by Alfred Lubrano
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Product Description
In Limbo, award-winning journalist Alfred Lubrano identifies and describes an overlooked cultural phenomenon: the internal conflict within individuals raised in blue-collar homes, now living white-collar lives. These people often find that the values of the working class are not sufficient guidance to navigate the white-collar world, where unspoken rules reflect primarily upper-class values. Torn between the world they were raised in and the life they aspire too, they hover between worlds, not quite accepted in either. Himself the son of a Brooklyn bricklayer, Lubrano informs his account with personal experience and interviews with other professionals living in limbo. For millions of Americans, these stories will serve as familiar reminders of the struggles of achieving the American Dream.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Inspiring., 2008-08-22
This book was really inspiring to me, and helped me stay focused on working my way through college. Don't give up!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Blue-Collar Dreams, White-Collar Nightmares, 2008-07-28
I've bought nearly a dozen copies of this book (used!) and sent them to friends. Lubrano's "reporting" on "the imposter syndrome" makes for a great read that is almost therapeutic for anyone who, like me, finds himself on every page. The dark side of the American dream is seldom talked about for a reason. Blue collar folks want to believe it can be a dream come true. White collar folks either don't get it, or sometimes, if they do, want to keep blue collar folks in the dark about what "straddling" the divide between two sets of values and two different cultures can do to you. The truth is that the move "up" isn't all bad; the lie is that it is all good and only gets better. Lubrano's book is a great place to start understanding the "Stories We Tell" (Irvin Peckham) with the lives we live. It's a great place to start a conversation with your real self. Lubrano writes in his introduction: "My goal was to write a book about an existing social class, the white-collar children -- first-generation college graduates -- of blue-collar parents, and to write one that would be accessible to those without a Ph.D." I think he succeeds at that better than he knows.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
My 2nd Favorite Book of All Time, 2008-07-27
I first discovered this book in Summer 2007 at a university library. I checked it out for nearly 2 months and read from it constantly.
This summer (2008), I bought the softcover adition from Amazon. I have all my favorite quotes highlighted and dog earred. It's essentially a holy scripture for Straddlers.
I could attempt to explain why I like the book so much, but I'm not articulate enough. Lubrano says everything with such ease and in such an understandable way. As you're reading you come across things that you identify with so deeply, and you never thought someone else felt things the same way. The book allowed me to pinpoint things about myself that I never could, but I now understand myself and the world(s) I'm trying to live in much better.
It's thoroughly satisfying and completely essential if you are from a working class background and attending university. I'm considering giving it as a Christmas gift to several friends this year.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
The Flash of Recognition, 2008-06-24
Limbo is a swift read that provides plenty of "aha" moments even if you're not, strictly speaking, blue-collar. It's a little memoir, a little overview, and overall an interesting look at what happens when blue-collar students enter the white-collar world of college and beyond. Although I'm not, strictly-speaking, from a blue-collar family, I recognized many of the reactions Lubrano's interviewees had when they arrived on campuses like Amherst (my alma mater) and found worlds they had never really known about and had to navigate. Although not a scholarly book, Limbo rings true through the individuals Lubrano interviews and his own look at his life growing up in Brooklyn and going to college at Columbia. He covers not just college but marriage and work in a style that's comfortable and reportorial (he is, in fact, a reporter).
My biggest reservation is that Lubrano tends to fall for the romantic fallacy that all working class people are pure of heart and deed and all middle- and upper- middle class people are snobs and phonies. A little more distance might have given the book a sharper edge, but he capitalizes on his own experience well.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
So true!, 2008-01-31
As someone who came from a blue-collar background himself, the author and those he interviews make a lot of sense, so much so that a lot of it seems to come straight out of my experience. Anyone else from that background reading the book will also likely experience plenty of "Oh Wow!" moments. The amazing thing is, though, is seeing who these people are today and having a genuine respect for those who managed to make it in the world despite the disadvantages the world had given them.
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