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richardbakare's reviews
399 reviews
The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
5.0
Viet Thanh won me over with his Pulitzer Prize winning work, “The Sympathizer.” I’ve been greatly anticipating reading this collection of short stories for many reasons. One, it was another work by Viet Thanh, that I knew would be beautifully crafted. Two, short stories are perhaps my favorite format of story telling. To me, they reflect best the way we really know most people. Small vignettes into the lives of others; rarely the complete beginning, middle, and end. Third, the Vietnamese Refugee experience is particularly of interest to me because it is the story of my wife and her family’s journey to America.
It’s Viet Thanh’s writing style that really makes these stories come to life. To write in one’s own voice, perspective, and experience is hard enough. Ask anyone who has ever tried. To be able to do it wonderfully and engagingly is why the reader seeks books. It really speaks to Viet Thanh’s talent that he can write in so many disparate voices, illustrate life from varying perspectives, and take us through a myriad of experiences.
This collection reminds me of Hemingway’s “Bagombo Snuff Box” book of short stories. Like Hemingway, you can see the painstaking attention to detail in every line and in the intentionality of the spaces in-between; everything left unsaid. Even more, Viet Thanh starts and stops at moments in the lives of the characters much like the moments where there is a break in the storm. A brief glimpse of the sky and sun, before the canvass of life is covered again in clouds. He is by far one my favorite contemporary writers.
It’s Viet Thanh’s writing style that really makes these stories come to life. To write in one’s own voice, perspective, and experience is hard enough. Ask anyone who has ever tried. To be able to do it wonderfully and engagingly is why the reader seeks books. It really speaks to Viet Thanh’s talent that he can write in so many disparate voices, illustrate life from varying perspectives, and take us through a myriad of experiences.
This collection reminds me of Hemingway’s “Bagombo Snuff Box” book of short stories. Like Hemingway, you can see the painstaking attention to detail in every line and in the intentionality of the spaces in-between; everything left unsaid. Even more, Viet Thanh starts and stops at moments in the lives of the characters much like the moments where there is a break in the storm. A brief glimpse of the sky and sun, before the canvass of life is covered again in clouds. He is by far one my favorite contemporary writers.
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai
4.0
When I first heard the story of Malala Yousafzai, I was at home surrounded by my all of western creature comforts. I could not believe that for all the struggles in the world, that cowards would try to kill a girl simply seeking to learn. In this memoir though, Malala layers an intricate story that illuminates the delicate balance between tribal history, national customs, superstitions, ignorance, and power plays that lay the foundation for the radicalization of the disenfranchised into extremism. In some ways, if you look around the landscape of America, particularly at our echo chambers where disinformation and conspiracy theories thrive, you can see that we are not so safe from our own flavor of extremism. Even worse, we seem perpetually one election away from a future that more closely resembles The Handmaid’s Tale, than an idealized style of western liberalism.
At every turn Malala shows how danger hovers around all those who pursue education, but at the same time, the promise of how empowering an education can be draws the young girls back to the classroom. Their courage to keep learning is mirrored by the incompetence around them and successive failures of politicians to develop and protect areas like Swat. You can’t help but wonder that if education and opportunity would have been available to all, that the allure and power of militant groups would have seem backward in comparison. In the absence of a stronger and more just government presence, you see how the dream of what Pakistan’s founder wanted for it, is still being fought for on the ground by everyday people like Malala and her father.
I like to say I have had the fortune of being to many parts of the globe that fall into the 2nd and 3rd world category. That travel has made me more appreciative of what I have and disdainful of people complaining about their First world problems. Memoirs like this one and “The New Odyssey” really remind me to be grateful. They also remind us to fight for the just betterment of our little piece of Earth right here. So that opportunity is kept fair and equitable and injustice kept at bay.
At every turn Malala shows how danger hovers around all those who pursue education, but at the same time, the promise of how empowering an education can be draws the young girls back to the classroom. Their courage to keep learning is mirrored by the incompetence around them and successive failures of politicians to develop and protect areas like Swat. You can’t help but wonder that if education and opportunity would have been available to all, that the allure and power of militant groups would have seem backward in comparison. In the absence of a stronger and more just government presence, you see how the dream of what Pakistan’s founder wanted for it, is still being fought for on the ground by everyday people like Malala and her father.
I like to say I have had the fortune of being to many parts of the globe that fall into the 2nd and 3rd world category. That travel has made me more appreciative of what I have and disdainful of people complaining about their First world problems. Memoirs like this one and “The New Odyssey” really remind me to be grateful. They also remind us to fight for the just betterment of our little piece of Earth right here. So that opportunity is kept fair and equitable and injustice kept at bay.
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
4.0
A bold and moving migrant story, detailing the harrowing journey of navigating the grey uncertainty of the American Immigration System. Mbue has crafted an engaging story with compelling plot twists and characters worth caring deeply about.
Mbue expertly navigates between the class and culture collisions that we live with everyday, side-by-side. Issues such as the differences between a life of privilege and that of the working class hustle. Or the dynamic between the freedom to choose one’s own path versus having seemingly no agency at all. Mbue also calls out the melting pot that more accurately sifts people into orderly piles of familiarity, along with the connected and disconnectedness inherent in those separations.
There isn’t an African based novel that I have read that isn’t infused with local proverbs and the important theme of Pride. That theme has left me with one lesson above all which this book reinforces, Pride destroys dreams and lives. This book does a wonderful job of reminding us of this lesson.
Mbue expertly navigates between the class and culture collisions that we live with everyday, side-by-side. Issues such as the differences between a life of privilege and that of the working class hustle. Or the dynamic between the freedom to choose one’s own path versus having seemingly no agency at all. Mbue also calls out the melting pot that more accurately sifts people into orderly piles of familiarity, along with the connected and disconnectedness inherent in those separations.
There isn’t an African based novel that I have read that isn’t infused with local proverbs and the important theme of Pride. That theme has left me with one lesson above all which this book reinforces, Pride destroys dreams and lives. This book does a wonderful job of reminding us of this lesson.
The New Odyssey: The Story of Europe's Refugee Crisis by Patrick Kingsley
5.0
The power of language never ceases to amaze me. How one word can completely pivot the lens in which an entire experience is viewed. Patrick Kingsley wisely highlights this point in The New Odyssey. The word migration speaks of the movement of people from one place to another for any reason. When we want to be more specific we say that we immigrate into a country and when we leave one country we emigrate. When we want to be more specific we call people refugees, economic migrants, expatriates, or similar. What we often fail to do is learn the story behind the journey.
For the broader group of those making the epic trek across land and sea; risking kidnap, rape, torture, arrest, and death, theirs is a story of hope against hope. It is immigration for political reasons that would classify them as Refugees in its truest sense and protect them under many International Accords. Yes, not all migrants are fleeing the collapse of one home to find refuge in another and Kingsely rightly points this out. But he is clear that language again can bring clarity to this dilemma. Unfortunately, the West is failing these people by lumping their stories together and using in some cases a patent label of “illegal” for all of them.
As a member of a family of immigrants these stories are too near to me. The response from Western nations to these people is also too familiar. So quick to forget the history of 1933 and the Jews that were turned back to horror they were fleeing. The solutions are there and the moral responsibility too important to turn away from. Again, language is here to help us as much as it has been used to divide us. This book, which should be mandatory reading, is comprehensively detailed with the all of the context that you do and don’t want to hear about. It does the hard work that keeps us properly informed on a topic so easily summarized into the wrong language in most other media outlets.
For the broader group of those making the epic trek across land and sea; risking kidnap, rape, torture, arrest, and death, theirs is a story of hope against hope. It is immigration for political reasons that would classify them as Refugees in its truest sense and protect them under many International Accords. Yes, not all migrants are fleeing the collapse of one home to find refuge in another and Kingsely rightly points this out. But he is clear that language again can bring clarity to this dilemma. Unfortunately, the West is failing these people by lumping their stories together and using in some cases a patent label of “illegal” for all of them.
As a member of a family of immigrants these stories are too near to me. The response from Western nations to these people is also too familiar. So quick to forget the history of 1933 and the Jews that were turned back to horror they were fleeing. The solutions are there and the moral responsibility too important to turn away from. Again, language is here to help us as much as it has been used to divide us. This book, which should be mandatory reading, is comprehensively detailed with the all of the context that you do and don’t want to hear about. It does the hard work that keeps us properly informed on a topic so easily summarized into the wrong language in most other media outlets.
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
5.0
The ability and desire to relentlessly and honestly, dig deep down to the root cause of a problem, has been an American weakness for a long time. Du Bois, Baldwin, and Coates all arrive precisely on this fact in their respective open letters to America. The idea of American Exceptionalism is so ingrained in everything we do and think; that to question it is paramount to treason.
To ever look into the mirror and see the scars and blemishes of who we are is too much for most. To see in those lines of experience that maybe, just maybe, we are a racist nation. One built on the evil trade of men, stolen land, war, and soulless greed in its rise to power. Even more, the constant belittling and blaming of social ills on every new group that arrives is indoctrinated in its blood. Be they Black, Irish, Chinese, or Mexican, someone else is always the lesser.
If we are ever to be truly Great, we have to look in the mirror and face the root cause of the strife between races here. We have to stop changing and omitting troubling facts from history textbooks, we have to stop saying slavery was long ago while ignoring every instance of institutional racial disparity and suppression that has come after. As Baldwin put it, “The price of the liberation of the white people is the liberation of the blacks—the total liberation, in the cities, in the towns, before the law, and in the mind.”
That’s real freedom, finally facing, accepting and fixing the sins of the past. Letting go of those burdens by acknowledging them and collectively righting them the hard way, will be our arrival at the root cause and cutting away the tumor that has been killing us.
To ever look into the mirror and see the scars and blemishes of who we are is too much for most. To see in those lines of experience that maybe, just maybe, we are a racist nation. One built on the evil trade of men, stolen land, war, and soulless greed in its rise to power. Even more, the constant belittling and blaming of social ills on every new group that arrives is indoctrinated in its blood. Be they Black, Irish, Chinese, or Mexican, someone else is always the lesser.
If we are ever to be truly Great, we have to look in the mirror and face the root cause of the strife between races here. We have to stop changing and omitting troubling facts from history textbooks, we have to stop saying slavery was long ago while ignoring every instance of institutional racial disparity and suppression that has come after. As Baldwin put it, “The price of the liberation of the white people is the liberation of the blacks—the total liberation, in the cities, in the towns, before the law, and in the mind.”
That’s real freedom, finally facing, accepting and fixing the sins of the past. Letting go of those burdens by acknowledging them and collectively righting them the hard way, will be our arrival at the root cause and cutting away the tumor that has been killing us.
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
5.0
The collective political will and support for equal rights put forth by all of America over the centuries, has been half hearted at best. Contrastingly, the racist agenda and its permutations has been a sinister subversion that at many moments, unwittingly had too many Americans in quiet support of it. Ibran X. Kendi does an Encyclopedic level effort of detailing all of the contradictory and missed opportunities in the story of America’s reckoning with racism; from Slavery, to Abolition, to Civil Rights, up to now.
I have long been perplexed at why America will not address the root cause of a problem and fix things once and correctly. Between Isabel Wilkerson’s “Caste” and this book, it is clear that GREED and HATE fuel a self interest towards racist policies. Blinding impediments to America truly becoming a land of the free and equitably prosperous. Kendo’s use of a “Tour Guide” through various periods of history serves as a strong anchoring point through the various turning points in race relations in America. Through this narrative approach you see ultimately that all the facts are there to eradicate racism but the self interest of those in power keeps it in place.
In truth, the Black American experience is their own. It was hoisted upon me and others based simply on skin color. No matter your own unique designs on life, you are forever in a box. Through time, you try and transfigure all of your own qualities and perspectives it into some odd amalgamation of experiences. That very confused state speaks to the innate clumsiness and dehumanization of race discrimination. All context and history is stripped from a person. The “perceived” story is pulled from a file folder bearing the matching label for their skin color. None of these generalizations and marginalization goes away until the self interest of those in power aligns with an antiracist vision.
I have long been perplexed at why America will not address the root cause of a problem and fix things once and correctly. Between Isabel Wilkerson’s “Caste” and this book, it is clear that GREED and HATE fuel a self interest towards racist policies. Blinding impediments to America truly becoming a land of the free and equitably prosperous. Kendo’s use of a “Tour Guide” through various periods of history serves as a strong anchoring point through the various turning points in race relations in America. Through this narrative approach you see ultimately that all the facts are there to eradicate racism but the self interest of those in power keeps it in place.
In truth, the Black American experience is their own. It was hoisted upon me and others based simply on skin color. No matter your own unique designs on life, you are forever in a box. Through time, you try and transfigure all of your own qualities and perspectives it into some odd amalgamation of experiences. That very confused state speaks to the innate clumsiness and dehumanization of race discrimination. All context and history is stripped from a person. The “perceived” story is pulled from a file folder bearing the matching label for their skin color. None of these generalizations and marginalization goes away until the self interest of those in power aligns with an antiracist vision.
The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale
5.0
Police are asked to do too much. Social work, mental and wellness check-ins, immigration enforcement, and much more. Much of that ask comes from a desire to control populations of people rather than improve the human conditions of communities. Vitals does an excellent job of unpacking the history of policing and how we have come to default to them as the cure all for every social ill.
When all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail. When that comes to the police, everyone is a bad actor and excessive & lethal force get used in situations that could be more easily handled by non-police agencies. School resources officers criminalizing bad behavior amongst kids. Mental illness and homelessness being handled with heavy handed force versus trained social work. Drug enforcement that never results in any real end to the war on drugs.
The reliance on police to solve broader social issues results in us neglecting the true causes of these problems to begin with. As a reminder Aristotle defined causes as either Efficient (natural), Formal (momentary, explainable), Final (root). When you really want to fix something we need to fix the Final (root) cause of the problem. Vitale demonstrates through concrete examples how doing just that is often financially effective and more humane than police intervention.
These real solutions require us to face the bitter human realities of inequality that have plagued the US for so long. That is step one before any police reform can take place. Vitale has done an excellent job pulling in real workable solutions with deep citations and follow up recommended reading for those ready to see change. Most importantly, the book provides all of the factual arguments and data needed to start to have conversations with those who think that the thin blue line is the only way.
When all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail. When that comes to the police, everyone is a bad actor and excessive & lethal force get used in situations that could be more easily handled by non-police agencies. School resources officers criminalizing bad behavior amongst kids. Mental illness and homelessness being handled with heavy handed force versus trained social work. Drug enforcement that never results in any real end to the war on drugs.
The reliance on police to solve broader social issues results in us neglecting the true causes of these problems to begin with. As a reminder Aristotle defined causes as either Efficient (natural), Formal (momentary, explainable), Final (root). When you really want to fix something we need to fix the Final (root) cause of the problem. Vitale demonstrates through concrete examples how doing just that is often financially effective and more humane than police intervention.
These real solutions require us to face the bitter human realities of inequality that have plagued the US for so long. That is step one before any police reform can take place. Vitale has done an excellent job pulling in real workable solutions with deep citations and follow up recommended reading for those ready to see change. Most importantly, the book provides all of the factual arguments and data needed to start to have conversations with those who think that the thin blue line is the only way.