Eula Biss

"Having just purchased her first home, the author embarks on a self-audit of the value system she has bought into. The essays in this volume offer an interrogation of work, leisure, and the lived experience of capitalism"--

Having and Being Had

Karolina

The idea that unions are for people in bad jobs and that people in good jobs don't need to negotiate the terms of their service depends on the belief that good jobs are inherently good and can't be made bad, or more menial. It's a white-collar fantasy.

At first, I don't understand why it's news that a man who has a woman doing all his housework is finding himself productive. But then I think maybe this is progress. Maybe what's news is that now we're calling this domination, when we used to just call it marriage.

When time is money, as it is now, free time is never free.

“The more comfortable we are, the more destruction we are likely to be causing.” 

Arie P

“The more comfortable we are, the more destruction we are likely to be causing.” 

Everyone should read this.

Big fan of class studies in literature so I picked up this book, but I didn't like it as much as I wanted to. It's a huge bank of related literature with name drops nearly each chapter, which I thought was both a hit and a miss. Gurlie said let me give you the receipts! But most of my highlights were quoted references and almost none from her pov. I thought it was very surface-level and lacked heart. Literally my main takeaway here is that it's hard not to be part of the problem when you're white, privileged, and American — tell me something I don't already know.

Giving it some stars still for the effort in explaining capitalism in pop terms aka from the perspective of the working class in digestible chapters. There were parts where I felt seen (and then overlooked) — I breezed through this thank god. 

y✦

Big fan of class studies in literature so I picked up this book, but I didn't like it as much as I wanted to. It's a huge bank of related literature with name drops nearly each chapter, which I thought was both a hit and a miss. Gurlie said let me give you the receipts! But most of my highlights were quoted references and almost none from her pov. I thought it was very surface-level and lacked heart. Literally my main takeaway here is that it's hard not to be part of the problem when you're white, privileged, and American — tell me something I don't already know.

Giving it some stars still for the effort in explaining capitalism in pop terms aka from the perspective of the working class in digestible chapters. There were parts where I felt seen (and then overlooked) — I breezed through this thank god. 

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY TIME, NPR, INSTYLE, AND GOOD HOUSEKEEPING "A sensational new book [that] tries to figure out whether it's possible to live an ethical life in a capitalist society. . . . The results are enthralling." --Associated Press A timely and arresting new look at affluence by the New York Times bestselling author, "one of the leading lights of the modern American essay." --Financial Times "My adult life can be divided into two distinct parts," Eula Biss writes, "the time before I owned a washing machine and the time after." Having just purchased her first home, the poet and essayist now embarks on a provocative exploration of the value system she has bought into. Through a series of engaging exchanges--in libraries and laundromats, over barstools and backyard fences--she examines our assumptions about class and property and the ways we internalize the demands of capitalism. Described by the New York Times as a writer who "advances from all sides, like a chess player," Biss offers an uncommonly immersive and deeply revealing new portrait of work and luxury, of accumulation and consumption, of the value of time and how we spend it. Ranging from IKEA to Beyoncé to Pokemon, Biss asks, of both herself and her class, "In what have we invested?"

Enjoyed these bite-sized musings on consumption, capitalism, and society.

Molly Bridge

Collection of different moments in life reflecting class consciousness. Biss poses the provokes to the reader to sit amongst their own capital and question their own class consciousness. 

A fast read that constantly had me flipping page to page. I highly recommend if you’d like to read more Marxist theory but from a digestible creative non-fiction narrative. 

Hanako T

Collection of different moments in life reflecting class consciousness. Biss poses the provokes to the reader to sit amongst their own capital and question their own class consciousness. 

A fast read that constantly had me flipping page to page. I highly recommend if you’d like to read more Marxist theory but from a digestible creative non-fiction narrative. 

I’ve read many books on capitalism, none as captivating, bordering on novel-like storytelling, as “Having and Being Had”. Instead of academic polemic, Biss writes candidly about living under (and resisting) capitalism and class. A unique, piercing read. 

Katie Chua

i really liked this but i wish they were longer essays. i think i'm getting impatient with small little vignettes. i find long and well-organized books far more impressive and captivating rather than one-off / "genre-less" works

Angel Martinez

I admit that most of the things I know about economic and political systems come from Twitter threads and think pieces. It's hard to establish a solid understanding of the concepts where you don't really know where to start, and I guess I'm at fault for expecting  Having and Being Had  to be the primer, the foundational text that would serve as the basis of my enlightenment. What I thought would be a series of essays that meld the author's lived experience as she reckons with her privilege with expert knowledge and critique ultimately read like a diary, written purely for her catharsis. Her disjointed entries failed to raise any important questions, offer valuable insight, or even narrate anything of interest. Peak  "Pity me!"  genre of personal essays. Would not recommend this to anyone, except if for some twisted reason, you enjoy wasting your time.

Keylan 

I really want to like (and finish) this book, but I felt as if I were reading someone’s notes on an essay they had not yet written. Countless references but no true deduction to be had from any of the essays.

Clara Jo

A part memoir, part academic meander through the sharp yet curious mind of Eula Biss on the intersection of capitalism, work, precarity, art, value, consumption, and accumulation, among other related ideas and words we perhaps take too much for granted in a society that has internalized capitalist ideals. I really enjoyed that it was written in a rather poetic prose-style exploratory nature rather than providing any fixed or definitive answers to the questions she raises (and also questions I didn’t even realize I had). She writes about her cognitive dissonance and the tensions between class anxiety and financial security so well, so intelligently and subtly, with great self awareness of her own blind spots speaking from within a place of privilege herself. Overall a deeply thought provoking and immersive read for this particular season in my life.

An incisive collection from award-winning author Eula Biss, Having and Being Had is a personal reckoning with the intricacies of money, class and capitalism. 'A major achievement . . . this expansive and intimate accumulation asks the questions that touch all our lives.' CLAUDIA RANKINE 'An endlessly absorbing examination of class, our collusion in capitalism and economic inequality. Biss' signature voice is central, pivoting around Woolf, Baldwin and Didion, while proving herself to an extraordinary essayist of their ilk.' SINÉAD GLEESON 'My adult life can be divided into two distinct parts,' Eula Biss writes, 'the time before I owned a washing machine and the time after.' Having just purchased her first home, she now embarks on a roguish and risky self-audit of the value system she has bought into. The result is a radical interrogation of work, leisure and capitalism. Described by the New York Times as a writer who 'advances from all sides, like a chess player', Biss brings her approach to the lived experience of capitalism. Playfully ranging from IKEA to Beyoncé to Pokémon, across bars and laundromats and universities, she asks, of both herself and her class, 'In what have we invested?' 'Having and Being Had offers us a probing tour of capitalism and class that sidesteps posturing and jargon in favor of clarity, humility, and incitement.' Maggie Nelson 'In this witty, genre-bending book, Eula Biss smashes the taboo against talking about money with exhilarating results . . . [and] disarming honesty and grace.' Jenny Offill 'Eula Biss's prescient new book gave me new language for things I didn't know I felt . . . A brilliant, lacerating re-examination of our relationship to what we own and why, and who in turn might own us.' Alexander Chee 'No contemporary writer I know explores and confronts her own societal responsibilities better than Eula Biss.' Aleksandar Hemon 'A meditation on race, consumerism and the American caste system. And a wry, vivd assessment of our spiritual moment. It is no accident that Having and Being Had reads like the poems money would write if money wrote poems.' Jeet Thayil

Having and Being Had

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