PositiveThe Times Literary Supplement (UK)The opening two chapters and the concluding one are the strongest. Here he tells his own story and the insights that attach to it, blending (consciously or not) the voices of his mentors Baldwin and Murray as he reflects both inward and outward. The remaining parts of What It Is, in which he chronicles his interviews with white Trump supporters, are less engaging than the personal insights because Thompson’s shrewd analytical voice is drowned out by the words of his interviewees. Using Didion’s method, he asks them pointed questions about racism and reacts only in asides to the reader. In doing so, he relinquishes the microphone a little too long. Still, What It Is is an engaging and important book, an earnest attempt to analyse our chaotic moment and to project a possible way out of it through dialogue and reflection.
