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rray_ 's review for:
Everything's Fine
by Cecilia Rabess
So, I read this book strictly to see if it's as problematic as people say it is.
Reviewing this one is complicated. Not because of well, racism is complicated (it's not, you're either anti-Black, or not) but because...there's other issues going on aside from that. We're talking quality writing issues.
This book is trying so bad to be Little Fires Everywhere or Go Ask Alice. It ends up being quite a borefest, with most personal interactions reading like Political Twitter. That's tiring - to the point where after reading, I just want to go home, if not for already being home.
As for the racism - first of all, I am not Black. I cannot judge on racism as if I were. I don't have those same experiences. But I can say there are a lot of characters with prevailing attitudes that are systematically racist, and these characters staunchly defend these attitudes as being necessarily systematic. And they're not necessarily corrected.
I'll also add that it does try to show Jess entering into something of a high socio-economic, conservative hell, but I don't think the typical high-literary expectation of quiet subtlety does any favors. The last scene in particular can validly be interpreted as the gates of this hell closing in in Jess once and for all, but the irony of this final scene is lost compared to the absolute slog necessary to get there.
Reviewing this one is complicated. Not because of well, racism is complicated (it's not, you're either anti-Black, or not) but because...there's other issues going on aside from that. We're talking quality writing issues.
This book is trying so bad to be Little Fires Everywhere or Go Ask Alice. It ends up being quite a borefest, with most personal interactions reading like Political Twitter. That's tiring - to the point where after reading, I just want to go home, if not for already being home.
As for the racism - first of all, I am not Black. I cannot judge on racism as if I were. I don't have those same experiences. But I can say there are a lot of characters with prevailing attitudes that are systematically racist, and these characters staunchly defend these attitudes as being necessarily systematic. And they're not necessarily corrected.
I'll also add that it does try to show Jess entering into something of a high socio-economic, conservative hell, but I don't think the typical high-literary expectation of quiet subtlety does any favors. The last scene in particular can validly be interpreted as the gates of this hell closing in in Jess once and for all, but the irony of this final scene is lost compared to the absolute slog necessary to get there.