The MYTH OF THE WELFARE QUEEN: A PULTIZER PRIZE-WINNING JOURNALIST'S PORTRAIT OF WOMEN ON THE LINE

Rating:
Summary: The Myth of the Welfare Queen enthralls reader
Review: The beauty of this book is the simplicity with which it is written. There are not technical terms to maneuver around. It takes a very candid look at a world many of us will never experience. It shows the very human characteristics of single mothers on welfare. The book never gets boring because it reads like a story. This is a non-fiction piece with all the compelling attributes of a fictional novel. This is not just a light rainy-day read either. It forces you to look into the lives of these women. Zucchino describes Odessa and Cheri's horrible necessicities like dumpster diving and prostitution so flippantly, it makes you want to scream, "But these women shouldn't be living like this!"

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT & ENGROSSING
Review: This book is exceptionally well-written and compelling,not at all the dry type of prose normally found in other books of this type or on this subject. This book certainly opened my eyes and seriouslly challenged (and destroyed) many of my long-held perceptions of welfare recipients, especially single women struggling to support families. Odessa Williams, one of the central figures in the book, is a true gem - unselfish, loyal, resourceful, brave and inspiring. This book,like Odessa,is a "winner". Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Unbiased Journalistic View That WIll Make You Think
Review: This is not the book to read if you are trying to make up your mind about welfare issues or reinforce the ideas that you already have. It is an amazingly unjudgemental look at the lives of those on welfare in the inner city that will at times make you raving mad, whether at the people who refuse to work with the system for the sake of their children or at a system that fails those who give everything they have to take care of children they only want the best for, and sometimes have no direct responsibility for (grandchildren, children they have taken in). It puts real situations and struggles in the place of the abstract idea of public assistance. Within the pages you will meet kindhearted, incredibly nonbitter people, like Odessa, who you will admire and, at the same time, long to reach out to. Those who you would pity for their horrible circumstances if only you could not tell from reading about their lives that they are far too good of people to need or want pity. You will also meet people who you cannot feel sympathy for. People you will want to just slap for their irresponsibility and for not putting their children's needs before their own whims. This book shows just how complex the issue of welfare is, and that a set of laws or policies is not going help some people who are just stuck between a rock and a hard place. It will show you that there is no typical welfare recipients, even among those living in one neighborhood. Though some of the people are unbelievably good , and some horrible individuals, it will show the many greys in between. It is a portrait of those suffering for the nation's view of the "Welfare Queen." Those with huge hearts and horrible circumstances infinity entitled to whatever they need to do the job that we would not want to (raising troubled grandchildren amd great-grandchildren with meager means like Odessa, or being the self-appointed guardian of the homeless like Cheri). It is also a portrait of those who stubbornly refuse to help themselves, and fully live up to the idea of the irresponsible, neglectful mother who rather hang out with different men and continue to get pregnant than think of her own children. This is not a book that will make up your mind, but it is one that will give you an understanding of why this is such a hard issue to even begin to think of any sort of solution for.