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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Viren is making sense of what is, in many ways, a messy, tangled couple of stories, both dealing with truth, responsibility, education and deception. Memory and perception loom large here, too, along with the nature of memoir, justice and reality.
The stories sit with dissonance together, proving to have less in common than the first appear. In the first/earliest thread, Viren interrogates her experiences with a charismatic, manipulative high school teacher who introduced his class to holocaust denialism, pro-slavery arguments and various alt-right conspiracy theories. In interviewing a vast array of her schoolmates and teachers, Viren explores the different ways they experienced and remembered him, as well as the various ways the teachers and students responded. She acknwledges space for different understandings of his beliefs, and varied influences. In the second, she details the horrendously stressful experience she underwent in writing the book, when a jealous colleague faked sexual harrassment allegations against her spouse in an attempt to steal a job offer from her. Here, there is a little ambiguity: the fakery is ludicrously amatuer and there is zero room for doubt about villians and events.
This disjuncture weakens the attempt to draw the story into a mediation on the nature of truth. While ambiguity abounds in the first thread and the number of questions piles up, (from the difference between facts and truth, to the moral responsibilities of teachers, to whether we need to acknolowledge collectively agreed truths or buck them) the the second thread's tension comes from a cat and mouse chase. The clarity of facts and truth in the second thread grinds discordantly against the questions of reality and truth. This may be intentional, but more often it feels forced together.
For me, there were also really troubling issues raised about the inaction of educators in the first thread - where space is given to differing views on what was justified - while the temper in the second half is frustration with the robust process, which comes to a clear conclusion, but still leaves consequences for the victims. The perpetrator escapes consequence here, but that descends like the furies once Vires decides to publish - also raising uncomfortable questions about justice, shame and space to atone. All this highlights how the perspective in the first thread moves around, while the second is clearly Viren's story.
All the discordance becomes acute in the last third of the book, in which Viren uses a forshadowed second person to cover the crucial interactions now-her has with the teacher. This section simply doesn't work, feeling more avoidant than enlightening, and jarring rather than evolving in style.
The book is highly succesful, however, in raising real questions. Viren's intrusion of her "now self" complicates the story of her "past self", providing an intriguing commentary on the nature of memoir (which includes some great Woolf quotes). Wrestling with flawed memories raises real issues about the role of evidence over conclusion, a theme I wished had been more drawn out in regard to the teacher (a cursory look at Theory of Knowledge course today indicates that the issue of how to assess evidence looms larger than the nature of reality). (some fantastic Arendt quotes here).
I liked the mess in the end. I think I would have liked the book more if it had leaned into the inherent chaos, and less into trying to weave a coherent narrative about modern America.
The stories sit with dissonance together, proving to have less in common than the first appear. In the first/earliest thread, Viren interrogates her experiences with a charismatic, manipulative high school teacher who introduced his class to holocaust denialism, pro-slavery arguments and various alt-right conspiracy theories. In interviewing a vast array of her schoolmates and teachers, Viren explores the different ways they experienced and remembered him, as well as the various ways the teachers and students responded. She acknwledges space for different understandings of his beliefs, and varied influences. In the second, she details the horrendously stressful experience she underwent in writing the book, when a jealous colleague faked sexual harrassment allegations against her spouse in an attempt to steal a job offer from her. Here, there is a little ambiguity: the fakery is ludicrously amatuer and there is zero room for doubt about villians and events.
This disjuncture weakens the attempt to draw the story into a mediation on the nature of truth. While ambiguity abounds in the first thread and the number of questions piles up, (from the difference between facts and truth, to the moral responsibilities of teachers, to whether we need to acknolowledge collectively agreed truths or buck them) the the second thread's tension comes from a cat and mouse chase. The clarity of facts and truth in the second thread grinds discordantly against the questions of reality and truth. This may be intentional, but more often it feels forced together.
For me, there were also really troubling issues raised about the inaction of educators in the first thread - where space is given to differing views on what was justified - while the temper in the second half is frustration with the robust process, which comes to a clear conclusion, but still leaves consequences for the victims. The perpetrator escapes consequence here, but that descends like the furies once Vires decides to publish - also raising uncomfortable questions about justice, shame and space to atone. All this highlights how the perspective in the first thread moves around, while the second is clearly Viren's story.
All the discordance becomes acute in the last third of the book, in which Viren uses a forshadowed second person to cover the crucial interactions now-her has with the teacher. This section simply doesn't work, feeling more avoidant than enlightening, and jarring rather than evolving in style.
The book is highly succesful, however, in raising real questions. Viren's intrusion of her "now self" complicates the story of her "past self", providing an intriguing commentary on the nature of memoir (which includes some great Woolf quotes). Wrestling with flawed memories raises real issues about the role of evidence over conclusion, a theme I wished had been more drawn out in regard to the teacher (a cursory look at Theory of Knowledge course today indicates that the issue of how to assess evidence looms larger than the nature of reality). (some fantastic Arendt quotes here).
I liked the mess in the end. I think I would have liked the book more if it had leaned into the inherent chaos, and less into trying to weave a coherent narrative about modern America.
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
I really liked this book until the last bit, which seems to be a common review.
reflective
slow-paced
I mostly kept reading this book to figure out what the two lies/stories were, but there was little to no pay off for me. This book would've been better as an essay. I think the author tried to do to much and also not enough at the same time. It felt very much like a good idea without great execution or even a strong reason to exist. The writing is fine but it can't carry the book.
reflective
medium-paced
I would go for 4.5 stars, but I'll round up :) What a wonderful book! Sarah Viren spins together two autobiographical stories - her revered High School philosophy teacher's who started peddling conspiracy theories, and her wifes's, who was falsely accused of sexual misconduct by someone pretending to be her students, eventually even impersonating other professors. She writes very passionately about questions that in the last 7 years have touched many of our lives as well; how do I know the truth? Is there such a thing as a collectively shared, absolute truth? How does one deal with the feeling of cognitive dissonance, when the evidence for one theory is presented so compellingly, even when we know (think? hope?) it to be false.
Sarah examines these questions carefully following her own life story, her passion for philosophy and (in my opinion) a great aptitude for investigative reporting, when she pieces together who hides behind fake students' names to discredit her wife. It's a thrilling and fascinating book which touches upon many great thinkers' ideas about truth and reality without feeling clunky or overly academic and I couldn't wait to learn who the fake accuser was, whether he apologized, and what the former High School teacher's explanation was for his teaching methods.
It's an excellent book but I will mention that in the last part - during Sarah's writing retreat that wasn't a retreat - I didn't quite enjoy her long descriptions of daydreams, where she lets her former teacher meet Plato in a bar, or makes her wife and her accuser join her as actors in a theater play taking place in the waiting room for hell. They were often confusing, long and convoluted, and at least I failed to deduce what the author wanted to achieve by including these. Overall, however, a really great book that I will definitely re-read in the future and recommend to others!
Sarah examines these questions carefully following her own life story, her passion for philosophy and (in my opinion) a great aptitude for investigative reporting, when she pieces together who hides behind fake students' names to discredit her wife. It's a thrilling and fascinating book which touches upon many great thinkers' ideas about truth and reality without feeling clunky or overly academic and I couldn't wait to learn who the fake accuser was, whether he apologized, and what the former High School teacher's explanation was for his teaching methods.
It's an excellent book but I will mention that in the last part - during Sarah's writing retreat that wasn't a retreat - I didn't quite enjoy her long descriptions of daydreams, where she lets her former teacher meet Plato in a bar, or makes her wife and her accuser join her as actors in a theater play taking place in the waiting room for hell. They were often confusing, long and convoluted, and at least I failed to deduce what the author wanted to achieve by including these. Overall, however, a really great book that I will definitely re-read in the future and recommend to others!