Review: Essay: "The Shelter Within" by Stephanie Land

The Shelter Within by Stephanie Land
Published June 2024 via Amazon Original Stories

You may remember Land's first book, Maid, about poverty and single-parenting and, yes, cleaning houses. I read it long enough ago that I don't remember it terribly well, but in "The Shelter Within" she returns, briefly, to what that poverty looked like: mildew in the apartment, not enough money to put down a deposit on a new one, not enough money to feed both herself and her seven-year-old daughter, no chance of paid parental leave following the birth of her infant daughter, not enough money to do anything but scrape by.

This is a reminder that poverty can be white-collar too—in theory Land had now "made it", because she was living somewhere she wanted to be and had completed college, but she was working two part-time writing jobs, neither of which paid anything close to covering the costs of basic necessities. But more than that, it's a timely reminder that the US has not historically given much help to those who are financially floundering, and with the current administration that will only get worse. Land may not have been thinking about politics while writing this essay, but it's inescapable: she was already stretched to the bone in the period she describes here and could not have worked more hours, earned more money, especially without childcare—which would have been a whole 'nother expense. Maybe it's not the point, but it's hard not to see it in the current economic and political climate.

Ultimately this is a story of hope. That hope was eventually born out—Land wrote Maid, which changed the trajectory of her career and hopefully put her on permanently stable financial footing—but even before that she describes the small and not so small moments that gave her hope that things would work out. Most people won't write an instant bestseller, but most people will find those small and not so small moments.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.