MixedThe Washington Independent Review of BooksFor many, this excursive narrative will be underwhelming, frustrating, or confusing. Or all three ... Amid the jumble are gems, such as her comparison of covid-19 to David and Goliath ... So, does this all fit together? Yes. The essays are like chapters in a disjointed memoir, but everything is connected, and everyone is related ... Like Borges, Hunt sees the connections between unrelated things and sees everything at once, from all viewpoints. She sees the holes and the connections — holes left by the dead, connections to the living. These connections and holes are the charm and the conundrum of this work. The writing is skillful.
Sally Hayden
PositiveThe Washington Independent Review of BooksHayden differentiates the terms migrant, refugee, and asylum seeker in a helpful terminology section...Along with the terminology note, a map showing the route would be helpful in subsequent editions ... a damning indictment of the EU and UN for their failure to act on behalf of the migrants and, from Hayden’s perspective, for being complicit in their suffering ... Diplomacy is a slow, complex business, but diplomatic efforts are not fully addressed in the book. Instead, Hayden dismisses high-level authorities as insensitive or willfully ignorant, often thwarting well-meaning staff on the ground. She gives little weight to what international organizations can reasonably be expected to accomplish in a failed state ... The focus of the book is the humanitarian crisis, but one also sees what it’s like to be a working journalist ... The evidence she presents in My Fourth Time, We Drowned is overwhelming. The facts argue for a more urgent and humane migrant policy.
