A review by marbo
Everything Now: Lessons from the City-State of Los Angeles by Rosecrans Baldwin
3.5
Not my fav.
But I enjoyed certain parts more than others. Particularly, I thought that the essays about the entertainment industry & natural disasters were the strongest, because there felt like there was a sense of both lived experience and personal stake for the author in both essays if that makes sense.
The problem with this book is that the majority of it is trying to document things that it seems the writer has no personal connection to - I admire his desire to document and platform the words of poc who are actually from Los Angeles but the whole thing comes off as very voyeuristic. I felt the same way about The Jakarta Method (which i ended up liking), which is that I felt frustrated that the stories of people who had actually experienced these things were being told by white male writers who then profited off of the books sales. I have no way to find out whether or not their subjects were paid or how these writers spend their money. Which I hate. At the same time, because the publishing industry so rarely platforms writers who aren’t male & white, would these stories get published at all if not for the white male writers in question? Idk
Beyond that I didn’t loooove his writing style in general, not super my vibe.
But I enjoyed certain parts more than others. Particularly, I thought that the essays about the entertainment industry & natural disasters were the strongest, because there felt like there was a sense of both lived experience and personal stake for the author in both essays if that makes sense.
The problem with this book is that the majority of it is trying to document things that it seems the writer has no personal connection to - I admire his desire to document and platform the words of poc who are actually from Los Angeles but the whole thing comes off as very voyeuristic. I felt the same way about The Jakarta Method (which i ended up liking), which is that I felt frustrated that the stories of people who had actually experienced these things were being told by white male writers who then profited off of the books sales. I have no way to find out whether or not their subjects were paid or how these writers spend their money. Which I hate. At the same time, because the publishing industry so rarely platforms writers who aren’t male & white, would these stories get published at all if not for the white male writers in question? Idk
Beyond that I didn’t loooove his writing style in general, not super my vibe.