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hilaryreadsbooks's review
4.0
Thank you Catapult for a gifted copy of Ryan Lee Wong’s WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON, out on October 4th, set in K-Town, Los Angeles.
This book is for all of us growing into our activism and how this activism often feels unrooted, unsteady. We feel pain as we look out into the world but do not necessarily understand what to do with this pain. We do not necessarily even understand where all of this pain comes from.
This book is for all of us who are still trying to understand how to “win” when we are dwarfed by the enormity of the systems and people with far more power than we can ever dream of. This is for all of us who are still trying to understand what “winning” is. Who often think that there is a “right” way to get there. Who often think that “winning” only means sacrifice, to strip ourselves of joy and pleasure. Sometimes we do not realize when sacrifice tilts into the performative.
This book is for all of us who harbor guilt. It’s that moment you find yourself caught in the freeing euphoria of a laugh—and pull back because you remember everything that is wrong with the world. How can I laugh when people are dying? How can I play and rest and make money and start a family when there are so many who cannot do the same?
Ryan Lee Wong reminds us in WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON—we exist in a multitude of contradictions. Activism is sacrifice, outrage, protests—but it is also meeting people where they are at. It is meeting yourself where you are at. It is radical rest. It is choice. It is claiming your history. It is being wrong, or uncertain, or scared. It is contemplating the somewhat-impossible task of understanding your mother.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Police brutality and Death
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