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kaceychilvers's review
4.0
An interesting read on the thoughts of writers, poets and artists after the news of the 2016 election results. Radical Hope is a collection of letters by parents, grandparents, godparents, neighbors, strangers etc. to children, colleagues, adults, strangers, people who have yet to be born etc.
The best and worst strength of Radical Hope is the diversity of the writers and their stories. There are letters that you will enjoy more than others and letters that are more impactful than others. The overall quality and message make this well worth the read.
The best and worst strength of Radical Hope is the diversity of the writers and their stories. There are letters that you will enjoy more than others and letters that are more impactful than others. The overall quality and message make this well worth the read.
kklemaster's review
4.0
Forever keeping this in my office. A book full of love, hope, and a call to action - read this if you need a reminder that people can still fight to be good and true. (junot diaz and celeste ng's letters are perfect, as usual)
shelfiegen's review
4.0
The letters that impacted me most on this first read through included:
Carolina De Robertis
Alicia Garza
Jewell Gomez
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Jane Smiley
Luis Alberto Urrea
Celeste Ng
Carolina De Robertis
Alicia Garza
Jewell Gomez
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Jane Smiley
Luis Alberto Urrea
Celeste Ng
mollyculhane's review
4.0
The introduction frames this book well: while many valuable books have addressed the challenges and opportunities of the Trump era as “soloists,” this one addresses it as an “orchestra.” Both forms have their place, and I can certainly see how Radical Hope works as an orchestra—each author writes beautifully and compellingly, weaving together common themes, referencing one another’s stories and ideas. The format of the epistolary essay does not feel gimmicky, and instead focuses the reader’s attention on why justice, hope, and human rights matter so much right now. Together, the essays in this book make an argument about what America is and ought to be, how we got to where we are, and where and how we can go from here. Radical Hope gets the job done as an orchestra.
But the music metaphor that de Robertis presents in the introduction, and the essays that followed, reminded me of another (I think better) way to look at this book—and at the meaning of our era more broadly. In her seminal Black Feminist essay, “’What Has Happened Here’: The Politics of Difference in Women’s History and Feminist Politics,” Elsa Barkley Brown introduces the framework of “gumbo ya ya,” “a creole term that means ‘Everybody talks at once,’” to talk about history in a way that respects intersectionality and accounts for complexity. Brown explains how gumbo ya ya (and the jazz music it influenced) produces more rigorous, more truthful, and more grassroots-oriented history than the “classical music” model that so many historians unknowingly favor, with its insistence on “surrounding silence.” Radical Hope makes a fine orchestra, but an excellent jazz band. Much of what is good about this book is its diversity of voices, genres, moods, purposes. The authors frequently contradict one another, presenting priorities and worldviews that are sometimes at odds. For an orchestra, and certainly for a soloist, this dissonance might be a flaw—but here, it is a great strength. I think Radical Hope is worth a read, both for the lovely writing and thought-provoking ideas the authors present and for the vital democratic impulse from which it emerged.
But the music metaphor that de Robertis presents in the introduction, and the essays that followed, reminded me of another (I think better) way to look at this book—and at the meaning of our era more broadly. In her seminal Black Feminist essay, “’What Has Happened Here’: The Politics of Difference in Women’s History and Feminist Politics,” Elsa Barkley Brown introduces the framework of “gumbo ya ya,” “a creole term that means ‘Everybody talks at once,’” to talk about history in a way that respects intersectionality and accounts for complexity. Brown explains how gumbo ya ya (and the jazz music it influenced) produces more rigorous, more truthful, and more grassroots-oriented history than the “classical music” model that so many historians unknowingly favor, with its insistence on “surrounding silence.” Radical Hope makes a fine orchestra, but an excellent jazz band. Much of what is good about this book is its diversity of voices, genres, moods, purposes. The authors frequently contradict one another, presenting priorities and worldviews that are sometimes at odds. For an orchestra, and certainly for a soloist, this dissonance might be a flaw—but here, it is a great strength. I think Radical Hope is worth a read, both for the lovely writing and thought-provoking ideas the authors present and for the vital democratic impulse from which it emerged.
kp_writ's review against another edition
Picked this book because I want to learn to fuel my rage into hope, as the title suggests. I figured the thoughts of folks post Trump election would still resonate in a lit of ways today, and they partly do. Byt a bigger part of me feels like so many of these words are so Trump-centric it makes it hard to look at now, because that was such a bad time for all of us, but also because it feels a bit... reactive? Obviously the book is reacting to the election, but the grief one feels after an election is usually fairly acute - gets normalized pretty quickly - and I'm looking for the kind of radical hope that is sustainable, not spurred by desperation post-election. Maybe it gets there eventually, but there's only so many times I can read the same sentiments.
alyssagh's review
3.0
A collection of essays from well-known authors about their thoughts on American immediately following the orange cheeto's election. At times it's overly didactic, but it's still worth the read.