Nomadland: a book review
Nomadland: a book review
Jessica Bruder
W.W. Norton & Co., 2017
In one of the opening scenes of the film, Nomadland, we are given a close-up of Fern, yet are unable to “read” her face. There is a slew of emotions to sort through. Intensity, concentration, fear—then the camera backs up and we realize—oh, she’s having a pee—backs up further—beside a lonesome highway. She quickly finishes up and pulls up her pants and jumps into her white van.
Upon reading the book, we gain a much BROADER understanding of that close up. It is a woman’s face, someone who has worked and suffered sudden unemployment, who is grieving not only the end of her life but the life of her husband=everything she has ever known. Gone. And now, she is starting out, without a house, her stuff in storage, on a journey, a new life, called vanlife. Living in her van
The raw emotion that is unreadable is unknowable. Where does she start, where is she going, where will she end up? So many questions. She is terrified. Out on the cold desert of Nevada, the sun about to go down, all alone. I can feel the fear thumping through her chest—oh my god what am I doing????
That small, less than a minute scene spells out the rest of the film, multiplied in the other “characters” that she meets and populates the stark landscape of older Americans living in vans, trailers, RVs, cars that traverse the country looking for jobs, a parking space, free or at affordable least medical care. Without an address, there are no services. They are part of a movement, literally and physically, of seniors in search of the American Dream.
I dare not use the word retirees, as some do not want to be unemployed nor do they want to work the rest of their lives. Yet, they might just have to.
Nomadland, the well-researched book, by Jessica Bruder, gives us the back story, There has been criticism that the film glossed over the seasonal work stints at Amazon warehouses that many of the “workampers” labored at. Many worked 12 hour shifts to pick and package piles of useless cheap junk—(when I consider all those Prime packages I saw piled up on porches this past winter under Covid!!! It gives us insight into the hands that did all that getting paid less than a McDonalds fast-food worker). These are folks ages roughly 50 to 80 years old, grandparents, people in their “golden” years walking the equivalent of 18 miles a day on hard concrete floors, squatting and reaching for: a collection of impulse, late-night button-pushing buying.
No wonder many of these seasonal workampers have decided to go in the opposite direction of becoming minimalists.
In the book we are also introduced to Linda May and Charlene Swankie who also end up “starring” in the film. Linda May: “Well, I never had any intentions of being in a movie. That was just not on my radar at all. I thought maybe I’d walk through a scene or something, but it ended up being more than that. It just kept evolving for me. And I just said, “Okay, I’m just going to go along with all of this.”
When Bruder set out to document nomadlife she hook up with Linda May and because of this woman’s open personality, the reporter was able to get “inside” the lifestyle and mindset of today’s geriatric nomad. Bruder first penned an article for Harper’s https://harpers.org/archive/2014/08/the-end-of-retirement/
And then went on to expand upon it for a book. Then came the movie.
Fast forward and the real-life meta cast were at the 2021 Oscar ceremony. Seeing them on the stage when Nomadland won best-picture and Zhao best director I wondered: Where are they now? Did they get paid or were they merely workampers in the film?
In an interview with Variety, during which she was at a Walmart preparing for her trip to Los Angeles, Linda May talked about her experience making “Nomadland” -- and the idea of going to the Academy Awards.
The nonprofessional actors of “Nomadland” were all paid to be in the movie. “They told me that I needed to join SAG, and they assisted me with that,” May said. “And told me what the daily rate was going to be -- I about fainted.” She stopped to laugh: “That was a big surprise.
The money from “Nomadland” has changed May’s life. “I wanted a place for the end of the road,” she said. “Because this June, I’ll be 71, and I wanted a place to go so that I wouldn’t be forced to keep moving around. And I have that. I have that security. I have a place for family. And that meant a lot.”
Linda May has bought land outside of Taos, NM for a cabin that will help her and her family find stability.
Going back to that opening scene: The absolute terror of starting out, captured by Francis/Fern in a field beside the road, peeing, somehow she can’t believe that life has come to this, degrading and yet exhilarating, a pinwheel of emotions. No one involved with the article, book, film could have anticipated the acclaim and acceptance of their story—now part of the parlance, humanizing the term nomad and nomadland.
Jessica Bruder
W.W. Norton & Co., 2017
In one of the opening scenes of the film, Nomadland, we are given a close-up of Fern, yet are unable to “read” her face. There is a slew of emotions to sort through. Intensity, concentration, fear—then the camera backs up and we realize—oh, she’s having a pee—backs up further—beside a lonesome highway. She quickly finishes up and pulls up her pants and jumps into her white van.
Upon reading the book, we gain a much BROADER understanding of that close up. It is a woman’s face, someone who has worked and suffered sudden unemployment, who is grieving not only the end of her life but the life of her husband=everything she has ever known. Gone. And now, she is starting out, without a house, her stuff in storage, on a journey, a new life, called vanlife. Living in her van
The raw emotion that is unreadable is unknowable. Where does she start, where is she going, where will she end up? So many questions. She is terrified. Out on the cold desert of Nevada, the sun about to go down, all alone. I can feel the fear thumping through her chest—oh my god what am I doing????
That small, less than a minute scene spells out the rest of the film, multiplied in the other “characters” that she meets and populates the stark landscape of older Americans living in vans, trailers, RVs, cars that traverse the country looking for jobs, a parking space, free or at affordable least medical care. Without an address, there are no services. They are part of a movement, literally and physically, of seniors in search of the American Dream.
I dare not use the word retirees, as some do not want to be unemployed nor do they want to work the rest of their lives. Yet, they might just have to.
Nomadland, the well-researched book, by Jessica Bruder, gives us the back story, There has been criticism that the film glossed over the seasonal work stints at Amazon warehouses that many of the “workampers” labored at. Many worked 12 hour shifts to pick and package piles of useless cheap junk—(when I consider all those Prime packages I saw piled up on porches this past winter under Covid!!! It gives us insight into the hands that did all that getting paid less than a McDonalds fast-food worker). These are folks ages roughly 50 to 80 years old, grandparents, people in their “golden” years walking the equivalent of 18 miles a day on hard concrete floors, squatting and reaching for: a collection of impulse, late-night button-pushing buying.
No wonder many of these seasonal workampers have decided to go in the opposite direction of becoming minimalists.
In the book we are also introduced to Linda May and Charlene Swankie who also end up “starring” in the film. Linda May: “Well, I never had any intentions of being in a movie. That was just not on my radar at all. I thought maybe I’d walk through a scene or something, but it ended up being more than that. It just kept evolving for me. And I just said, “Okay, I’m just going to go along with all of this.”
When Bruder set out to document nomadlife she hook up with Linda May and because of this woman’s open personality, the reporter was able to get “inside” the lifestyle and mindset of today’s geriatric nomad. Bruder first penned an article for Harper’s https://harpers.org/archive/2014/08/the-end-of-retirement/
And then went on to expand upon it for a book. Then came the movie.
Fast forward and the real-life meta cast were at the 2021 Oscar ceremony. Seeing them on the stage when Nomadland won best-picture and Zhao best director I wondered: Where are they now? Did they get paid or were they merely workampers in the film?
In an interview with Variety, during which she was at a Walmart preparing for her trip to Los Angeles, Linda May talked about her experience making “Nomadland” -- and the idea of going to the Academy Awards.
The nonprofessional actors of “Nomadland” were all paid to be in the movie. “They told me that I needed to join SAG, and they assisted me with that,” May said. “And told me what the daily rate was going to be -- I about fainted.” She stopped to laugh: “That was a big surprise.
The money from “Nomadland” has changed May’s life. “I wanted a place for the end of the road,” she said. “Because this June, I’ll be 71, and I wanted a place to go so that I wouldn’t be forced to keep moving around. And I have that. I have that security. I have a place for family. And that meant a lot.”
Linda May has bought land outside of Taos, NM for a cabin that will help her and her family find stability.
Going back to that opening scene: The absolute terror of starting out, captured by Francis/Fern in a field beside the road, peeing, somehow she can’t believe that life has come to this, degrading and yet exhilarating, a pinwheel of emotions. No one involved with the article, book, film could have anticipated the acclaim and acceptance of their story—now part of the parlance, humanizing the term nomad and nomadland.
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