Scan barcode
jenmangler's review
4.0
"All voices can speak, but only few are heard." When I read those words in this book they wouldn't leave my head. I just kept coming back to them. For me, that sentence is the core of this book. If you want to think more deeply and critically about the state of our nation, Kendzior's book is a good place to start.
kcrouth's review against another edition
5.0
"The View from Flyover Country" is a collection of op-eds published by the talented and well informed Sarah Kendzior between 2012 and 2014. She covers a range of topics, describing, explaining, and analyzing many critical issues we face as a nation. Sadly, the issues are as relevant now as they were then, if not more so. The author's keen insight, rich experience, and deep knowledge of the topics shine through in precise and clear essays that cut to the heart of the issue, and then offer meaningful, thoughtful, and knowledgable challenges to solutions. The book is FULL of excellent quotable passages that so accurately encapsulate the issues and solutions. Despite the essays not targeting current events, they are valuable and powerful insight to help us sort through the mess we are in, and shine some hope that together we can work through to solutions. Excellent book!
libvin96's review against another edition
3.0
The View From Flyover Country is a collection of essays composed by Sarah Kendzior in the 2010s. These essays take the reader down a political memory lane as she addresses the Charlie Hebdo attacks, WikiLeaks, the Arab Spring, and the Iraq War among many other major events of the 2000s and 2010s. Kendzior’s pieces are well-argued and articulated. While a lot of her opinions are arguments I was already well-versed in, she contributed something new to me with the pieces on the ails of academia, the disparate nature of adjunct versus tenured professorship, and the many scourges that have befallen secondary education in America. Where I was disappointed was the lack of an overall theme. The collection alleges to cover the voices of “flyover country”, however the essays rarely touch on the lives of individuals in these rural, oft forgotten areas. She occasionally covers her hometown of St. Louis, however the essays largely center Kendzior’s opinions and miss an opportunity to evaluate the forgotten people that the collection claims to represent, outside of St. Louis and very briefly, Detroit. In the post-publication foreword, Kendzior claims the essays will shed some light on the base that vaulted Trump to victory in 2016, however this pathway was sorely lacking. I was expecting and left wanting more coverage of poor areas of the Midwest and Appalachia, the true underbelly of Trump’s win, but the essays never dove in there.
jeffbrimhall's review
Audiobook: Collection of articles she wrote. Interesting. Worth listening to.
codyisreading's review
3.0
3.5/5
Is it possible to enjoy a book and simultaneously be disappointed by it?
I honestly can't remember where I first came across Sarah Kendzior. (Twitter, I think?) Anyway, somehow her name found its way into my orbit and her writing was lauded as insightful, trenchant and necessary. She's often touted as someone who predicted the rise of Trump before Trump himself entered the 2016 election. With praise like that, I felt compelled to check out her collection of essays from 2011-2015, The View from Flyover Country.
Kendzior penned essays on a variety of topics, covering racism, the gender pay gap, media bias, labor exploitation, academia, gentrification and more. Kendzior clearly did a ton of research on each area and can credibly speak to the problems that are not only prevalent today, but had been creeping up on us for the past decade or so.
The biggest problem with this book is that it feels half-finished. Each essay lays out a systemic problem and the culprits behind it, but offers no alternatives and recommends no viable solutions. For the amount of praise heaped on her writing, I expected more. Tell us how we could start tackling these problems. Never mind that it's 2019; in 2011, it's still not enough to point at something and say, "Racism is bad" or "Gentrification is a problem" or "Paying women less is real thing." That's the ultimate conclusion?
Kudos to Kendzior for noting the ignored dissatisfaction that was building in the run-up to the 2016 election but without any actionable advice or spotlighting of resources to combat these problems, the collection feels superficial. It's not enough to be the first person to point out a problem if the only result is people saying, "Good job for being the first." Back-patting isn't going to get us anywhere.
By and large the essays were easy to read and the collection has some worthwhile research, but if you decide to read it set your expectations accordingly. Because if you're like me you'll finish the last essay and ask yourself, now what?
Is it possible to enjoy a book and simultaneously be disappointed by it?
I honestly can't remember where I first came across Sarah Kendzior. (Twitter, I think?) Anyway, somehow her name found its way into my orbit and her writing was lauded as insightful, trenchant and necessary. She's often touted as someone who predicted the rise of Trump before Trump himself entered the 2016 election. With praise like that, I felt compelled to check out her collection of essays from 2011-2015, The View from Flyover Country.
Kendzior penned essays on a variety of topics, covering racism, the gender pay gap, media bias, labor exploitation, academia, gentrification and more. Kendzior clearly did a ton of research on each area and can credibly speak to the problems that are not only prevalent today, but had been creeping up on us for the past decade or so.
The biggest problem with this book is that it feels half-finished. Each essay lays out a systemic problem and the culprits behind it, but offers no alternatives and recommends no viable solutions. For the amount of praise heaped on her writing, I expected more. Tell us how we could start tackling these problems. Never mind that it's 2019; in 2011, it's still not enough to point at something and say, "Racism is bad" or "Gentrification is a problem" or "Paying women less is real thing." That's the ultimate conclusion?
Kudos to Kendzior for noting the ignored dissatisfaction that was building in the run-up to the 2016 election but without any actionable advice or spotlighting of resources to combat these problems, the collection feels superficial. It's not enough to be the first person to point out a problem if the only result is people saying, "Good job for being the first." Back-patting isn't going to get us anywhere.
By and large the essays were easy to read and the collection has some worthwhile research, but if you decide to read it set your expectations accordingly. Because if you're like me you'll finish the last essay and ask yourself, now what?