Having and Being Had

Having and Being Had chronicles writer Eula Biss's examination of capitalism, class, and property ownership after buying her first house in a Chicago neighborhood. Through interconnected essays, she documents her navigation of homeownership while wrestling with what it means to participate in the systems she critiques. The book combines research, personal narrative, and social observation as Biss investigates the language and reality of consumption, work, and wealth. She draws from conversations with neighbors, historical texts, economic theory, and her experiences as a professor and writer to build her exploration. Biss structures the work as a series of short, linked pieces that accumulate into a larger meditation on privilege, money, and the costs of middle-class comfort. Her scope spans from intimate domestic moments to broader questions about art, labor, and value in American society. At its core, this is a book about the contradictions inherent in trying to live ethically within capitalism while benefiting from its systems. The essays resist easy conclusions, instead opening up complex questions about complicity and conscience in contemporary economic life.

Readers describe this book as a series of contemplative essays examining privilege, consumption, and capitalism through Biss's personal experiences as a homeowner and professor. Readers appreciated: - The raw honesty about money and class - Clean, precise writing style - Thought-provoking questions about modern life - Research and historical context woven into personal narrative Common criticisms: - Too meandering and repetitive - Self-absorbed perspective - Lacks concrete conclusions - Focus on upper-middle-class concerns feels out of touch "She circles around ideas without really landing anywhere," noted one Goodreads reviewer. Another reader praised how "she interrogates her own choices while acknowledging her privilege." Ratings: Goodreads: 3.8/5 (6,800+ ratings) Amazon: 4.1/5 (280+ ratings) Book Marks: Positive (8 reviews) Several readers mentioned abandoning the book partway through due to its circular structure, while others found the format helped them examine their own relationship with money and consumption.

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🔷 Eula Biss wrote this book after buying her first house, which prompted her to deeply examine her relationship with capitalism, comfort, and class mobility 🔷 The book is structured as a series of short, interconnected essays, each precisely 1,000 words long, creating a rhythmic exploration of wealth and consumption 🔷 The author completed extensive research on the history of leisure time, discovering that medieval peasants typically worked fewer hours than modern Americans 🔷 During the writing process, Biss interviewed her neighbors about their finances and material possessions, weaving their perspectives into her narrative alongside quotes from philosophers and economists 🔷 The word "capitalism" appears 19 times throughout the book, yet Biss purposefully avoided using the term in the first half to illustrate how we often discuss economic systems without naming them