Reviews and Comments

Really well-done survey of how modern life is characterized by insecurity and how the disappearance of the commons and the decline of the social safety net encourages us to fall back on working harder and harder to accumulate personal security rather than rely on solidarity.

Originally given as a series of lectures available here: www.cbc.ca/radiointeractives/ideas/2023-cbc-massey-lectures-astra-taylor

I'm about a third of the way in and just not really getting anything out of it.

I took forever to read the first half of the book, then put my head down and read the rest inside a week and loved it!

Really good as a journalistic account of the major protests of the 2010s, combining historical background with chronologies of the protests and lots of interviews with those involved. Significantly skewed towards Brazil, where the author lived for a number of years. Somewhat weaker on analysis, besides the impression that leaderless horizontalism can lead to a protest 'succeeding', but then just opening up space for someone more organized (and, often, more right-wing and/or authoritarian) to sweep in. Apparently I need to read Rodrigo Nunes next :)

Slow, gentle, and, ultimately, quite beautiful examination of how a couple have adjusted to the restrictions of their lives/life, some of outside origin but most seemingly self-imposed.

Funny coincidence: I finished the book last night, and then this morning was listening to Richard Seymour being interviewed on PTO, in which he described his own book as 'incredibly bleak'. While I think this characterization is true, I'm not sure it needed to be. The first couple of chapters are an interesting examination of the current political position, especially through the characters of Duterte, Modi, Bolsanaro, Orban, and, of course, Trump, while the last 'proper' chapter is a remarkably sober explanation of Israeli/Palestinian history and politics. In between, though, I felt like I was wading through a morass of incels, lone wolf shooters, and worse. Much, much worse. I'd definitely re-read the bracketing chapters for the analysis, but I'd skip the utter grimness in between :(

Just a stunning account of the so-called Oka Crisis of 1990, told in the form of a dialogue between a settler academic, Sean Carleton, and Katsi'tsakwas Ellen Gabriel, one of the chief spokespeople in the negotiations with the state, first with the SQ and then, ultimately, the Canadian army. The description of the standoff leads into a wider discussion including Gabriel's work with Quebec Native Women, and then more recent environmental actions such as that involving the Wet'suwet'en.

I came here off the back of that CBS interview, but was surprised to see how the book went. It's really three quite separate essays, held together by a common theme of the stories we tell ourselves, and how important writing and story telling are. The third essay has obviously attracted the most attention and, while it's definitely thought-provoking, I think it really suffers from being too short -- perhaps it should have been a book on its own? One of the principal points of the essay is that we really need more Palestinian voices in the media. The stories we're told matter as they construct our reality.

Interesting set of essays on the relationship between Canada and Palestine, both in terms of foreign policy but also the experience of Palestinian-Canadians. Particularly liked the chapter on the different Palestinian organizations in Ottawa.

Bit of a kitchen sink feeling to this, as it covers in (sometimes excruciating) detail the history of Dracula, first the novel and then the various stage and film adaptations. Some interesting highlights, such as a description of where the title of 'Nosferatu' came from, but too much of the book felt like it was bogged down in the back and forth of negotiations over stage and film rights.