A review by reading_to_write
The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War by Jeff Sharlet

challenging emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

Second time reading this book in a year, in large part because I read it so quickly the first time (I was very engaged). Many might find this moody or dark/ heavy, but I found it to be entirely true, like a through-the-looking glass cross-country trip through the wonky wide right turn that’s (seemingly) unfolded over the last few years among the religious right and those more recently recruited (but in fact started long ago…).

And while this starts off in religion, it by no means stays there, ultimately becoming a treatise on “if (when?) we fall” and what hope there may remain, a ribbon of hope that starts unfurling in the last section as  one big metaphor.  

Speaking of metaphor: both times I read this I felt like the book started out at normal pace, slowed down as it got more granular (in The Undertow section) and then sped up  quickly at the end- enough so that I’m convinced this was a craft decision by the author.