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A review by saareman
Dangerous Memory: Coming of Age in the Decade of Greed by Charlie Angus
5.0
Lovers in Dangerous Times
A review of the House of Anansi paperback (October 29, 2024) released simultaneously with the eBook.
Canadian NDP politician Charlie Angus (1962-) has been the elected member for the Northern Ontario riding of Timmins-James Bay for the past 20 years while living in Cobalt, Ontario. In his youth though he was a member of the punk rock band L'Étranger in Toronto while also working as a dishwasher in restaurants. Inspired by the activism of bands such as England's The Clash, Angus became more socially active and eventually took on projects such as starting his own homeless shelter, newsletters and other campaigns. These were in partnership with his then girlfriend / later & present day wife Brit Griffin.
Dangerous Memory is a memoir that looks back on those formative years in the 1980s. It toggles between episodes of Angus & Griffin's lives in parallel with the world events of those years. There is a great deal of youthful hope and determination expressed in these pages despite the accumulative depressing historical record.
It is likely forgotten now that much of today's ongoing crises such as homelessness, migration, joblessness, globalization, big pharma, big corp / military industrial / corporate greed and manipulation made huge strides in those years. These were the years of Reagan, Thatcher & Mulroney who busted unions and sold out working people for greed via globalization get-rich schemes such as so-called "Free Trade", sending well paying jobs to slave factories overseas. The years of interference in South American politics. The years of the AIDS epidemic. The final years of the Cold War, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Empire in the late 1980s. It all makes for sobering reading.
Although I'm somewhat older than Angus, much of this does resonate with my own youth growing up in Toronto. So this is admittedly a biased 5 star rating.
Soundtrack
As much of this book also tells the story of Charlie Angus and Brit Griffin's early relationship, I couldn't help but think of the Bruce Cockburn song Lovers in a Dangerous Time.
Charlie Angus assembled a Spotify playlist for this book, comprised of songs from the 1980's which you can listen to here.
Trivia and Links
You can read an excerpt from the beginning of the book via the publisher House of Anansi website here.
A review of the House of Anansi paperback (October 29, 2024) released simultaneously with the eBook.
Do not leave the task
of remembering
to the historians
they will do it, it is their job
they will sit in the archives
they will write the books
they will give the lectures
but remembering
is not a task that can be left
to the historians
for you are obligated
to remember as well.
—@plaguepoems, January 27, 2022. Used as the epigraph for "Dangerous Memory."
Canadian NDP politician Charlie Angus (1962-) has been the elected member for the Northern Ontario riding of Timmins-James Bay for the past 20 years while living in Cobalt, Ontario. In his youth though he was a member of the punk rock band L'Étranger in Toronto while also working as a dishwasher in restaurants. Inspired by the activism of bands such as England's The Clash, Angus became more socially active and eventually took on projects such as starting his own homeless shelter, newsletters and other campaigns. These were in partnership with his then girlfriend / later & present day wife Brit Griffin.
Dangerous Memory is a memoir that looks back on those formative years in the 1980s. It toggles between episodes of Angus & Griffin's lives in parallel with the world events of those years. There is a great deal of youthful hope and determination expressed in these pages despite the accumulative depressing historical record.
It is likely forgotten now that much of today's ongoing crises such as homelessness, migration, joblessness, globalization, big pharma, big corp / military industrial / corporate greed and manipulation made huge strides in those years. These were the years of Reagan, Thatcher & Mulroney who busted unions and sold out working people for greed via globalization get-rich schemes such as so-called "Free Trade", sending well paying jobs to slave factories overseas. The years of interference in South American politics. The years of the AIDS epidemic. The final years of the Cold War, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Empire in the late 1980s. It all makes for sobering reading.
Although I'm somewhat older than Angus, much of this does resonate with my own youth growing up in Toronto. So this is admittedly a biased 5 star rating.
Soundtrack
As much of this book also tells the story of Charlie Angus and Brit Griffin's early relationship, I couldn't help but think of the Bruce Cockburn song Lovers in a Dangerous Time.
Charlie Angus assembled a Spotify playlist for this book, comprised of songs from the 1980's which you can listen to here.
Trivia and Links
You can read an excerpt from the beginning of the book via the publisher House of Anansi website here.