Gig: Americans Talk about Their Jobs - Paperback

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by John Bowe (Editor), Marisa Bowe (Editor), Sabin Streeter (Editor)

"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

This wide-ranging survey of the American economy at the turn of the millennium is stunning, surprising, and always entertaining. It gives us an unflinching view of the fabric of this country from the point of view of the people who keep it all moving. The more than 120 roughly textured monologues that make up Gig beautifully capture the voices of our fast-paced and diverse economy. The selections demonstrate how much our world has changed--and stayed the same--in the three decades prior to the turn of the millennium. If you think things have speeded up, become more complicated and more technological, you're right.

But people's attitudes about their jobs, their hopes and goals and disappointments, endure. Gig's soul isn't sociological--it's emotional. The wholehearted diligence that people bring to their work is deeply, inexplicably moving. People speak in these pages of the constant and complex stresses nearly all of them confront on the job, but, nearly universally, they throw themselves without reservation into coping with them. Instead of resisting work, we seem to adapt to it. Some of us love our jobs, some of us don't, but almost all of us are not quite sure what we would do without one.

With all the hallmarks of another classic on this subject, Gig is a fabulous read, filled with indelible voices from coast to coast. After hearing them, you'll never again feel quite the same about how we work.

Front Jacket

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 intimateview 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

Author Biography

John Bowe is the author of Nobodies and the co-editor of Us: Americans Talk About Love and Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times, GQ, and McSweeny's, among others.

Marisa Bowe, co-editor of Us: Americans Talk About Love and Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs, is a writer and web and video producer. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times, Harper's, and Vogue, among others. She was editor-in-cheif of Word until 2000.

Sabin Streeter is the co-editor of Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs and contributing editor of Us: Americans Talk About Love. An independent writer and filmmaker, his work has appeared in The New Yorker and Harper's, among others.

Number of Pages: 688

Dimensions: 1.46 x 8.01 x 5.21 IN

Publication Date: August 21, 2001