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Rating: 
Summary: Rich in detail and anecdote
Review: How many Ivy-League educated journalists would be willing to break their backs and go work on the assembly line to relay this story authentically? Very few! This writer does, and so gets to know the tasks, the workers and the business of making vehicles from the most telling perspective of all. Thoroughly familiar with the corporate point of view from years of business writing, De Santis joins those people whose sweat and toil actually build our world. She gives us the private musings and dreams of hardworking folks who didn't get all the breaks in life that she did, and shows their courage and determination to survive the brutal decisions of an unfeeling corporation. It's sad that management just can't understand the rage of these people whose jobs have been given a death sentence for the sake of higher profits, yet who are expected to give 100% down to the last day. But their voices need to be heard.
Rating: 
Summary: An insightful look at the life of a line worker.
Review: Ms.De Santis begins with the valid premise that the gulf between white-collar and blue-collar workers in widening, and that it's important for one group to understand the other. From there, she walks her readers through that life with an authenticity that only her real-life experience could provide. Interesting reading for anyone who cares about the present and future of manufacturing in North America.
Rating:
Summary: Stands with the best works on working.
Review: Solange De Santis was obviously not looking to "rip the lid off" assembly line work when she began either her experience at GM or her book. This is greatly to her credit. LIFE ON THE LINE does all readers the service of allowing them to make up their own minds. The author's point of view develops in the text at the same pace as her time passed on the line. Crisp and insightful, this book can stand with the best of writing on the subject. The twofold treat is that those with no "shopfloor" experience may come to value more highly those who toil, and those who work on the line may be able to understand that they can be recognized and appreciated by ones not standing next to them in the heat and din. Brava! From the author's brother.
Rating:
Summary: Stands with the best works on working.
Review: Solange De Santis was obviously not looking to "rip the lid off" assembly line work when she began either her experience at GM or her book. This is greatly to her credit. LIFE ON THE LINE does all readers the service of allowing them to make up their own minds. The author's point of view develops in the text at the same pace as her time passed on the line. Crisp and insightful, this book can stand with the best of writing on the subject. The twofold treat is that those with no "shopfloor" experience may come to value more highly those who toil, and those who work on the line may be able to understand that they can be recognized and appreciated by ones not standing next to them in the heat and din. Brava! From the author's brother.
Rating:
Summary: A lively, informative account
Review: Solange de Santis' account of life on a car assembly line is a well-written, informative, page turner, albeit without the edge or the humor of Ben Hamper's "Rivethead." Her drive to understand the lives of people who did not have the privilege of growing up in the middle class is commendable. There is, however, one consequence of her actions that she never seems to contemplate: by choosing to take a job on the line, she in effect took it from another person who did not have the same options and for whom it would have been the best economic opportunity. For me, this phantom was present throughout the book.
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