Rating: 
Summary: Great look at American work ethic
Review: 'Gig' isn't a book to read cover-to-cover, but rather one to be cherry-picked and enjoyed in small doses. The real stars of the book are the interviewers and editors who have done a wonderful job tracking down a diverse group of people, then coaxing the stories out of them. You, the reader, are presented with what appears to be a monologue, but you can be sure that these texts are actually pieced-together answers from some very skillful questioning. What really struck me was the juxtaposition between those people who would appear to have a lot going for them but have just been mailing it in vs. those people who have everything going against them, but see the glass not simply as half full, but overflowing. An example of the latter: Janice Lejeune - a merchandise handler. Born deaf. Legally blind through a condition called Usher's Syndrome. Recently divorced. Kids grown and moved out. And you think you've faced challenges? On the surface, it would be very easy for this woman to give up and simply rue her fate. Yet, she finds value and self-worth in work. She sees herself as an example of what blind/deaf people can do. It's about the most inspirational thing I've ever read. I have chills recounting her story even as I write this. 'Gig' has that type of effect - I really didn't expect a book with such power. These tales will stick with you.
Rating:
Summary: Great look at American work ethic
Review: 'Gig' isn't a book to read cover-to-cover, but rather one to be cherry-picked and enjoyed in small doses. The real stars of the book are the interviewers and editors who have done a wonderful job tracking down a diverse group of people, then coaxing the stories out of them. You, the reader, are presented with what appears to be a monologue, but you can be sure that these texts are actually pieced-together answers from some very skillful questioning. What really struck me was the juxtaposition between those people who would appear to have a lot going for them but have just been mailing it in vs. those people who have everything going against them, but see the glass not simply as half full, but overflowing. An example of the latter: Janice Lejeune - a merchandise handler. Born deaf. Legally blind through a condition called Usher's Syndrome. Recently divorced. Kids grown and moved out. And you think you've faced challenges? On the surface, it would be very easy for this woman to give up and simply rue her fate. Yet, she finds value and self-worth in work. She sees herself as an example of what blind/deaf people can do. It's about the most inspirational thing I've ever read. I have chills recounting her story even as I write this. 'Gig' has that type of effect - I really didn't expect a book with such power. These tales will stick with you.
Rating:
Summary: A great slice of American life
Review: A great collection of interviews of different people talking about their job. If you ever want to know what it was like to be a crime scene cleaner, porn star, actor, WBNA basketball player or a myriad of other occupations, check out this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic and in depth, although not a page turner
Review: Briefly, this book conducts about 100 interviews with people with different jobs that truly run the gamut. UPS worker to mega-producer. Porn star to funeral home director. I'd say about one in every seven is absolutely fascinating and eye-opening. 5 in 7 are just good reading and then one in seven drags. If you're interested in the fabric that makes up amercian society, you'll love this book at much as I did. Some of the interviews are just shocking, like the UPS guy who gives better service to the companies with the best porn in the bathroom. Also, each interview is about 5-7 pages, so if you're someone who is pressed for time, it's easy to pick up and put down quickly. Overall, a great read.
Rating:
Summary: With an obvious debt to Studs Terkel...
Review: Gig brings readers who may not have had the good fortune to read Working up to date. For those of us who were entering the working world when Working came out, the updated Gig may be just in time for those of us wishing to change careers now. A cross section of the populace talks about how they feel about work. Some are happy, some are angry, some are still not sure just how they got here. All are faced with the prospect of living (and working)longer and making choices about what they do with this extra time.
Rating:
Summary: Gig
Review: Gig is great. Studs Terkel's Work, though an amazing contribution to American literature and the understanding of how other people in our country live, could be pretty dense, especially to modern readers. Quite a few moderns saw it as useless because of its age and how antiquated it seemed; they ask why would you need to read a book about, like, an elevator operator? Gig, however, is a thoroughly modern (in a good way, though!) tour of the modern american workplace. have you ever wondered what the life of a telephone psychic is like? who clean up crime scenes? how do FBI agents work? what are modern steel plants like? even if you haven't asked those questions, I'm sure you'll be delighted to find the answers out. They're all in this book-- just flip around.
Rating:
Summary: Americans defined by their work
Review: It's too bad it took so long for someone to put together another book like Studs Terkel's "Working." "Gig" is a collection of interviews with over 120 Americans who talk about their jobs. The questions are removed, so you end up with 3- and 4-page monologues. It's an effective technique, letting each person describe their working life in their own words. The editors retained the references to sex and a lot of swearing, which is good. That's how people talk, so you might as well leave it in. The degree of honesty isn't reflected in the tone of the interviews, however --- the people might feel free to swear, but they don't feel free to complain about bosses, insecurity about layoffs, being stuck in dead-end jobs, bad pay, poor career choices, illegal business practices, or annoying co-workers. All of these topics get *some* coveage, but only enough to remind you how rare they are. Frankly, I think the book is too positive, with far too many people saying they love their jobs and couldn't be happier. You should read it for yourself and see if you get the same reaction. It's a very easy book to read; every interview is over before it can get boring. Everyone has a unique story to tell. The range of professions is wide, giving you a broad spectrum of people to listen to.
Rating:
Summary: Book gives honest look at real life
Review: This book is a great show of how American people are in reality. Reading this book has been enjoyable as well as informative. As a journalist, I cannot imagine the amount of effort it must have taken to get the types of interviews done in this book accomplished. I feel like I know the person after I read their chapter. It is definitely worth the time and money. Gig is one of my most valuable books.
Rating:
Summary: Great book to see how other people live today.
Review: This is a great book that shows how people that live around us but don't have our profession view the world. It is written in small monologues where the person interviewed is just talking about him/herself in the way that they want to talk without an interviewer steering them in any way: so you get a lot of information by seeing what they find most important of their job and they choose to share with us.
After reading some of the interviews I found myself wondering how would it feel to be somebody else, I felt that for a moment, I was inhabiting somebody else's life, and felt delighted to see how happy everybody was no matter if they were a traveling salesman, a food stylist, a[n] ... escort, an FBI agent, a congressman, a palm reader...
It's a beautiful book that showed me that there are people for everything, and that this diversity is what lets us live all together in this world in almost complete harmony.
Rating:
Summary: Highly entertaining and useful
Review: This is a very interesting book, consisting of a series of 3-7 page interviews of people talking about their jobs. From corporate lawyer to tranvestite prostitute; from McDonald's Employee to CEO to professional hockey player; from UPS delivery person to Lutheran pastor this book runs the gamut of jobs. The jobs are not put in the standard Q&A interview format where the reader can see what question is asked and how the interviewee responded, but rather put in a narrative form, making for a much quicker and enjoyable read. One of the best aspects of this book was comparing and contrasting the various jobs: how did the person end up with this job; what are his/her duties; what's daily life on the job like; what's the best and worst part of the job; do you like your job (nearly all answered yes); what the job holder's career goals are. As someone currently looking at a career change, this book was not only entertaining, but useful in getting me to think about what other kind of stuff is out there (I had already eliminated "transvestite prostitute" from my list but this book was useful in strengthing my resolve to stick to that decision).
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