by Jeff Chavez ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 18, 2020
An earnest but slanted look at the youth of today.
A member of Generation X assesses contemporary America in this mix of memoir and cultural criticism.
In 1997, Chavez published the first edition of Fair Warning to undermine the prevailing notion that members of his generation were “lazy, difficult, disinterested, and likely on the road to nowhere special.” Today, he writes, America suffers from “a crisis of character,” and there is “a correlation between detrimental social behavior and the breakdown of family leadership.” The author follows his claim with two pages of quantitative data on adolescent crime, sexual assault, alcohol and drug abuse, single-parent households, and declining religious affiliation. But by basing its argument on circumscribed notions of family and on a Christian-centric worldview, this book limits its ability to fairly assess cultural issues. For example, in one chapter, the author uncritically quotes the Washington Times’ Paula Hunker’s comparison of an episode from an unnamed 1957 TV show with a 1990s episode of what is clearly The Simpsons; in the first, the father encourages his son to never give up while in the second, the dad advises his son, Bart, never to try anything. In this comparison, Chavez seems to miss the fact that The Simpsons is a clear satire of romanticized 1950s family television. In Chapter 10, Chavez claims that “80% of men and 88% of women” look forward to marriage and children; he then tells a story about a friend who helped to conceive two children with two different women—both while unmarried. He then goes on to advocate abstinence—noting his belief that sex should be“reserved until the right time and place, with the right person, and with a lot more maturity”—but he fails to address alternative discourses involving safe sex. A third edition of Fair Warning would benefit from a broader perspective and draw on more source material from outside the conservative movement.
An earnest but slanted look at the youth of today.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-09-832853-5
Page Count: 175
Publisher: Kibera Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Alok Vaid-Menon ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2020
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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More In The Series
by Shavone Charles ; illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky
by Leo Baker ; illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky
by Paul Kalanithi ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 19, 2016
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
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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
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