Predictable, boring, and ill-informed.
A bleeding-heart liberal takes a road trip through the US and finds much not to his liking.
Like many Canadians, Laxer (Political Science/York Univ.) feels that his neighbor to the south casts too great a shadow in the world, especially in the world of political affairs. The fact that the US is now in a position of undisputed world dominance troubles the author, since “while the United States dominates the world, it is to an astonishing degree a nation for itself.” Thus, simultaneously provincial and imperial, Americans have overrun a world they do not understand or much care for. In his travels through the US, Laxer finds confirmations of American perfidy everywhere. He interviews a member of the Michigan militia shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing, attends the execution of Karla Faye Tucker, visits with an abortionist who is threatened with assassination, drops in on a convention of elderly socialists in New York, crashes some protests during the IMF conference in Washington, looks into a Gary Bauer rally in Iowa during the 1999 primaries, and takes gun lessons in Poughkeepsie, New York. He also speculates on why Americans are so fat, offers a strikingly one-sided history of the Cold War, wonders at the fate of Rust Belt towns like Charleston, West Virginia, and provides a rather glum assessment of the “American Century.” Laxer’s politics are garden-variety left-wing and will attract or repel readers accordingly. His only opportunities to broaden his appeal come with his travelogue, but since most of this is mind-numbingly prosaic, tending to revolve around where his hotel was and what he ate for dinner, there is little here to attract any but the committed few.
Predictable, boring, and ill-informed.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-56584-710-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: The New Press
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.
Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.
While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
A heartfelt if somewhat unsurprising view of old age by the former president. Carter (Living Faith, 1996, etc.) succinctly evaluates the evolution and current status of federal policies concerning the elderly (including a balanced appraisal of the difficulties facing the Social Security system). He also meditates, while drawing heavily on autobiographical anecdotes, on the possibilities for exploration and intellectual and spiritual growth in old age. There are few lightning bolts to dazzle in his prescriptions (cultivate family ties; pursue the restorative pleasures of hobbies and socially minded activities). Yet the warmth and frankness of Carter’s remarks prove disarming. Given its brevity, the work is more of a call to senior citizens to reconsider how best to live life than it is a guide to any of the details involved.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1998
ISBN: 0-345-42592-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
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