natashaboyle

I liked this book a lot when I was younger, but I read it again a few weeks ago, and ... um, I didn't like it. It's too positive and (dare I say it) white. Of course I mean "white" in its most derogatory sense here, not in its broadest sense. So, that's to say, the characters possess an air of entitlement and, for lack of a better word, safety that completely undercuts the affirmativeness the book thinks its advocating. I didn't pick up this aspect of the book when I was younger because identity politics had yet to intervene in my life. And as much as I'm now jaded and suspicious of such politics, let's face it: this book's got these guys hitchhiking through every backwater of the country and moving in and out of different classes and communities without a trace of apprehension. Certainly a pretty picture, but I can't imagine a black or Asian or latino American of the period writing anything remotely similar. To be sure, it's not just this impossibility that grates me about this book -- oh god, let's not reduce it to that. The chalkboard-screech of its overwhelming naivete cuts clear through any politics screaming in my ear.

2022-10-01 00:00