Source Purchased
Published by Hachette Books on November 5, 2019
Rating:
THIS IS A WITCH HUNT.
WEβRE WITCHES,
AND WEβRE HUNTING YOU.From the moment powerful men started falling to the #MeToo movement, the lamentations began: this is feminism gone too far, this is injustice, this is a witch hunt. In The Witches Are Coming, firebrand author of the New York Times bestselling memoir and now critically acclaimed Hulu TV series Shrill, Lindy West, turns that refrain on its head. You think this is a witch hunt? Fine. Youβve got one.
In a laugh-out-loud, incisive cultural critique, West extolls the world-changing magic of truth, urging readers to reckon with dark lies in the heart of the American mythos, and unpacking the complicated, and sometimes tragic, politics of not being a white man in the twenty-first century. She tracks the misogyny and propaganda hidden (or not so hidden) in the media she and her peers devoured growing up, a buffet of distortions, delusions, prejudice, and outright bullsh*t that has allowed white male mediocrity to maintain a death grip on American culture and politics-and that delivered us to this precarious, disorienting moment in history.
West writes, βWe were just a hairβs breadth from electing Americaβs first female president to succeed Americaβs first black president. We werenβt done, but we were doing it. And then, true to formβlike the Balrogβs whip catching Gandalf by his little gray bootie, like the husband in a Lifetime movie hissing, βIf I canβt have you, no one canββwhite American voters shoved an incompetent, racist con man into the White House.β
We cannot understand how we got here-how the land of the free became Trumpβs Americaβwithout examining the chasm between who we are and who we think we are, without factβchecking the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and each other. The truth can transform us; there is witchcraft in it. Lindy West turns on the light.
This essay collection was so good. For the most part, the essays were engaging, inspiring, infuriating, clever, and really funny. I laughed out loud so much while I was reading this!
Lindy West writes about topics that can make me really frustrated and angry, but she does it here in a way that, rather than making me feel overwhelmed or helpless, makes me feel like someone else understands and can put it into just the right words.
There was nothing particularly challenging in this collection, and it was definitely a lighter read than other non-fiction books Iβve read this year that tackle some of the same subjects. So if you want to read something that talks about the time weβre in and encapsulates some of the rage and frustration you might be feeling, and that can make you laugh about it, you should check this out.