Bliss enlivens her own critique of capital in the 2020s by delving into the trouble we all avoid discussing — and then staying with it.

... enthralling.

There is a sense that Biss is after something specific, even if she doesn’t know what it is. Metaphors are tested, ironies pressed upon. Etymologies abound, as do precise distinctions: the difference between a privilege and a luxury, between work, labor, service and care.

This book is essentially an account of Ms. Biss’s contradictions, her ambivalence as a relatively well-off consumer in a rich and richly unequal country. But instead of being humorless and apologetic, Having and Being Had is incisive, impressive and often poetic.

Eula Biss is a master of vivid imagery.

As a writer Eula Biss has two great gifts. The first is her ability to reveal to the reader what has, all along, been hidden in plain sight.

Biss is limited by her interest in modernity, which stymies her research. She uses the term feudal or feudalism several times throughout the book, for example, to contrast modern systems of labor and capital with society in earlier times. But “feudalism” itself is not defined rigorously enough—historians themselves rarely use it these days—becoming a conveniently vague place for Biss to put her ideas about what other possible lifestyles might be out there beyond market capitalism, as if she doesn’t want to look at them too closely or get too far away from the material conditions before her.

Having and Being Had also takes the literature of self-aware privilege to a certain logical extreme: The book is an account of the precise material circumstances that enabled Biss to write it. Yet the spirit is less one of legalistic disclaimer and preemptive self-defense than of genuine scrutiny.

... timely.

It’s a work that...feels as if it will outlast this moment. As with all of Biss’s books of prose (this is her third), Having and Being Had is not so much an analysis of a situation as a personal response to it.

If 'White Debt' was about the ease of colluding in whiteness, Biss' new book Having and Being Had maps out the ease of colluding in capitalism.

... compulsively readable.

[Biss] ventures into the topics of race and economic inequality, but generally returns to her admitted position of white privilege. This makes for a few uncomfortable moments, and readers may well wonder if perhaps Biss was unable to truly appreciate some of the nuance she sought to achieve..

An engaging and accessible read for those interested in social justice and in better understanding our economy..

... brief, potent essays.

... a stylish, meditative inquiry into the function and meaning of 21st-century capitalism.