An earnest but rather lightweight critique of contemporary capitalism.
Personal-finance writer Scott seeks to remake a broken capitalist system in his latest work.
The author writes that he knows a lot about how the economy works, but he hasn’t been able to turn that knowledge into riches—and he notes that it’s easy, under such circumstances, to wonder if the system is operating correctly. “In a world that has…so much knowledge stockpiled in libraries, the internet and book stores,” asks Scott in his introduction, “how come everyone I know, including myself, are usually thrust into a life of constant struggle and strife?” To answer this question, the author delves into the ways that capitalism actually functions: how we all participate in it, benefit from it, and are victimized by it. He discusses how changes in corporate culture and shortsighted consumption habits have contributed to creating a society of haves and have-nots. Scott then explores some alternative economic systems while also suggesting changes that might make capitalism more equitable and sustainable; he calls this hypothetical reboot “Tempered Capitalism.” Overall, Scott’s prose is conversational and easy to follow, as when he discusses the advantages of life in a growing community of people who live in vans: “The sense of freedom, self-efficacy and sovereignty that they experience is worth any of the hardships they encounter. Imagine that. We live in a country that is considered ‘free’, yet people are starving for the actual experience of freedom.” However, the book is very brief considering the weightiness of its subject—less than 100 pages—and relies heavily on the ideas of others, including systems scientist Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade (1987). The solutions that Scott comes to are also fairly long-term and difficult to enact, to say the least—one of them, for instance, is the establishment of a united world government. Readers will likely agree with much of what the author says about the inequalities of the current global economic system, but his ideas aren’t much more specific or original than one might hear in a gathering of college students.
An earnest but rather lightweight critique of contemporary capitalism.Pub Date: June 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-9991137-4-2
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Perisco
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Sometimes funny, sometimes silly, sometimes quite sad—i.e., an accurate portrait of life in one's 50s.
The further adventures of Candace and her man-eating friends.
Bushnell (Killing Monica, 2015, etc.) has been mining the vein of gold she hit with Sex and the City (1996) in both adult and YA novels. The current volume, billed as fiction but calling its heroine Candace rather than Carrie, is a collection of commentaries and recounted hijinks (and lojinks) close in spirit to the original. The author tries Tinder on assignment for a magazine, explores "cubbing" (dating men in their 20s who prefer older women), investigates the "Mona Lisa" treatment (a laser makeover for the vagina), and documents the ravages of Middle Aged Madness (MAM, the female version of the midlife crisis) on her clique of friends, a couple of whom come to blows at a spa retreat. One of the problems of living in Madison World, as she calls her neighborhood in the city, is trying to stay out of the clutches of a group of Russians who are dead-set on selling her skin cream that costs $15,000. Another is that one inevitably becomes a schlepper, carrying one's entire life around in "handbags the size of burlap sacks and worn department store shopping bags and plastic grocery sacks....Your back ached and your feet hurt, but you just kept on schlepping, hoping for the day when something magical would happen and you wouldn't have to schlep no more." She finds some of that magic by living part-time in a country place she calls the Village (clearly the Hamptons), where several of her old group have retreated. There, in addition to cubs, they find SAPs, Senior Age Players, who are potential candidates for MNB, My New Boyfriend. Will Candace get one?
Sometimes funny, sometimes silly, sometimes quite sad—i.e., an accurate portrait of life in one's 50s.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8021-4726-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Grove
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Provides a human face, both beautiful and scarred, for the undocumented—a must-read.
2003 Pulitzer Prize–winning author Nazario’s critically acclaimed book Enrique’s Journey, a heart-wrenching account of one young man’s journey to migrate illegally from Honduras to the United States to find the mother who left when he was 5, has been newly adapted for young people.
Nazario’s vividly descriptive narrative recreates the trek that teenage Enrique made from Honduras through Mexico on the tops of freight trains. This adaptation does not gloss over or omit the harrowing dangers—beatings, rape, maiming and murder—faced by migrants coming north from Central America. The material is updated to present current statistics about immigration, legal and illegal, and also addresses recent changes in the economic and political climates of the U.S., Mexico and Honduras, including the increased danger of gang violence related to drug trafficking in Mexico. The book will likely inspire reflection, discussion and debate about illegal immigration among its intended audience. But the facts and figures never overwhelm the human story. The epilogue allows readers who are moved by Enrique to follow the family’s tragedies and triumphs since the book’s original publication; the journey does not end upon reaching the United States.
Provides a human face, both beautiful and scarred, for the undocumented—a must-read. (epilogue, afterword, notes) (Nonfiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0385743273
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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