Reviews

Kushner is as comfortable writing fiction as she is essays (but I will always prefer her fiction). Reading her collected non-fiction here shows how far-ranging the topics she writes about are from classic cars and motorbikes to Palestine to Italian cinema to prison abolition. Kushner has a gentle but relentless and probing approach into all her subjects. Kushner narrates the audio herself and hearing her distinctive voice through her distinctive voice was a treat.

livbness's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

“And even though I stayed out late, was committed to the end, some part of me had left early. To become a writer is to have left early no matter what time you got home.”

idalh's review against another edition

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3.0

underwhelming.

rainbowspoon1's review against another edition

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4.0

an essayist unlike most; there are countless lives and worlds in this collection. she writes clear and cogently, but never plainly, she tells stories around meaning perfectly, and you will finish an essay and only grasp whatever argument it’s making at the very end, peaking through certain lines. she is intensely wise. the final titular essay is exceptional, and my other favourites were her writings on lispector, the years of led, shuafat and jeff moons.

maevesullivan_'s review against another edition

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4.0

Some very strong essays, though others that didn’t quite catch me - but I think that is expected for a collection of different pieces across different times and places.

skmiles's review against another edition

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3.0

In the genre of a grunge/punk, San Franciscan Joan Didion, but with a very different voice. I found some of these essays moving (especially those about militancy in Italy), but many more hard to follow without the cultural references of 1980s and 90s art, Pop, and film. Perhaps simply not for me.

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