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A review by reader_fictions
Radical Hope: Letters of Love and Dissent in Dangerous Times by Parnaz Foroutan, Meredith Russo, Francisco Goldman, Cherríe Moraga, Elmaz Abinader, Lisa See, Roxana Robinson, Karen Joy Fowler, Kate Schatz, Jeff Chang, Achy Obejas, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Jewelle L. Gómez, Aliciz Garza, Caro De Robertis, Hari Kunzru, Mona Eltahawy, Faith Adiele, iO Tillett Wright, Reyna Grande, Jane Smiley, Boris Fishman, Katie Kitamura, Cristina García, Claire Messud, Peter Orner, Luis Alberto Urrea, Junot Díaz, Chip Livingston, Mohja Kahf, Aya de León, Celeste Ng
3.0
I’ve been trying to diversify some of my reading, so I’ve been listening to a fair amount of nonfiction audiobooks lately. With a good narrator, it can make nonfic a lot more enjoyable for me than it can be in print. Radical Hope proved much more broad of scope than I anticipated in a really good way.
Going into this, I was worried that the message and commentary would be repetitive, since obviously this collection was set up to react to the presidential election. Actually, though, the authors come at the topic from a whole lot of different angles, and there’s a fair amount of international focus. It’s not just about the US or just about Trump, so there was a surprising amount of variety.
I especially loved the letter concept. I hadn’t been sold on it initially, but that really does help the authors come at the basic prompt from a number of different lenses and in varying ways, because they’re talking to such disparate audiences. In many cases, this also makes the letters much more heartfelt, personal, and impactful. Ojo and Griffith are both great narrators, but I would have preferred if the authors had been able to narrate their own letters. Two voices for so many isn’t quite as effective, no matter how talented those voices.
The stories are often hard to take, obviously, and it’s not something that I can say I necessarily enjoyed reading even though it was all very well done. It’s a solid and important collection, but in no way a fun read, because it’s not meant to be.
Going into this, I was worried that the message and commentary would be repetitive, since obviously this collection was set up to react to the presidential election. Actually, though, the authors come at the topic from a whole lot of different angles, and there’s a fair amount of international focus. It’s not just about the US or just about Trump, so there was a surprising amount of variety.
I especially loved the letter concept. I hadn’t been sold on it initially, but that really does help the authors come at the basic prompt from a number of different lenses and in varying ways, because they’re talking to such disparate audiences. In many cases, this also makes the letters much more heartfelt, personal, and impactful. Ojo and Griffith are both great narrators, but I would have preferred if the authors had been able to narrate their own letters. Two voices for so many isn’t quite as effective, no matter how talented those voices.
The stories are often hard to take, obviously, and it’s not something that I can say I necessarily enjoyed reading even though it was all very well done. It’s a solid and important collection, but in no way a fun read, because it’s not meant to be.