A poetic, insightful examination of human connections and unexpected intimacy.
According to this engaging book, building personal connections takes courage, but it’s worth the effort.
In the 21st century, many of us have forgotten how to forge meaningful relationships with those outside our inner circles. However, while we might be out of practice, we can rediscover how to do it. This is the underlying message of this book, a textured exploration of the myriad forms of human contact. Field, a performance artist based in London, has participated in events that have been surprising, comedic, and poignant, and he has drawn crucial lessons from his experiences. The author’s essays cover a wide range of topics, from the intimacy of a haircut to the collective joy of a dance party to the importance of holding hands. Field believes that humans have a basic need for contact, and the isolation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic was psychologically damaging at both the social and personal levels. With the pandemic waning, it’s the perfect time to reconsider our interactions, renew our relationships, and be open to the wider world. Field also shows how the move away from face-to-face interaction was underway before the pandemic. Though he appreciates the utility of smartphones and Zoom, he is clear that we should not let them take over our lives or replace the nuanced warmth of conversation. Deepening a friendship is something that enriches life, but the other ingredient is being willing to venture into the unknown by connecting with strangers. Field discusses how temporary communities suddenly form, such as when sheltering from a rainstorm or with a spontaneous snowball fight. He also looks at cinema audiences at a horror movie, showing how catharsis, like many things, is better when it’s shared. In fact, the author recommends you give this book to a stranger after reading it—an appropriate conclusion for a quietly inspiring book.
A poetic, insightful examination of human connections and unexpected intimacy.Pub Date: July 18, 2023
ISBN: 9781324036586
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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