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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
One of the most profoundly disturbing books I have read in a long time. The amount of hatred and war being espoused as Christianity is deeply saddening to me, even though I no longer identify as a member of that faith. This was a hard book to read, to get through, but an important one, nonetheless.
The author is quite brave going into Trump rallies and Trump churches. Mostly it works out because he seems to have a gift of being able to engage with people who are completely at the opposite end of the political (and reality) spectrum from himself without them really realizing. He seems to be able to get them to lower their defenses in many cases so that they reveal what they're really thinking. And what a revelation many of these conversations are.
4.5/5. The best way I can think of to describe this book is this: the author wants you to think of where we are as a country as a painting. Instead of describing what that painting looks like, or trying to explain to us what it means, or even how we should feel about it, the author instead takes us on a journey to try to understand how, when, and why the painting was created- what went into it, how it came to be. He wants you to explore the emotions and motivations that drove the artists (us) to paint it in the way that we did, and he gives us glimpses into the artistic process that could have led us down different paths, might have even left us with a totally different painting. He wants you to carefully consider our collective creation, not only from your own viewpoint but from the others standing around you, who are all looking at (you think) the same thing you are. The big triumph here is that he very successfully demonstrates one of the most fundamental, magical, and confounding parts of art: no one sees and experiences the same piece of art in the same exact same way.
It was a fascinating way to explore a topic I already felt familiar with, and it challenged me to think about the things I thought I knew in a new way. Excellent book. Horrifying, too.
It was a fascinating way to explore a topic I already felt familiar with, and it challenged me to think about the things I thought I knew in a new way. Excellent book. Horrifying, too.
A must read for anyone interested as to how America became so divided
dark
informative
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medium-paced
dark
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
A very enjoyable book, but the book is structured a bit oddly. About 1/3 of the book is essays on musicians, and about 2/3 of the book is on the author's road trip across American interviewing militia members and conspiracy theorists. Both parts of the book are very good, but there's not a lot of connective tissue between the music essays and the militia essays. The music essays at the beginning and end of the book were the high points for me.
Intriguing and well written examination of America today and how the fringe is becoming mainstream, unfortunately.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced