Though endlessly arguable, a well-written book whose premises and prescriptions bear consideration.
A lively series of thought experiments on how to create a more just and equitable society.
Ghodsee, a professor of Russian and East European studies and author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism, observes that there are many built-in aspects of modern society whose ancient roots yield “decidedly inegalitarian and sexist” results. Against these, she proposes “utopian” solutions, which many readers may dismiss as impractical. The author argues vigorously that they are not. Housing is created with the presumption that someone—usually a woman—will do the cooking, cleaning, and routine maintenance behind closed doors. But what if communities were developed with private residences for sleeping and relaxing but with communal cooking spaces? The idea of private, enclosed homes is considered “normal,” Ghodsee writes, but “we might be more flexible than we imagine.” One knock-on effect is the communal raising of children, freeing mothers from the “disproportionate burden” they bear while also reimagining the nuclear family to incorporate a loving community. Borrowing from the language of economics, Ghodsee considers children as a “public good”—i.e., a source of future support for previous generations, whether childless or not, and therefore worthy of attention and public investment, since “current citizens will (if they live long enough) depend on their contributions to society.” Further proposals include the decommodification of education and the establishment of controls so that anyone, regardless of their career path, would enjoy a living wage: “What if we were all less worried about the future because we lived in societies where one’s ability to have a decent life had little relationship to one’s profession?” Though Ghodsee’s proposals are decidedly utopian, readers who think deeper about them may agree that reshaping society is not such an unworkable thing after all.
Though endlessly arguable, a well-written book whose premises and prescriptions bear consideration.Pub Date: May 16, 2023
ISBN: 9781982190217
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”
The powerful story of a father’s past and a son’s future.
Atlantic senior writer Coates (The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, 2008) offers this eloquent memoir as a letter to his teenage son, bearing witness to his own experiences and conveying passionate hopes for his son’s life. “I am wounded,” he writes. “I am marked by old codes, which shielded me in one world and then chained me in the next.” Coates grew up in the tough neighborhood of West Baltimore, beaten into obedience by his father. “I was a capable boy, intelligent and well-liked,” he remembers, “but powerfully afraid.” His life changed dramatically at Howard University, where his father taught and from which several siblings graduated. Howard, he writes, “had always been one of the most critical gathering posts for black people.” He calls it The Mecca, and its faculty and his fellow students expanded his horizons, helping him to understand “that the black world was its own thing, more than a photo-negative of the people who believe they are white.” Coates refers repeatedly to whites’ insistence on their exclusive racial identity; he realizes now “that nothing so essentialist as race” divides people, but rather “the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they have named matters more than anything we could ever actually do.” After he married, the author’s world widened again in New York, and later in Paris, where he finally felt extricated from white America’s exploitative, consumerist dreams. He came to understand that “race” does not fully explain “the breach between the world and me,” yet race exerts a crucial force, and young blacks like his son are vulnerable and endangered by “majoritarian bandits.” Coates desperately wants his son to be able to live “apart from fear—even apart from me.”
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”Pub Date: July 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9354-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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