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jarcher's review against another edition
2.0
Some of the historical context was interesting but most of this collection of essays was a rehashing of recent horrific history that is likely already familiar to most readers. I also wish there was actionable discussion of solutions to America’s gun problem rather than just urging us to “have a conversation,” whatever that means.
tromatojuice's review against another edition
challenging
informative
sad
fast-paced
4.0
A poignant and clear headed account of gun violence in this country.
My only question would be "where do you see a far left in this country?" That one sentence seemed to be playing both-sidism in a country that has leaned so far right (regardless of the gun issue) that anything short of fascism seems to be radical.
My only question would be "where do you see a far left in this country?" That one sentence seemed to be playing both-sidism in a country that has leaned so far right (regardless of the gun issue) that anything short of fascism seems to be radical.
foofers1622's review against another edition
5.0
Paul gives a very strong case for gun safety laws and uses his own family story as an example.
otterno11's review
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
3.25
In his slim book Bloodbath Nation, renowned novelist Paul Auster writes a blistering essay on gun control and the US obsession with firearms around a collection of stark images of the scenes of various American mass shootings courtesy of photographer Spencer Ostrander. These pictures, striking only in their normality, scenes of everyday American geography where tragedy occurred, serve as a disturbing reminder of Auster’s topic.
Wrestling with the ramifications of US gun culture, our fraught history of racism and genocide, and where our second amendment liberties clash with our desire for freedom from violence, Auster questions how we got here, discussing his family’s personal history with shootings, a history that so many citizens in our country share. While his arguments are strong and his prose affecting, I also feel that he doesn’t really break new ground here, either, and I’m not sure I learned anything new here. The Violence Project by academics Jillian Peterson and James Densley contains more concrete and informative thoughts on ending the epidemic of mass shootings in our society, I feel, but Bloodbath Nation serves as a persuasive editorial on the subject.
I discuss this and other recent books wrestling with the threat of gun violence and right wing terrorism at Harris' Tome Corner, Against Fascism Part Four: Stochastic Terrorism.
Wrestling with the ramifications of US gun culture, our fraught history of racism and genocide, and where our second amendment liberties clash with our desire for freedom from violence, Auster questions how we got here, discussing his family’s personal history with shootings, a history that so many citizens in our country share. While his arguments are strong and his prose affecting, I also feel that he doesn’t really break new ground here, either, and I’m not sure I learned anything new here. The Violence Project by academics Jillian Peterson and James Densley contains more concrete and informative thoughts on ending the epidemic of mass shootings in our society, I feel, but Bloodbath Nation serves as a persuasive editorial on the subject.
I discuss this and other recent books wrestling with the threat of gun violence and right wing terrorism at Harris' Tome Corner, Against Fascism Part Four: Stochastic Terrorism.
jeffrossbooks's review against another edition
5.0
You can feel Auster's passion in these pages. The photographs create another world all their own. Nothing new is being said here. But what else can be said? It feels like speaking out against gun violence and suggesting, hoping for, demanding a change in policy is all that any intelligent person can do.
atadurdy's review
4.0
“To put a gun in everyone’s hand would turn the United States into a country of soldiers and thrust us back to the early colonial days when every citizen was a musket-bearing warrior and did lifetime service in the local militia. Is that what we want from America today—the right to live in a society of permanent armed struggle? If the problem is too many bad men with guns, would it not be wiser to take those guns away from them rather than arm the so-called good men, who in many if not most instances are considerably less than good, and thereby eliminate the problem altogether, for if the bad men had no guns, why would the good men need them?”
kate66's review against another edition
5.0
Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC. I saw the author and bit. This is not one of Auster's wonderful fictions though, this is real life.
In Bloodbath Nation Paul Auster gives us a searing description of the state of the USA and its increasingly baffling reliance on guns. His opinions are well reasoned and based on historical evidence. He's certainly right that attempting to rid the US of all firearms would not work, we only have to look at prohibition or banned books to know that when something is denied it is sought all the more.
However arguments aside the figures are staggering. So many deaths, so many lives ended, ruined, interrupted, wasted. It makes for a sobering read.
It is only made more unnerving by Spencer Ostrander's photographs of the sites of some of the more publicised massacres (or mass shootings if you prefer). There are no bodies but the captions tell their own story - most of these sites are now bulldozed or remain closed since the shooting.
Auster also looks at the perpetrators, explains the history behind the "right to bear arms" and the more recent history that led to the state the US is in now - fractured and hurting.
The question why America and nowhere else is a good one. The answer may be a long time coming as the two sides of pro and anti gun cannot agree on the simplest of conundrums, ie who/what do we blame? The guns or the people who wield them.
I do not know the answer but surely a dialogue should be started between the two sides or (with the installation of another divisive president - whoever they may be) the US's problems will only get worse.
Read it. It may only be an essay but it is concise, well considered and erudite.
In Bloodbath Nation Paul Auster gives us a searing description of the state of the USA and its increasingly baffling reliance on guns. His opinions are well reasoned and based on historical evidence. He's certainly right that attempting to rid the US of all firearms would not work, we only have to look at prohibition or banned books to know that when something is denied it is sought all the more.
However arguments aside the figures are staggering. So many deaths, so many lives ended, ruined, interrupted, wasted. It makes for a sobering read.
It is only made more unnerving by Spencer Ostrander's photographs of the sites of some of the more publicised massacres (or mass shootings if you prefer). There are no bodies but the captions tell their own story - most of these sites are now bulldozed or remain closed since the shooting.
Auster also looks at the perpetrators, explains the history behind the "right to bear arms" and the more recent history that led to the state the US is in now - fractured and hurting.
The question why America and nowhere else is a good one. The answer may be a long time coming as the two sides of pro and anti gun cannot agree on the simplest of conundrums, ie who/what do we blame? The guns or the people who wield them.
I do not know the answer but surely a dialogue should be started between the two sides or (with the installation of another divisive president - whoever they may be) the US's problems will only get worse.
Read it. It may only be an essay but it is concise, well considered and erudite.