A review by szmay
The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020 by Rachel Kushner
4.0
If you have read The Flamethrowers and The Mars Room and liked the subject matter and writing style of both, then you will most likely enjoy this collection of seemingly unconnected and previously published essays. However, if you are new to Kushner’s work, start with one of her novels instead. If you identify with the themes in Mars Room or Flamethrowers and/or identify with any parts of those stories, then come back to this.
Many of the critiques of this book focus on the lack of connection between the essays and the themes covered. This is the result of assembling a group of essays that have all been published elsewhere over the past 20 years. But as Kushner makes clear in the preface, they are connected to one another via…. her. Basically, this is a survey of her work and the ideas and themes central to her writing and career . Motorcycles + 1970s Italy + late 20th century punk / drug / underground subcultures and art scenes + prisons = unrelated subjects linked together by their involvement or presence in Kushner’s world.
Fwiw, I picked this up solely for the Denis Johnson and Ruth Wilson Gilmore essays. But I enjoyed the rest of it enough that I tore through the whole book in an afternoon. It’s a fairly light read and there is beautiful writing throughout the collection. I wasn’t especially interested in some of the essays - eg. The 1970s Italian Labor movement - but subject matter is not what’s meant to drive this collection. Instead, what drew me in - and held my interest - was the opportunity to observe Kushner’s mind at work while tackling such broad subject matter.
Many of the critiques of this book focus on the lack of connection between the essays and the themes covered. This is the result of assembling a group of essays that have all been published elsewhere over the past 20 years. But as Kushner makes clear in the preface, they are connected to one another via…. her. Basically, this is a survey of her work and the ideas and themes central to her writing and career . Motorcycles + 1970s Italy + late 20th century punk / drug / underground subcultures and art scenes + prisons = unrelated subjects linked together by their involvement or presence in Kushner’s world.
Fwiw, I picked this up solely for the Denis Johnson and Ruth Wilson Gilmore essays. But I enjoyed the rest of it enough that I tore through the whole book in an afternoon. It’s a fairly light read and there is beautiful writing throughout the collection. I wasn’t especially interested in some of the essays - eg. The 1970s Italian Labor movement - but subject matter is not what’s meant to drive this collection. Instead, what drew me in - and held my interest - was the opportunity to observe Kushner’s mind at work while tackling such broad subject matter.