Love Across Class (Rose Butler & Eve Vincent, MUP)

In Love Across Class, researchers Rose Butler and Eve Vincent seek to demystify the complex—and often obscured—role class can play in shaping romantic relationships. As class is often overlooked in social and political conversations (unlike race, gender, or sexuality), the book offers a compelling way to understand intimacy through this under-examined lens. The authors interviewed 38 people with varying socio-economic backgrounds. In each interview, they sought to extract the tensions and textures evident when the topic of class was introduced between partners. This process exposed issues such as ‘class transcendence’ (moving up) when in love; pain and grief from romance-fuelled class conflicts (for example, when leaving a class and family behind); and fraught experiences of money (such as conflict about spending or saving). The detailed case studies illuminate how class background can often inhibit or empower relationships. In one, an ‘upper-middle class’ woman is warned by her family against pursuing a relationship with a man raised in poverty. The woman talks about moving down the class ladder but also stresses the freedom that came from openly acknowledging this. Love Across Class is a welcome academic corrective that rightly reintroduces class back to studies of intimacy. Through revealing stories, it compellingly shows that recognising class in relationships can be an emancipating and strengthening exercise. With most interviewees ‘hungry to talk about class’, readers may also find inspiration in discussing this ‘open secret’ with a partner—possibly with similarly cathartic and bonding results.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Nathan Smith is a freelance writer. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Category: Friday Unlocked reviews Reviews