I would say that this book delivers exactly what the title advertises, only it does not, in a couple of significant ways that center on the meaning of the word “conversations.”1 Provocations might be a better choice of words. The book is an edited series of interviews with key public intellectuals. The interviewer in each instance is deeply sympathetic with the interviewee, so there are no challenges to the respondents’ answers or assertions. This is not a dialogue. There is no “conversation” in the usual sense of the word, as the questions serve to tee up already well-known and well-understood positions by well-known people. All of the essays that I read (or in some cases sampled or skimmed) were also afflicted with the disease of dense, obfuscating academic jargon. As Helen Lewis (The Atlantic) says, “The point of a public intellectual is to make wild arguments with maximum conviction.” …and in this respect the contributors have exceeded my expectations.

I should be more cautious. I am in every way, to use the antiracist language of the book, coded White. As such, silence would in this instance be the better part of valor. The book as much as says so on p. 33, where a question (a component, surely, of any real conversation), a question by a straw man (actually a woman philosopher), a question by a white interlocutor, functions “to privilege whiteness even as it gives the appearance of something ‘progressive.’” She (the questioner) should see what is needed without having to ask the question. She cannot provide what is needed, so the question exhibits white arrogance. And her white power is instantiated precisely in posing the question. In other words, there is no room for conversation. Any effort to respond to such ignorant questions would rob the respondent of what breath they have left, which is better used to scream. That may well be so, given the sorry state of things. I am very well aware that the feelings of outrage and screams about injustice are well founded and fully justified. Racism and its violent effects are very much with us. Perhaps the most vivid, horrific, recent case in point is what happened to Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker in 2023 (“Goon Squad Officer is Sentenced to 20 Years in Mississippi Torture Cases,” New York Times, March 19, 2024. “If What Happened to George Floyd Angered You, This Should Outrage You,” 

Jemar Tisby, PhD).  In such a context, outrage and screaming are more than justified, and the whirlwind we are reaping, especially as it is playing out in our national politics, will also destroy white people.

…but outrage and screaming are not an invitation to conversation. So, it would be inappropriate for me to continue with a full review. It would be a waste of breath—air that can better be used by others. I cannot add to what has been said. Every additional word from me is, at this point, both superfluous and an additional offense. Silence is what is required of me—except as I might wish to join in the screaming—and I’ve met the word count obligation incurred by the receipt of the free book, so I’ll quit now. I may finish the book in small doses, as I find screaming distressing. Which, come to think of it, is probably the point.

1 This book was received via LibraryThing Early Reviewers (LTER), a program by which publishers provide advance copies of books for review (or, as in this case, recently published copies—the book was released on September 23, 2023. I was notified that I had “won” it on January 26; I finally received and started reading it on March 1). Unfortunately, this book arrived as a .pdf with a large watermark in the center of each page. The watermark was a constant distraction (obscuring the words of 4-5 lines of text under it on each page) and the .pdf format made it impossible to change the font size on my e-reader, except by manually resizing each page, then reducing it to regular size to enable a page turn. I’ll not accept another e-book for review; it is not worth the hassle. LibraryThing does not dictate the content or tone of any reviews, so long as they abide by the Terms of Use publicly posted on the site. This review is my honest opinion.