This Is All I Got
Douban
Lauren Sandler
overview
From an award-winning journalist, a poignant and gripping immersion in the life of a young, homeless single mother amid her quest to find stability and shelter in the richest city in America
“Lauren Sandler has brilliantly written the story of America in the age of inequality. Read this book, please—it is as gripping as it is moving as it is important.”—Darren Walker, president, The Ford Foundation
Camila is twenty-two years old and a new mother. She has no family to rely on, no partner, and no home. Despite her intelligence and determination, the odds are firmly stacked against her. In this extraordinary work of literary reportage, Lauren Sandler chronicles a year in Camila’s life—from the birth of her son to his first birthday—as she navigates the labyrinth of poverty and homelessness in New York City. In her attempts to secure a safe place to raise her son and find a measure of freedom in her life, Camila copes with dashed dreams, failed relationships, the desolation of abandonment, and miles of red tape with grit, humor, and uncanny resilience.
Every day, more than forty-five million Americans attempt to survive below the poverty line. Every night, nearly sixty thousand people sleep in New York City-run shelters, 40 percent of them children. In This Is All I Got, Sandler brings this deeply personal issue to life, vividly depicting one woman's hope and despair and her steadfast determination to change her life despite the myriad setbacks she encounters.
This Is All I Got is a rare feat of reporting and a dramatic story of survival. Sandler’s candid and revealing account also exposes the murky boundaries between a journalist and her subject when it becomes impossible to remain a dispassionate observer. She has written a powerful and unforgettable indictment of a system that is often indifferent to the needs of those it serves, and that sometimes seems designed to fail.
Praise for This Is All I Got
“A rich, sociologically valuable work that’s more gripping, and more devastating, than fiction.”—Booklist
“Vivid, heartbreaking. . . . Readers will be moved by this harrowing and impassioned call for change.”—Publishers Weekly
“A closely observed chronicle . . . Sandler displays her journalistic talent by unerringly presenting this dire situation. . . . An impressive blend of dispassionate reporting, pungent condemnation of public welfare, and gritty humanity.”
—Kirkus Reviews
contents
Introduction xiii
Summer
1 Nativity 3
2 Fourth Avenue 9
3 Homecoming 17
4 Geraldine 28
5 How to Become a Homeless Single Mother 31
6 The Decider 38
7 Mauricio 41
8 Legitimacy 45
9 Schedule B 52
10 Welfare 61
11 Ambition 68
12 Renunciations 76
13 Social Work 83
14 Who by Fire, Who by Water 90
15 Letters and Numbers 93
Fall
1 Admissions 97
2 College Life 101
3 Twenty-Two 111
4 Parenthood 116
5 Pedro 125
6 White Carnations 130
7 The Bottle 133
8 Salome 135
9 Other People's Couches 138
10 What to Expect 142
11 For Now 150
12 The Magic 153
13 Sherman Avenue 156
14 Time 162
15 Child Support 165
16 Cold 171
17 Back on Fourth 173
18 Finding of Fact 175
19 Thanksgiving Dinner 180
Winter
1 Camila and Me 185
2 Bronx Baby 189
3 Self-Care 192
4 Christmastime 196
5 The Lottery 202
6 Dario 207
7 The Letter 213
8 Closed Doors 216
9 Men 221
10 Windfall 227
Spring
1 Standards 233
2 Those Good Old Days 237
3 Either That or the Street 243
4 The Labyrinth 246
5 Trust 251
6 Soy Dominicana 268
7 The Driver 279
8 Family 286
9 To All the Ladies 290
10 Terminated 297
11 Commencement 299
12 The Birthday Party 302
Epilogue 307
Acknowledgments 325