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A review by gsrichlin
The Mother of All Questions by Rebecca Solnit
challenging
informative
medium-paced
2.5
This book has not aged very well. Solnit seems so concerned with those who say she’s going too far in her critiques to let/make herself go far enough. There are glimmers of this in the text - caveats acknowledging the cis, white, middle classed privilege of her takes - but she plows right past these asides to luxuriate in exactly those takes.
Some of the poor aging of the book is no fault of her own - she has a cautious optimism for the future that is unfortunately depressing looking back over the last several years.
But other parts - like the men she chooses to trust (Louis CK & F Scott Fitzgerald both get warm shoutouts!!) are just plain under researched and require a benefit of the doubt and incredibly low bar for a certain type of white man and undermine her authority in a big way.
Some of the poor aging of the book is no fault of her own - she has a cautious optimism for the future that is unfortunately depressing looking back over the last several years.
But other parts - like the men she chooses to trust (Louis CK & F Scott Fitzgerald both get warm shoutouts!!) are just plain under researched and require a benefit of the doubt and incredibly low bar for a certain type of white man and undermine her authority in a big way.