Limbo Critical Book Review

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Limbo Critical Book Review
Presented to
Jennifer Enderlin
Arkansas Tech University
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OL 4963
Organizational Leadership Capstone
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by
Derek Hylton
T01223093
03/31/2024
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Lubrano, A. (2004). Limbo: Blue-collar roots, white-collar dreams. Wiley.
Introduction
The book that I am writing this paper on is called Limbo” Blue-collar roots, white-collar
dreams. It is by Alfred Lubrano, a guy from Brooklyn, New York that grew up in a blue-collar
family and decided to go to college and become a white-collar person. Alfred Lubrano is a
journalist that got his degree from Colombia University. Currently Alfred Lubrano writes for The
Philadelphia Inquirer as a journalist.
Summary
This book is about Lubrano’s life going from his blue-collar family to becoming some in
the upper class or apart of being a white-collar person. It is about how his family takes him to
school and how they view him, white-collar people view him, and how he sees himself going
from blue-collar to white-collar.
Lubrano always viewed himself as someone who should go to college and his family
ended up wanting him to as well to make a better life for himself and his future family. But, for
his father going to school was about getting himself a job that would make good money, his
father got kind of upset or confused about him going to college to be a journalist. Yeah, it’s a
good job and takes a college degree but it doesn’t rake in the money like other college degree
jobs like his father thought he would go to be.
Also, this book goes over how weird it is transitioning from blue-collar to white-collar.
Everything Lubrano goes through being in both worlds. How he must deal with knowing people
from both worlds and being a part of both worlds. He finds it hard to deal with and he finds it
hard to talk to people because not really anyone around him is going through the same situation
as he is. No one in his family are white-collar individuals and no one he goes to school with is
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from a blue-collar background or knows people that are blue-collar. So, it is a big adjustment and
I guess culture shock for him learning all the differences in how people act and just how people
are different in the different classes.
Critical Evaluation
Lubrano’s purpose for writing this book was to inform people on everything he went
through in his life going from a blue-collar life to the life of someone in the upper class or a
white-collar individual. And he wanted to share it with others to let them know that they are not
alone and to show them that you can get through that dramatic change just like he did. I believe
that Lubrano succeeded in writing this book, as someone who is going through a similar
situation, I believe that it helped me understand it better and it made me look deeper into my
situation. It made me realize that I do see or feel the same way that he does at times, and I
understand where he is coming from.
I don’t believe that he approaches it with much bias really, maybe just the bias of how he
sees things because it is a part of his life that he is sharing with people. I guess you could say he
is showing bias in how someone from up North or from New York may view going from blue-
collar to white-collar versus someone from like Texas, but considering it is a book about himself
he kind of must show bias.
I believe that people should read this book because it is a good story about an important
part of someone’s life. Whether you are from a blue-collar family or a white-collar family it
gives you a perspective on how life may be for others. How change affects people’s lives and
how scary life changes can be and a perspective on how someone else got through it. I believe
the books strengths are what I mentioned above, and it doesn’t have any weaknesses I believe
that it was a well wrote book that really hit me personally. I believe this book was well written
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and I was a good read. It made me think about my life and the similarities between me and the
author and our lives. I believe it is a story anyone should read and would enjoy.
Conclusion
I believe this book is a great book that people going from a blue-collar lifestyle to a
white-collar lifestyle should read. People that are going to college should also give this book a
read to see if they have any similarities with the author and what he went through. Also, people
that are blue-collar or white-collar should read the book to get a perspective on how others from
different classes may feel, to get a better perspective on themselves and life in general. I believe
if people read this book, it may make them feel more appreciative about their lives and feel like
they can talk to people in other classes and have similarities with people in other classes.
I learned how different classes view things and how they view life and work. White-
collar families are expected to continue being white-collar while blue-collar families try to make
it to white-collar, but a lot are fine with just being blue-collar. This book really helped me
understand the differences between classes and how it affects me daily.

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References
Lubrano, Alfred. Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams. John Wiley & Sons,
Inc., 2004.

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Limbo Critical Book Review

Arkansas Tech University

Organizational Leadership Capstone

Lubrano, A. (2004). Limbo: Blue-collar roots, white-collar dreams. Wiley.

Philadelphia Inquirer as a journalist.

from blue-collar to white-collar.

jobs like his father thought he would go to be.

are different in the different classes.

understand where he is coming from.

he kind of must show bias.

understand the differences between classes and how it affects me daily.

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