A review by yoominbean
The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson

3.0

After part one, this was somewhat of a letdown. While there were hints at a really interesting discussion about privilege and oppression, it never really got fleshed out. I found the meditations on the meaning of war and the goodness of humanity to be rather uninspired, given the wealth of material to work with and how interesting they could have been. The bleakness was merely bleak rather than interesting - and it could have been so interesting. In the end (and especially after reading the author's note), I wound up mostly feeling uncomfortable that this book (which does not, I might add, pass the Bechdel test) was written in large part as an intellectual exercise by a white man who left a lot of important questions about race and privilege entirely unanswered.