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balletbookworm's review against another edition
4.0
"Is This Kansas" annoyed the hell out of me (I understand from reading the notes why she took the approach she did but that doesn't mean I have to like it) however the rear of the essays are first-rate. Excellent style.
slowlytyped's review
5.0
There are books that happen to find people at just the right time, and this one is mine. Biss, like Didion, has a way of taking you right up to a conclusion and setting you free to construct your own judgement. Beautiful, honest, and some of the best nonfiction I've read yet.
dcmr's review against another edition
4.0
I agree with this assessment:
" . . . a mix of insistence and quandary, as though she is despairing and pressing on simultaneously." -- says Robert Polito, who awarded this essay collection the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize (it also earned the National Book Critics Circle Award).
" . . . a mix of insistence and quandary, as though she is despairing and pressing on simultaneously." -- says Robert Polito, who awarded this essay collection the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize (it also earned the National Book Critics Circle Award).
lizzie24601's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Wow wow wow. Biss is an exceptional writer, with an insightful skill in questioning her own experiences and viewpoint. The first two essays are quite research-heavy and didn't really catch my attention, but once you get to the third one, each and every essay to follow caught my attention and broadened my perspective. 100% recommend this.
kaileycool's review against another edition
5.0
Read this for my Baldwin class. I don't agree with all of Biss' assertions, and I'm not sure she has the right to make some of them, but the exploration is provoking, which I think is the point. The metaphor of a treacherous "no man's land" where the very ground beneath you is deceptively unstable is a very apt way to describe this text, a fact that makes it clear the provocation is intentional. Her argument that guilt is the racial heritage of white Americans is certainly offensive to some, but I would agree with her even if I didn't have a natural predilection toward offensive women. There were several palpably uncomfortable moments in the class session dedicated to this book, and I think that's the point.
peach_puppy's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
lisa_mc's review against another edition
2.0
I go into collections of essay expecting them to be uneven -- I'll always like some more than others -- and this book fit that pattern. But the ones I liked I didn't love, and the ones I didn't like I didn't even finish. I'm not sure what it was about her writing that I just didn't connect with -- it seems that everyone else was raving about this book. But to me the writing seemed choppy in places, jumping back and forth between topics, and so self-consciously "wrought" in other places that it was a distraction to me as a reader. This may be a book I'll need to revisit later to take a fresh look at.