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A review by theconstantreader
No Logo by Naomi Klein
4.0
The tone of voice throughout this book is so conversational that it’s easily accessible and the small personal details make it easy to consume which I think is important when you’re taking on issues as big as these and you want the broadest audience possible to bear witness. All of the examples and stories were highly compelling, just sometimes it felt like there was one too many thrown in for good measure which could make the point feel more laborious than it needed to be.
Nearly twenty years have passed since this book was re-issued with a new introduction and afterword so as I was reading it, I couldn’t help but think - how does all of this apply to the past two decades, what has happened in the meantime? Maybe it’s this feeling that the movement Klein felt was burgeoning hasn’t really come to fruition in any meaningful way in my day-to-day life. That feels disappointing after you read about all these issues from the loss of public space to corporate censorship to unethical labour practices.
What is one to do after reading this book isn’t entirely clear either which is frustrating. Klein tells the story of visiting a US school to talk about the sweat shop conditions overseas when one of the students asks her which shoes she should buy (clearly not Nike) and Klein responds with a non-answer about how she should research for the best options.
Clear steps on how action can be taken in effective ways is something I imagine a lot of readers would have been grateful for but perhaps it’s not that simple. Part of the point of the book is that there isn’t some readily available list you can check to solve theses issues, they are complicated and wide spread. So what then? While it may not deliver an action list, this book serves two shed light on these issues, encourage us to question the society we have had a hand in devising and make more deliberate and well-informed decisions that will shape our tomorrow.
Nearly twenty years have passed since this book was re-issued with a new introduction and afterword so as I was reading it, I couldn’t help but think - how does all of this apply to the past two decades, what has happened in the meantime? Maybe it’s this feeling that the movement Klein felt was burgeoning hasn’t really come to fruition in any meaningful way in my day-to-day life. That feels disappointing after you read about all these issues from the loss of public space to corporate censorship to unethical labour practices.
What is one to do after reading this book isn’t entirely clear either which is frustrating. Klein tells the story of visiting a US school to talk about the sweat shop conditions overseas when one of the students asks her which shoes she should buy (clearly not Nike) and Klein responds with a non-answer about how she should research for the best options.
Clear steps on how action can be taken in effective ways is something I imagine a lot of readers would have been grateful for but perhaps it’s not that simple. Part of the point of the book is that there isn’t some readily available list you can check to solve theses issues, they are complicated and wide spread. So what then? While it may not deliver an action list, this book serves two shed light on these issues, encourage us to question the society we have had a hand in devising and make more deliberate and well-informed decisions that will shape our tomorrow.