A well-intended work of advocacy journalism that points to the endless obstacles attendant in helping those in need.
An account of homelessness and precarity as seen through the eyes of a woman and her family.
“Evelyn is really tired of the desert and its people.” Evelyn, a second-generation Salvadoran with a large extended family in the California town of Lancaster, is 29 when we meet her, with five children to take care of and a husband who is steadily descending into joblessness and alcoholism. Evelyn is nothing if not aspirational, and she has her eyes set above all else on living in a place with good schools for her children. The problem, as Hobbs notes, is that for working-class people, living in a place with good schools requires housing far beyond their means. A few aid programs exist, but, Hobbs adds, “the demand and supply within this effective but finite social safety net are increasingly imbalanced, the waiting lists in cities like Los Angeles tens of thousands of names long.” Racism, sexism, and classism complicate poverty—and in Evelyn’s case, so does a failed marriage: when she leaves her husband, taking the children, “they will not have a stable home again for nearly five years.” Hobbs, author of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, follows Evelyn on a journey that finds her able to earn only enough to afford rent and utilities—or food for her family of six—until finally she finds assistance through a charity called Door of Hope, a door that opens only to a lucky few of what Hobbs estimates to be at least 120,000 unsheltered people in Los Angeles County. One reason, Hobbs notes, is that well-heeled neighbors don’t want group homes or section 8 housing next door, not even in progressive California.
A well-intended work of advocacy journalism that points to the endless obstacles attendant in helping those in need.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781668034828
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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