A review by booktrotting
Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey

3.0

I really liked the concluding chapters of this so I've lightened up on the issues I had with this, which were definitely more structure than content. As much as I appreciate McGarvey clarifying at the start that it was going to be more like a bunch of rants than a cohesive text, it still bothered me, so I guess that's really on me. Typically, a chapter starts with an anecdote, turns into a bit of political commentary and analysis, and then just as it feels like it's coming to its most salient, meaty point, stops abruptly, and moves on to his next chapter. I was interested in the idea of taking responsibility for ones own actions being an important, radical form of self-empowerment, but at moments it felt like it was flirting with a sort of Jordan Peterson-y worldview. It also wasn't clear how exactly he went about this radical self-improvement - perhaps that's for another book.

The one thing I take particular issue with is McGarvey's failure to properly understand the meaning of the word 'intersectionality', conflating it with terms like 'identity politics' and 'callout culture' - whilst sure, these terms have a lot of overlap in popular usage, they don't mean the same thing. I think McGarvey's point - that class as a factor in social segregation is a factor we've neglected in recent years - is somewhat undermined by his reinforcement of harmful misinterpretations of what the word 'intersectionality' should mean.

Overall, lots of really important and pertinent discussion going on in this book, definitely a worthwhile read (or listen).