![]() She thinks about her mother and brother, her husband and son, her house and belongings, her old neighbors and new neighbors, and the big abstract things that inevitably shape how she sees and moves through the world: gentrification, whiteness, privilege and consumption. Noting how a person’s economic norms are largely determined by their social group, Biss brings people from her life into this story-acquaintances she sits by at dinner parties, friends with whom she swaps books, academics at Northwestern and fellow parents. ![]() Why is being an artist so at odds with the kind of mentality needed to find stability in our modern world? What do we give up as we pursue economic gain? How can we find agency-write our own rules for living-while also making our way within enormous capitalist systems that are entrenched and seemingly immovable? These are the big questions Biss approaches in her compulsively readable memoir, Having and Being Had, which blends research (the notes section is nearly 50 pages long), reflection and richly rendered personal experience. ![]() As she came to terms with her new success, she also found herself reflecting on precarity-as well as money, art and capitalism. The moment her contract shifted from visiting artist to a more permanent title, Biss and her family bought a house. ![]() Writer Eula Biss worked a variety of temporary jobs before achieving economic security as an English professor at Northwestern University. ![]()
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