DescriptionGrunt Work is a work of fiction that examines working-class struggles to find steady employment in the ever-changing landscape of Southern New Jersey, specifically in the aftermath of the Great Recession of the late 2000s. The protagonist, Rick, works odd jobs to earn a living after work through his brother Jimmy's construction business has become inconsistent. However, Rick has remained loyal to Jimmy's promises of finding more work to keep the business afloat, but Jimmy's growing drug addiction and increasingly erratic behavior puts their relationship at odds. Meanwhile, Rick and his wife, Regina, are struggling to pay the bills, as Regina experiences difficulty of her own on the job as a waitress paying her way through nursing school. As the difficulties in their separate vocations mount up, Rick and Regina' marriage is threatened by the stress and turmoil of living paycheck to paycheck, not to mention being in their mid-30s with nothing solid or stable to fall back on financially, by way of ownership or inheritance. Grunt Work is set in Cumberland County, New Jersey, statistically one of the poorest, least educated counties in the state. The characters navigate a world that seems stifled in its growth, despite changing demographics according to race—it is small town life that wants to be bigger by coopting the values and feel of corporate America, which is at odds with the lifestyle of the area's inhabitants. Along the way, the painful realities of racism, class discrimination, gentrification, and corruption in city politics are encountered by the novel's characters, as they each seek to resolve their personal struggles.