This book started off really well, but went off the rails in the latter chapters. It started off as a well-researched examination of how middle class families are struggling financially. The latter chapters were just weird (discussing communes and robot nurses) and rambled on a bit too much about Trump.

Apparently some of the content has appeared in magazines and other publications, and it did seem like the book was more cobbled together pieces than a coherent work.

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Five stars for an important and timely topic, but only 2 stars for editing and clarity. (First full paragraph on page 92 has "class." hanging out by itself, not part of sentence, as just one example). I truly enjoyed the personal stories she shared and there are helpful data points if that's what you're looking for. It strives to help you feel better by repeating it's not your fault multiple times, "middle class life is now 30 percent more expensive than it was twenty years ago" and offers specific suggestions for both short and long term solutions to some of the problems she addresses. These include subsidized high-quality day care, basic income guarantee programs, coparenting, and talking openly about class. It's sometimes super specific and sometimes really far reaching, covering topics from day care to robots. I wanted more information about what I see as the national level topics (how are the income guarantee pilot programs working) and a lot less about the specifics of school choice decisions in NYC. Although I think I share Quart's leanings, sometimes I couldn't follow her leaps. She writes about robots delivering medications from the pharmacy as a lead-in to a heated defense of the nursing and caring professions. I'm all for the human touch of nurses, but I don't feel like pharmacy delivery is a direct attack on nursing care. I'm glad I read it, but it wasn't as focused as I'd hoped for.

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