Forward-looking, heartfelt spiritual guidance.
Papal reflections on the global pandemic and other pressing matters.
In his latest book, Pope Francis provides a brief, earnest discussion regarding the Covid-19 virus’ effects on the world and how humanity—and people of faith especially—can respond. One cannot approach this work, which was written in conjunction with the pope’s biographer, Ivereigh, without being reminded of John Paul II’s groundbreaking Crossing the Threshold of Hope (1994), which was also co-authored by a journalist. The book is divided into three parts (plus an epilogue), calling on readers to observe the problem, discern the way forward, and then take action. “The see-judge-act method has been used often by the Latin American Church to respond to change,” writes Ivereigh in the postscript. “Francis had reformulated it in different terms (‘contemplate-discern-propose’) but it was essentially the same approach.” Francis sees in the Covid-19 crisis a danger of narcissism for those who refuse to see it as a global catastrophe or who put self above neighbor in their actions and priorities regarding the pandemic. Somewhat awkwardly, he also explains the thoughtful blessings that such a societal “stoppage” can provide for people, and he hearkens back to the stories of Paul and David, and even his own life, for inspiration. In the section on discernment, the author calls upon Christians to identify and choose the voice of God during these uncertain times: “When we find where God’s mercy is waiting to overflow, we can open the gates, and work with all people of goodwill to bring about the necessary changes.” Regarding action, Francis emphasizes the importance of community and restoring the dignity of “the people.” We must actively seek out healing. “This is the time,” he asserts, “to restore an ethics of fraternity and solidarity, regenerating the bonds of trust and belonging. Only the face of another is capable of awakening the best of ourselves. In serving the people, we save ourselves.”
Forward-looking, heartfelt spiritual guidance.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982171-86-5
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
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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