Intelligent, well-informed essays from a promising if occasionally pedantic writer.
A probing essay collection that tackles relevant issues emerging in America’s current shaky political and social climate.
In “Consciousness Razing,” Swanson recounts his experience at a “manhood-confirming” adventure retreat hosted by a men’s encounter group called Evryman. As the weekend’s activities triggered strong emotional reactions, the author questioned the intent of such movements. “The relevant question for me…is whether this torrent of emotion is a meaningful intervention into the debate about masculinity,” he writes, “whether Evryman is treating the symptom or the cause.” In his account of his time at a convention for fans of The West Wing, Swanson reflects on the renewed interest in the series as a signal of a nostalgic yearning for its idealistic portrayal of governance. “Whereas Obama followed the rules of Aristotelian drama and thus resembled a president from Aaron Sorkin’s imagination,” writes the author, “Trump obeyed the anti-narratives of reality television, where what matters most is not coherence or logical progression, but chaos and titillation.” The title essay follows Swanson’s visit to a psychic convention in upstate New York, a journey prompted by the experiences of his brother, who had suffered a brain injury that caused him to experience psychic visions. This is one of the more compelling and moving pieces, as the author delves informatively into the dynamics of the sibling relationship and reflects on his struggles with depression. With the exception of a couple pieces that miss the mark in their humorous aim—e.g., visiting the massive Noah’s Ark waterpark in Wisconsin—these are mostly tuned-in, absorbing essays. However, the author sometimes relies too heavily on affected wordplay that doesn’t always match the subject matter. In comparison to the crisp prose of a few contemporaries—Jia Tolentino and Zadie Smith come to mind—Swanson’s overly mannered style can be distracting. If he can rein in the tendency to overwrite, this could be the start of a fruitful career.
Intelligent, well-informed essays from a promising if occasionally pedantic writer.Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64009-418-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Counterpoint
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.
Helping liberals get out of their own way.
Klein, a New York Times columnist, and Thompson, an Atlantic staffer, lean to the left, but they aren’t interrogating the usual suspects. Aware that many conservatives have no interest in their opinions, the authors target their own side’s “pathologies.” Why do red states greenlight the kind of renewable energy projects that often languish in blue states? Why does liberal California have the nation’s most severe homelessness and housing affordability crises? One big reason: Liberal leadership has ensnared itself in a web of well-intentioned yet often onerous “goals, standards, and rules.” This “procedural kludge,” partially shaped by lawyers who pioneered a “democracy by lawsuit” strategy in the 1960s, threatens to stymie key breakthroughs. Consider the anti-pollution laws passed after World War II. In the decades since, homeowners’ groups in liberal locales have cited such statutes in lawsuits meant to stop new affordable housing. Today, these laws “block the clean energy projects” required to tackle climate change. Nuclear energy is “inarguably safer” than the fossil fuel variety, but because Washington doesn’t always “properly weigh risk,” it almost never builds new reactors. Meanwhile, technologies that may cure disease or slash the carbon footprint of cement production benefit from government support, but too often the grant process “rewards caution and punishes outsider thinking.” The authors call this style of governing “everything-bagel liberalism,” so named because of its many government mandates. Instead, they envision “a politics of abundance” that would remake travel, work, and health. This won’t happen without “changing the processes that make building and inventing so hard.” It’s time, then, to scrutinize everything from municipal zoning regulations to the paperwork requirements for scientists getting federal funding. The authors’ debut as a duo is very smart and eminently useful.
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781668023488
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
