An often powerful, if sometimes-chaotic, discussion of a complex topic.
An interview collection that sheds light on the experiences and systemic causes of homelessness in America.
Semjen, the director of the nonprofit Cultural Exchange Foundation, first met her co-author, Seder, while working at a men’s emergency shelter in Rockville, Maryland. Seder, a writer and director, volunteered with Semjen at the shelter’s “Voc Lab,” which provided computers and assistance in finding job listings, as well as teaching basic computer literacy to help people get online information about Medicaid, legal help, or emergency services. There, they met a diverse group, including unhoused people who were well educated, were addicted to drugs and alcohol, were convicted felons, or who had experienced physical or mental health issues. In these pages, Seder and Semjen offer their interviews with 16 men and women who have either experienced a lack of housing or have dedicated their careers to advocacy to those without homes. The editors hope that these stories will not only educate readers but also inspire lawmakers and nonprofit organizations to provide adequate funding for new programs to provide housing for all. Each interviewee gets their own chapter, which begins with a photo and short bio, followed by a Q&A. One highlight is activist George Leventhal’s interview, which focuses on his doctoral dissertation and subsequent research regarding the root causes of homelessness in the United States. His chapter places today’s homelessness crisis in historical context, and he offers a particularly astute analysis of systemic racism in his discussion of post-World War II housing opportunities denied to Black veterans. Another chapter features Aaron Howe, the co-founder of Washington, D.C.’s Remora House, which provides supplies for unhoused people.
As informative as the book’s scholarly discussions are, its greatest strength lies in the powerful testimony of those who have experienced homelessness firsthand. They include compelling stories, including those of Jennifer Speight, a single mother who was devastated by medical debt following a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in her 20s, and Jim Zidar, a professional television and film actor and theater teacher, once ranked in “the top 5% of secondary school educators,” who later became temporarily homeless after a string of “bad breaks, deteriorating health and an eviction.” A talk with Tecoy Bailey-Wade, reveals a story of childhood trauma and abuse, cocaine addiction, and a stint in prison. Other sections focus on the lives of visual artist Clifton Thompson and computer technician and Army veteran Denis Elis. An interview with Grimaldi-Francesca Sanchez, a Black trans woman, is particularly poignant in describing the discrimination she faced at both all-male and all-female shelters, highlighting the intersectionality of homelessness with race, gender, and sexuality. By emphasizing such diversity, the book challenges stereotypes that form popular narratives and obscure solutions. The interviews’ eclectic nature, however, can make for a disjointed read. A thematic reorganization of the chapters into broad categories would have made it feel better organized. That said, each interview is easy to digest, as they all retain a conversational style that will draw readers into the personal narratives.
An often powerful, if sometimes-chaotic, discussion of a complex topic.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2021
ISBN: 979-8757675107
Page Count: 268
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Feb. 14, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Deliberately provocative, with much for left-inclined activists to ponder.
A wide-ranging critique of leftist politics as not being left enough.
Continuing his examination of progressive reform movements begun with The Cult of Smart, Marxist analyst deBoer takes on a left wing that, like all political movements, is subject to “the inertia of established systems.” The great moment for the left, he suggests, ought to have been the summer of 2020, when the murder of George Floyd and the accumulated crimes of Donald Trump should have led to more than a minor upheaval. In Minneapolis, he writes, first came the call from the city council to abolish the police, then make reforms, then cut the budget; the grace note was “an increase in funding to the very department it had recently set about to dissolve.” What happened? The author answers with the observation that it is largely those who can afford it who populate the ranks of the progressive movement, and they find other things to do after a while, even as those who stand to benefit most from progressive reform “lack the cultural capital and economic stability to have a presence in our national media and politics.” The resulting “elite capture” explains why the Democratic Party is so ineffectual in truly representing minority and working-class constituents. Dispirited, deBoer writes, “no great American revolution is coming in the early twenty-first century.” Accommodation to gradualism was once counted heresy among doctrinaire Marxists, but deBoer holds that it’s likely the only truly available path toward even small-scale gains. Meanwhile, he scourges nonprofits for diluting the tax base. It would be better, he argues, to tax those who can afford it rather than allowing deductible donations and “reducing the availability of public funds for public uses.” Usefully, the author also argues that identity politics centering on difference will never build a left movement, which instead must find common cause against conservatism and fascism.
Deliberately provocative, with much for left-inclined activists to ponder.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781668016015
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.
Four decades after Watergate shook America, journalist Woodward (The Price of Politics, 2012, etc.) returns to the scandal to profile Alexander Butterfield, the Richard Nixon aide who revealed the existence of the Oval Office tapes and effectively toppled the presidency.
Of all the candidates to work in the White House, Butterfield was a bizarre choice. He was an Air Force colonel and wanted to serve in Vietnam. By happenstance, his colleague H.R. Haldeman helped Butterfield land a job in the Nixon administration. For three years, Butterfield worked closely with the president, taking on high-level tasks and even supervising the installation of Nixon’s infamous recording system. The writing here is pure Woodward: a visual, dialogue-heavy, blow-by-blow account of Butterfield’s tenure. The author uses his long interviews with Butterfield to re-create detailed scenes, which reveal the petty power plays of America’s most powerful men. Yet the book is a surprisingly funny read. Butterfield is passive, sensitive, and dutiful, the very opposite of Nixon, who lets loose a constant stream of curses, insults, and nonsensical bluster. Years later, Butterfield seems conflicted about his role in such an eccentric presidency. “I’m not trying to be a Boy Scout and tell you I did it because it was the right thing to do,” Butterfield concedes. It is curious to see Woodward revisit an affair that now feels distantly historical, but the author does his best to make the story feel urgent and suspenseful. When Butterfield admitted to the Senate Select Committee that he knew about the listening devices, he felt its significance. “It seemed to Butterfield there was absolute silence and no one moved,” writes Woodward. “They were still and quiet as if they were witnessing a hinge of history slowly swinging open….It was as if a bare 10,000 volt cable was running through the room, and suddenly everyone touched it at once.”
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1644-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2015
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