Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

by Jessica Bruder

They called the new ritual “Burning Van” and commemorated it by singing lyrics they’d written to the tune of “Little Boxes,” the satirical ode to suburban conformity composed in 1962 by Malvina Reynolds. Little vans out in the desert Little vans all made of ticky tacky Little vans out in the desert Little vans and none the same There’s a white one and a white one And a white one and a flowered one And they’re all made out of ticky tacky And there’s none two just the same And the people are rubber trampers The nicest people anywhere. And they won’t be put in boxes And they won’t be all the same We are friendly We are family We love to get together, In the desert, in the desert, Where the terrain is all the same . . . And we have no pavilion, No bathhouse, no central stage But we do have a fire pit where friendships are made We’re all made out of ticky tacky And none think all the same