. If you're interested in the fabric that makes up amercian society, you'll love this book at much as I did. Some of the interviews are just shocking, like the UPS guy who gives better service to the companies with the best porn in the bathroom.

Also, each interview is about 5-7 pages, so if you're someone who is pressed for time, it's easy to pick up and put down quickly.

Overall, a great read.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Americans defined by their work, November 8, 2003

By	SPM "scott_maykrantz" (Eugene, Oregon) - See all my reviews

It's too bad it took so long for someone to put together another book like Studs Terkel's "Working." "Gig" is a collection of interviews with over 120 Americans who talk about their jobs. The questions are removed, so you end up with 3- and 4-page monologues. It's an effective technique, letting each person describe their working life in their own words.

The editors retained the references to sex and a lot of swearing, which is good. That's how people talk, so you might as well leave it in. The degree of honesty isn't reflected in the tone of the interviews, however --- the people might feel free to swear, but they don't feel free to complain about bosses, insecurity about layoffs, being stuck in dead-end jobs, bad pay, poor career choices, illegal business practices, or annoying co-workers. All of these topics get *some* coveage, but only enough to remind you how rare they are. Frankly, I think the book is too positive, with far too many people saying they love their jobs and couldn't be happier.

You should read it for yourself and see if you get the same reaction. It's a very easy book to read; every interview is over before it can get boring. Everyone has a unique story to tell. The range of professions is wide, giving you a broad spectrum of people to listen to.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still fascinating after all these years, but..., November 20, 2001

By	The Zen Archer (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

... times have changed.

Reading WORKING years ago was a profound and emotional experience for me. In being presented with the dignity of the most "ordinary" of lives I felt like I got to know everyone in America and, further, I felt I'd been made a part of the united states (note the lowercase) in my own ordinary way.

GIG reprises the concept and, like WORKING, is endlessly fascinating, funny, horrifying, and bold. I think it succeeds admirably -- BUT -- I think it's fundamentally a different animal from WORKING, by virtue of the fact that the world has changed out from under the essential idea of the book(s).

While Americans in particular have always tried to maintain a distinction betwen who they "are" and what they "do", this distinction seems far stronger these days than it did in the post-war era. The jobs described in WORKING were the places the narrators had made for themselves in the world -- not necessarily permanent, fulfilling, or by choice -- but the result of an attempt to find, or accept, a place in society. This is why the stories were of lives and people, not merely functions.

In contrast, the jobs in GIG are just that: jobs. As I read it, the narrators make a clear and solid statement that they do not put as much of themselves in their jobs as did the people of the WORKING era (note that "gig" specifically means a temporary engagement). They go out of their way to make it clear that jobs are essentially disposable, interchangeable, often impossible to feel any respect for: essentially, distinct from what they really want to "be." I have no doubt this is true -- the result of our American definition of "success" in purely financial terms -- and it's not the editor's fault that people do not use their work to describe their place in the world anymore, but -- they don't.

Admittedly I'm generalizing -- but on the whole, society has changed, as have the people in it (vice-versa?) and as a result GIG cannot contain the emotional power of its predecessor. It's an unfortunate aspect of the increasing disposability of American culture -- a price the book is paying despite its great intentions; but when you're finished with GIG, you may feel enlightened, but you will not feel changed. For that, WORKING remains the fortunate product of its time, and still the more deeply affecting of the pair.