The struggle is real. In order to have things, you must have money. To have money, you’ll need a job. To have enough money, you’ll need a better job. To have a better job, you need an education. To have an education, you need money, and so it goes.

The struggle is real, especially if you’re a single mom on the verge of homelessness. In that case, as in the new book “Class” by Stephanie Land, the struggle is real hard.

Very few people need a court’s permission to move 500 miles away, but Land did. Her daughter’s father fought against it, but Land wanted to move her child away from Portland to escape his abuse. She chose to live in Missoula, Montana, where she hoped to attend college and gain a degree in creative writing.

For a while, she says, she and Emilia lived in Land’s car. Finding an apartment was difficult but was nothing compared to getting signed up for food stamps and other social programs, getting Emilia enrolled in kindergarten and finding a child care. To pay for what the state didn’t, Land found “clients” for whom she cleaned houses between classes and homework, and she patched together other jobs as she found them. Money was always tight. There was always another emergency within sight that always cost money she didn’t have.

She was always exhausted.

And yet, she persevered because what choice did she have? Land was a single mother trying to hold everything together, despite that resources were sometimes fleeting. And her support system could be shaky.

She battled stereotypes at both her school and her daughter’s. She fought against bureaucracy and rules that seemed meant to keep her in poverty. She was overwhelmed.

And then she became pregnant for a third time.

You might think this is an unusual book to pick up and battle through. It’s full of drama, complaining, defiance and (beware!) cringey way-too-much-information details that may make you want to skip entire paragraphs and whole pages. It’s also filled with a real-life tale of the struggle to overcome poverty, traverse a broken system, find decent work and strive for a comfortable living.

The latter is what “Class” is best at telling.

And yet, before you even open the cover, the book asks you for something: Don’t judge.

This sets up a conundrum. Land seems to practically dare readers to question her decisions, many of which may be hard to understand unless you’ve lived hand-to-mouth and nearly homeless. There but for the grace of whatever higher power.

Don’t judge, she almost demands, but there are times, absolutely, when readers who try not to condemn will wrestle with themselves over such restraint. Heavy sigh.

If you can tease the story apart and see the current events inside it, you’ll be rewarded with a hard look at unemployment, underemployment and poverty in America. Read it with caution, open eyes, between the lines, and “Class” is real good.

Terri Schlichenmeyer’s reviews of business books are read in publications throughout the U.S. and Canada.