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ronsos 's review for:
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right
by Arlie Russell Hochschild
This book is primarily an effort to tell the stories of a handful of Louisianans that the author met, interviewed, and in many cases, befriended. It does very well in telling those stories. The book also has a theory to tie together the common elements of how this group saw the world, a "deep story" in the author's words. There are a number of elements to the deep story, but the most prominent is the representation of prosperity as a line, and the resentments that some feel due to line-jumping (whether real or perceived - perception is reality). The theories that ties these stories together (much deeper than my one sentence description) fit the stories really well, and are the best part of the book.
What didn't I like? Two things:
1. The author seems to be writing for an assumed audience of liberals, thus takes some liberties that while might make the writing easier, they also might turn off some readers.
2. For the first 2/3rds of the book, the common thread is environmental activism. That wasn't in any of the material that got me interested in the book. It isn't in the description on this Goodreads page, or just barely. It isn't how people are talking about the book. I found myself having to wade through a lot of material on the environment to get to the part I'd been promised in the later part of the book. The environment gets discussed at length in most or all of the interviews chronicled in the book. I think people should know that up front.
What didn't I like? Two things:
1. The author seems to be writing for an assumed audience of liberals, thus takes some liberties that while might make the writing easier, they also might turn off some readers.
2. For the first 2/3rds of the book, the common thread is environmental activism. That wasn't in any of the material that got me interested in the book. It isn't in the description on this Goodreads page, or just barely. It isn't how people are talking about the book. I found myself having to wade through a lot of material on the environment to get to the part I'd been promised in the later part of the book. The environment gets discussed at length in most or all of the interviews chronicled in the book. I think people should know that up front.