If giving peace a chance is still a possibility, this is a worthy guide.
A renowned human rights activist and former Canadian senator surveys the world and finds it wanting.
Dallaire’s previous books (Shake Hands With the Devil, etc.) centered on his work in Rwanda, whose people were “abandoned to the killing” in the genocide of 1994. As the author notes, the international handling of that crisis, in which millions died, was similar to the current mismanagement of “geopolitical tensions, large-scale violations of human rights, and the erosion of representative government,” among other things likely to provoke violence and challenge peacekeeping efforts. The international part is important, writes Dallaire, because the crises we face, such as climate change and mass migration, are borderless. In a wandering but on-point narrative that examines hate and its consequences, the author advocates for what he calls “The Peace.” His path toward peace may seem unlikely, given that Dallaire’s lifelong profession was soldiering; as he writes, “to be a solder is to inhabit a purgatory of choices between equally bad outcomes.” (The purgatory part is important because Dallaire is fond of alluding to Dante, and he does so without stretching those allusions to absurdity.) Peace has enemies in both people and habits, one of which is denial, the refusal to accept responsibility for bad behavior that, in turn, impedes any possibility of reconciliation. It has its friends in both people and habits, such as “a vision of justice that embraces fairness, equality, rightness and trust.” Dallaire, a self-described baby boomer, comes off a little too New Age-y at points, as when he writes that The Peace leverages “our extraordinary potential to give—to radiate energy out into the universe.” Still, it’s clear that he’s had experiences enough of peace and war to make his insights worth considering.
If giving peace a chance is still a possibility, this is a worthy guide.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780345814401
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A philosophically rich critique of state violence and mass apathy.
An Egyptian Canadian journalist writes searchingly of this time of war.
“Rules, conventions, morals, reality itself: all exist so long as their existence is convenient to the preservation of power.” So writes El Akkad, who goes on to state that one of the demands of modern power is that those subject to it must imagine that some group of people somewhere are not fully human. El Akkad’s pointed example is Gaza, the current destruction of which, he writes, is causing millions of people around the world to examine the supposedly rules-governed, democratic West and declare, “I want nothing to do with this.” El Akkad, author of the novel American War (2017), discerns hypocrisy and racism in the West’s defense of Ukraine and what he views as indifference toward the Palestinian people. No stranger to war zones himself—El Akkad was a correspondent in Afghanistan and Iraq—he writes with grim matter-of-factness about murdered children, famine, and the deliberate targeting of civilians. With no love for Zionism lost, he offers an equally harsh critique of Hamas, yet another one of the “entities obsessed with violence as an ethos, brutal in their treatment of minority groups who in their view should not exist, and self-decreed to be the true protectors of an entire religion.” Taking a global view, El Akkad, who lives in the U.S., finds almost every government and society wanting, and not least those, he says, that turn away and pretend not to know, behavior that we’ve seen before and that, in the spirit of his title, will one day be explained away until, in the end, it comes down to “a quiet unheard reckoning in the winter of life between the one who said nothing, did nothing, and their own soul.”
A philosophically rich critique of state violence and mass apathy.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593804148
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
