Inspiring ... Teems with vitality, forming an antidote to political paralysis and despondency. Solnit is a prolific, omnivorous and brilliant writer and this book makes apparent her intellectual wingspan. There is great variety here ... but two bright threads run through the whole: the importance of hope, and the power of storytelling.
The urgent, prescient essays in Rebecca Solnit’s No Straight Road Takes You There name social inequities and ecological pains while insisting upon hope ... A powerful book of essays from a beloved activist.
A buoyant, historically astute appreciation of political persistence ... Solnit is a deft connector of historical dots ... Offers a galvanizing vision for healing the planet, one that prizes community over material goods ... This isn’t an autobiographical book, but the personal details Solnit shares suggest a very interesting person.
Impassioned if tedious ... [Solnit] has a few incisive moments, among them her critiques of 'unbiased' centrism—which obfuscates 'the ugliest... prejudices'—and of Silicon Valley’s 'above the law' billionaires. At other times, however, Solnit leans into a fanciful whimsy that grates ... Even so, she makes a convincing case that doomerism can be defeated by offering better 'theories of change' that demonstrate how 'our actions... matter' in shaping history—a well-conceived thesis that she unfortunately repeats to eye-glazing effect. It’s a plodding call to action that will have readers hoping for a less tiresome route.
