The Unknown City

The Unknown City by Michelle Fine and Lois Weis did a fantastic job of telling the story of homelessness and poverty from the perspective of the poor and working class. The book is based on interviews from different racial perspectives in the New York/New Jersey area. The book claims to represent the Generation Xers between the ages of 23 and 35. However, readers of the Unknown City do not get this perspective. The voices and points of view seem to come from an older generation. The youthful perspecitve is lost in the authors' main concerns and discussions. All this aside, the authors do a good job in contrasting the racial perspectives on the causes of and dealings with poverty. The viewpoints of Whites, African Americans, and Latinos all seemed to be different. We understand the authors' intentions in writing this book--to uncover the different perspecitves on poverty from voices not usually heard. In the end, readers are hoping for possible solutions to the problems introduced.

Though I felt this book was boring in places, I think that Fine and Weis do a terrific job in giving poor and working-class Gen X'ers a voice in crying out against the public policy that is perpetuating their families inability to move out of the inner-city and become "productive members of society". I am from a white, upper-middle class family and have never been exposed to issues such as these. Fine and Weis interview various ethnic and racial groups in Buffalo, NY and Jersey City, NJ and then generalize their findings to the experience of all such racial/gender groups living in inner cities around the country. From other research, they prove that this extrapolation is not unfounded.What I loved so much about this book is that they interviewed (and extensively quote throughout the book) over 150 people of various backgrounds in these cities. To hear of the plight that these people go through was truly saddening to me. This book made me ask the question: to what extent do I allow the media to form my opinion on issues such as these? All I am used to seeing on the news is stories about moms who cheat welfare and deadbeat dads who only care for themselves. It is extraordinary to hear of the situations and circumstances BEHIND these stories however.While I cannot evaluate this book solely on the basis of its sociological merits (I've only taken two classes in college in sociology), I can tell you that this book has the ability to change your stereotypes...as I mentioned, especially if they have been formed by the media! The struggle for survival in the inner city is shown in a way that can only make the reader wonder: what would I do if I lived there? What could I do to help these people? A great book. It gets 4 stars because it is boring in a few sections.