PositivePop Matters... a deliberate reaction to current politics. Although there are obvious nods to the rise of the New Right that helped inspire the original tale in the 1980s, this is a novel of and for the Trump era ... The enormous popularity of the show and the ubiquity of the costume could derail the originality of a literary sequel, but Atwood has deftly avoided this pitfall ... Aunt Lydia\'s backstory and ongoing political machinations, even in her dotage as the old-school doyenne of Gilead in its dying days, are the key to the brilliance of this novel. Aunt Lydia drives the plot by bringing the loose ends and significant characters together, and her chapters are chilling, cunning, and razor sharp.
Jami Attenberg
PositivePopMattersWhile readers take a detailed tour through the Tuchmans\' post-traumatic stress responses, some of the most intimate moments feature fleeting strangers...These peaks into the thoughts of strangers mostly serve to underscore the theme of the family\'s isolation, as others attempts at communication with them fail time and again. A few of these glimpses into their lives don\'t quite work, and they are uneven in length and depth ... The reader is left hoping that the third generation of Tuchmans has escaped the traumas of toxic patriarchy within their family. By extension, if our society decides to reckon with the power of \'bad men\', perhaps we can escape the cycle, as well.
Jess Row
PositivePopMatters... a complex, personal meditation on whiteness ... Row subjects himself to interrogation, as well...This autoethnographic approach adds several dimensions to Row\'s concept of \'white flights\' ... is, at times, a bit self-indulgent, particularly in the final entry, \'White Out\', which is more of a collection of thoughts than a coherent essay. But ultimately, Row has produced a thoughtful and timely meditation that serves as a call to white writers to consider the questions: \'What\'s next? What can we do with the time we have?\'
Anna Burns
RavePopMatters\"Anna Burns\' Milkman... is not an easy read ... But from the first alarming sentence, Burns offers a riveting, breathless rhythm that she maintains throughout the book ... this coming-of-age tale is original, timely, and ultimately rewarding ... Despite the presumed setting with its very specific history, Milkman is a timeless and universal story, one that ends with a bit of light shining in... 9/10\
Kathleen Belew
RavePopMattersIn Bring the War Home, Kathleen Belew, a history professor at the University of Chicago, offers a convincing case for the claim that the \'lone wolf\' domestic terrorist, an all-too-familiar figure in the United States, is instead a product of a well-organized, decades-old, right-wing social movement that brings together \'a wide array of groups and activists previously at odds,\' including Klansmen, skinheads, neo-Nazis, militiamen, Christian identitarians, tax protesters, and white separatists ... For those who wish to make sense of the enduring \'catastrophic ricochet of the Vietnam War\' as well as recent events in places like Charlottesville, Belew\'s Bring the War Home is required reading.
