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A review by jadonm
Clutter: An Untidy History by Jennifer Howard
2.0
I'm... not quite sure why this book exists, to be honest. The story is a time-honored one, something that even Howard themselves acknowledges lives in a fairly substantial part of our modern zeitgeist, if shows like Hoarding: Buried Alive and The Lifechanging Magic of Tidying Up are anything to go off of. Moving an aging parent into a home is a very raw nerve to touch on the best of days, one that feels like it needed to be told, and I enjoyed those parts of the story the most.
But the rest of this book feels like something you'd politely sit through during conversation at the dinner table with some far-flung relative on a homecoming tour, regaling you with their various teachings from a life well-lived. It reads like a quick-and-dirty Medium article by someone you've never heard of, something you skim because of the allure of a greater message (which you don't find). It makes some vapid points about Victorianism and how it relates to modern life, but that's about it, really.
That's what this book is. It's vapid. I liked the message, and the topic was interesting, but otherwise? It's nothing more than a soapbox, or a one-sided conversation where only the speaker is interested in the topic at hand. If you're looking for something more informative, the book you seek is in another clutter-filled castle.
But the rest of this book feels like something you'd politely sit through during conversation at the dinner table with some far-flung relative on a homecoming tour, regaling you with their various teachings from a life well-lived. It reads like a quick-and-dirty Medium article by someone you've never heard of, something you skim because of the allure of a greater message (which you don't find). It makes some vapid points about Victorianism and how it relates to modern life, but that's about it, really.
That's what this book is. It's vapid. I liked the message, and the topic was interesting, but otherwise? It's nothing more than a soapbox, or a one-sided conversation where only the speaker is interested in the topic at hand. If you're looking for something more informative, the book you seek is in another clutter-filled castle.