Book Review: Evicted by Matthew Desmond

My Goodreads review of Evicted opens with three words I don’t hand out casually: must-read for everyone. Not “must-read for policy people.” Not “must-read if you liked Nickel and Dimed.” Everyone. Matthew Desmond won the Pulitzer for this book, and for once the committee undersold it.

The premise: Desmond, a sociologist, moved into a Milwaukee trailer park and then a rooming house on the city’s North Side, and followed eight families (and the two landlords renting to them) through the machinery of eviction. It reads like a novel. It’s all true — he was there for nearly everything on the page.

What I Loved About Evicted by Matthew Desmond

The reporting is incredible: embedded, patient, invisible. But what makes the book land is the argument threaded through it. We tend to file eviction under the consequences of poverty, and Desmond shows it working as a cause. Lose your housing and you lose your job, your kids’ school, your possessions, your neighborhood, and your shot at the next apartment, in roughly that order — and the cycle starts itself over. I finished it thinking about how much of my life has been possible because the roof over my head was never once in question, and how much smarter policy could change that story for millions of people.

What I Didn’t Love About Evicted

Nothing. It’s a heavy read because the subject is heavy, and I wouldn’t trim a page.

Final Thoughts on Evicted

Five stars, no hesitation, and a permanent spot on my nonfiction-that-matters shelf next to Nickel and Dimed. Read it to understand what having a roof over your head actually protects you from. Then go hug your lease.

My final score: 5 out of 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Do I recommend this book? 👍 Yes!

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