Reviews: Skint Estate (7)

Having read some articles about Cash Carraway I was interested to find she had written a memoir, but then I saw the title and cover of the book and I have to admit I was really put off as it reminded me of a sociology set book from the 1970s!
However, I was pleased I did read it as Ms Carraway is warm, witty and wise; I laughed with her and cried for her and women in a similar position with seemingly no future to live for. I respect her truth and ability to survive for her daughter, but most of all I feel ashamed that as a country we still haven't risen up against austerity and inequality.
Thank you to netgalley and penguin books for an advance copy of this book

I didn't know what I was expecting when I started this but I wasnt disappointed.

It's a memoir of poverty and hard times. Its raw and honest. 

It should be read by everyone

Thanks to Ebury and NetGalley an advance e-copy of this title.

This was a very good (albeit sometimes graphic) description of a life in poverty. I definitely learned a lot, feel extremely guilty for my privilege, and am angrier than ever at the Tories and those who support them. I raced through it, and whilst it’s hard to describe this kind of memoir as enjoyable, there were moments of hope and bits to laugh at too. Would highly recommend.

This book was very open and frank and details the authors memoir of austerity Britain bringing up a child alone through doing sex work and moving from place to place. the thing I liked the most was cash's frankness in describing things which made the book for me and didn't brush anything under the carpet

Skint Estate is a difficult read. It is brilliantly written, with a humour that somehow survived the brutality of Cash’s life alongside the anger and pain that inevitably rampage through a memoir of poverty and degradation, but it is also shocking, offensive and humiliating. It is risky to write with such honesty and openness about a life that is certain to be judged, but also incredibly powerful.

Ultimately though, what is it? Cash muses towards the end whether it is simply more poverty porn, something for the wider public to get off on. As a reader I hope not, but at the same time how do you respond to something so disturbing when your own experience is so wildly different, so comfortable and privileged in comparison? There are so many things that make the blood boil in this story, but the system that creates them feels so difficult to penetrate, it doesn’t want solutions.

I recommend this book to anyone who has no experience of what it is like to live on the bottom rung of the ladder in Britain, but it can’t be enough to read a book. That is just tourism. There has to be a follow up action, otherwise reading the book is simply adding to the abuse that Cash has been suffering pretty since day one.

I’ll be honest, in the immediate aftermath of finishing the book, I’m not sure what that action is. On so many levels, I’ve had enough of people and it can be hard to be hopeful, but for as long as we’re here we have to try. Experiment with what we have available to try to make things better. Otherwise we’ve given up.

Skint Estate is a brutally honest account of one woman's life and experience as a single mother living in modern Britain.At 29, Cash Carraway finds herself pregnant, homeless and fleeing domestic violence. She is determined to do whatever it takes to earn enough money to find a home and make a life for her and the new life growing inside her. And if this involves working 13 hour shifts in a peep show, so be it. Abused by her mother, abandoned by her father, she longs for a family and some semblance of security. But as the Tories win the General Election, she discovers that no matter how hard you try, the system is designed to stigmatize and keep you living in poverty. Zero hours contracts, being forced to take out payday loans that you have no chance of repaying, exorbitant childcare costs and constant threats of homelessness, keep you trapped in situations that no human being should have to endure. Feeling humiliated at having to rely on food banks, crushing loneliness and a dependence on alcohol equal increasing isolation and depression, with no foreseeable way out. Suicide, at times, seems like the only light at the end of a very dark tunnel. But surviving becomes living when Cash is offered a book deal, and this book is important. It highlights the injustice and extreme conditions that people are forced into. Austerity policies are designed to vilify the most vulnerable in our society, but Cash Carraway is not to be silenced and this book is defiantly angry, and rightly so.

WOW!!! This book absolutely needed to be written. The reality of poverty needs to be shouted about. I’ve been the single mum on a council estate. I was lucky. It was hard but years before the benefit caps came into play. I see friends in similar situations now and I have so much admiration that they can provide for their kids despite everything against them. I have read so much of this book out loud so others can hear the harsh reality. Cash Carraway, you are an amazing mum and I am so bloody proud of you for all of this.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion. And a massive thank you to the author for telling what everyone needs to know.