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VIRTUAL EQUALITY

THE MAINSTREAMING OF GAY AND LESBIAN LIBERATION

A seemingly endless disquisition on gay political activism, by a former executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Vaid contends that the gay movement has sought to assimilate gay men and lesbians into mainstream heterosexual culture by using a faulty civil rights strategy, basing opposition to discrimination on the proposition that homosexuals are really just like heterosexuals. This ``legitimationist'' tactic can result only in slow, incremental change, says Vaid, and does nothing to combat hate- and ignorance-based stereotypes. Vaid prefers a more ambitious, ``liberationist'' alternative: ``Liberation . . . looks for a transformation in social institutionsin government, family, religion, and the economy''rather than seeking acceptance by the institutions as they are. The legitimationists use established means, like congressional lobbying and the cultivation of wealthy supporters; complete liberation requires community-based organizations that are accountable to the grass roots. Through this ideological dichotomy (which, halfway through the book, she suddenly admits is ``in fact old and tired'') Vaid summarizes the history of the modern gay liberation movement, ascribing its successes to liberationists and its failures to legitimationists. As she frequently reflects on gay rights projects in which she's taken part, such as the attempt to overturn the military's policy on gays, she assails gay lobbyists for assuming that their access to Bill Clinton equaled real influence. The author's lefty sensitivities get an extensive workout: She frets, for instance, about the ``troubling roots in national chauvinism'' of the word ``citizenship.'' Vaid proposes an ideal gay movement that would take stands on all kinds of societal problems; since she spends most of the book discussing how difficult it is already to achieve consensus among gay activists, such a goal implies a severe lack of pragmatism about solving immediate problems. A shaggy mix of neohippie idealism, bureaucratic minutiae, and a meandering argument that essentially leads nowhere. (Author tour)

Pub Date: Oct. 6, 1995

ISBN: 0-385-47298-6

Page Count: 464

Publisher: Anchor

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1995

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WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR

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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GOOD ECONOMICS FOR HARD TIMES

Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.

“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.

It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.

Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.

Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0

Page Count: 432

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019

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