The Death of Truth by Kakutani is a fairly short read, coming in ~200 pages. Moment of Truth is an apt subtitle for this stealthy sequel to 2007's Death to Spies--because every move you make is, indeed, a moment of truth. “The Death of Truth,” by the former Times book critic Michiko Kakutani, attempts to … Reading this book, you get the impression that privileged Miss Michiko sees Trump as a threat to "the established order," but she never seems to understand that the cruelty and hypocrisy of the established order is exactly what produced Donald Trump in the first place. Title notwithstanding, this latest from the National Book Award–winning author is no guidebook to getting woke. Still, she sees—and ably describes—with a depressing clarity the dangers of our brave new world. I bet you've never thought of Trump as a postmodernist, but according to legendary literary critic Michiko Kakutani, Trump is a product of the postmodern school of thought. “Well, we live in a post truth world now. It is not necessary to agree with all that she writes, although that may well happen. paulsimeon2014 December 10, 2016 August 16, 2018 Uncategorized. Brilliantly written and argued. Maybe I'm getting old and cynical, but it seems much more likely (and realistic) to me that literary trends are usually in response to changes in the political and social world, not the instigators of the change. To get the most from it, I recommend reading only a chapter at a time and really mulling over the premise of each before moving on. Tags: The Death of Truth, Trump, Michiko Kakutani, Fake News, … Kakutani, as a former Times book critic, has read widely and is familiar with a plethora of philosophical authors. Worst book ever written! In her feisty debut book, Oluo, essayist, blogger, and editor at large at the Establishment magazine, writes from the perspective of a black, queer, middle-class, college-educated woman living in a “white supremacist country.” The daughter of a white single mother, brought up in largely white Seattle, she sees race as “one of the most defining forces” in her life. GENERAL HISTORY | It is difficult to be a discerning reader and not pay attention to what she t. “The Death of Truth” is a short book that reads like a long essay. & When he began college, “anti-Black racist ideas covered my freshman eyes like my orange contacts.” This unsparing honesty helps readers, both white and people of color, navigate this difficult intellectual territory. Helpful. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. But it is densely written and full of quotes and insights from a large number of sources. As Kakutani points out, it happened because the conditions were ripe for it. We live in a time when the very idea of objective truth is mocked and discounted by the US President. (Do as I say, not as I did.) I particularly liked the way she incorporated her extensive reading in fiction and non-fiction to provide examples and commentary on today's politics and how we got here. An intriguing approach and analysis, which ultimately cannot … In fact, the word “woke” appears nowhere within its pages. Review of a book which is an evangelical response to postmodernism; Bibliographic Information, etc. My friend however had a slightly different view on it. If you have time to read only one book in the coming month this should be it. Welcome back. The Book of Truth: A Critical Review. At a November 2016 alt-right conference, the white supremacist Richard Spencer ended his speech, shouting, “Hail Trump! There is always another set of facts to every story, Trump says. And she never met an authority figure she didn't like. RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2018. Michiko Kakutani Ijeoma Oluo One short paragraph includes references to The Great Gatsby, Fight Club, Michel Houellbecq’s “willfully repellent novels,” No Country for Old Men, and the HBO series True Detective. Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Kakutani (The Poet at the Piano: Portraits of Writers, Filmmakers, Playwrights and Other Artists at Work, 1988), who until recently was the chief book reviewer for the New York Times—already two black marks against her in the populist playbook: She reads, and she worked for the Times—offers a dark analysis of the rise of Donald Trump and the fall of any concern for facts. MENU. Each chapter examines one facet of racism, the authorial camera alternately zooming in on an episode from Kendi’s life that exemplifies it—e.g., as a teen, he wore light-colored contact lenses, wanting “to be Black but…not…to look Black”—and then panning to the history that informs it (the antebellum hierarchy that valued light skin over dark). The author charts the decline of reason, the culture wars, the appeals of Trump and his “dog-whistle racism” (she is relentless in her attacks on the president), the language of dictators, the skills of Russian internet trolls, the dangers of the digital age, the blather about “fake news,” and, ultimately, the dire threat all of this poses for the democracy we profess to cherish. It feels very much as if something has ripped in the fabric of reality of America at this moment. My friend however had a slightly different view on it. HISTORY, by As much as I want to buy in whole hog, the hubris is the downfall of the book. Ijeoma Oluo. Insist on the value of objective truth and scientific facts if you like -- but don't quote the Pope to bac. She attributes much of this phenomenon to postmodernist arguments that challenge consensus opinion in favor of marginal ones. 5.0 out of 5 stars Important book. The truth is this: If you like literature, this is the best book you’ve read this year. Hail our people! My big reservation is that the only people who are likely to read this book are very unlikely to learn anything new. GENERAL CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | In clear and intelligent prose, Kakutani explains how we got from 1960's counterculture to our current, post-truth, era of Trump. by Trump seems more a product of reality television than post-modern, relativistic. And if you don’t like the tone of modern politics, it is the best book you’ve read in a couple of decades. Straight talk to blacks and whites about the realities of racism. There is a certain amount of hubris in Kakutani's take that the world and politics revolves around literary trends and theories. Michiko Kakutani draws on her wide-angle reading and considerable analytic powers to ponder the present situation in the US in The Death of Truth.Kakutani, the … She is (or should be) a legend to anyone interested in reading good books and being highly and critically discerning about the books that one reads. It’s a book about literature and will tell you more about the politics of today (and literature) than any pundit could begin to. The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump can be checked out from the Orcas Library. Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2018. This book is important for all of us who care about saving our democratic institutions and empowering the checks and balances of our three branches of government. At this time in our history, when authoritarian rule seems to becoming a possibility in the United States of America, Michiko Kakutani's book, "The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump" clearly spells out how we have allowed ourselves to arrive at this demoralizing juncture. Trump seems more a product of reality television than post-modern, relativistic thought as evidenced by our literature. While I agree with the author, there is nothing new here. Through it all, Kakutani’s strong presence sometimes disappears in a tangled wood of allusion and quotation. Sad but true! In our current political and cultural landscape, truth and fact have become the ignored and unloved siblings of belief and bias. This can be read in one. She is just preaching to the choir. The folks who do pick up the book, and I can see the reviews here reflect my own experience with it, will find they already believe her explanation of how we got to "the death of truth" and are still left wondering what to do about it. She quotes many of them in this condensed argument regarding the loss of accepted facts in our current political discourse. Also, good footnotes provide a guide to further reading. Having finished now (after a more careful re-read from the start), I find it necessary to cut the rating to 3 for reasons discussed in the second part of the review. It's a series of current event articles and then a rant about the current state of our discourse. `The Death of Truth is destined to become the defining treatise of our age' David Grann `The first great book of the Trump administration … essential reading' Rolling Stone . It is not necessary to agree with all that she writes, although that may well happen. “Well, we live in a post truth world now. Good for college students. Firmly assertive and seriously argued (there is little humor here, but given the subject, few will blame the author), her text is also full of allusions to and quotations from writers and others, including George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Richard Hofstadter, William Butler Yeats, David Foster Wallace, and Ayn Rand. The Death of Truth is a polemic born of the deep frustration felt by so many American liberals at the current state of their politics. Nevertheless, we will take heart, we will persist, we will resist...and WE VOTE. “Internalized racism,” he writes, “is the real Black on Black Crime.” Kendi methodically examines racism through numerous lenses: power, biology, ethnicity, body, culture, and so forth, all the way to the intersectional constructs of gender racism and queer racism (the only section of the book that feels rushed). In clear and intelligent prose, Kakutani explains how we got from 1960's counterculture to our current, post-truth, era of Trump. William Voegeli reviews The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump, by Michiko Kakutani, and The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and … by Tim Duggan Books. Michiko Kakutani A clear and candid contribution to an essential conversation. What makes this self-important little rant so tiresome is that Miss Michiko has no sense of humor and no sense of irony. Hail victory!” When asked about the Nazi salutes that greeted his exclamation, Spencer replied that they were “clearly done in a spirit of irony and exuberance.”. A one-sided critique of Postmodernism’s affect on contemporary society, The Death of Truth decries the undermining of traditional views regarding knowledge, religion, and cultural hegemony. As much as I want to buy in whole hog, the hubris is the downfall of the book. I broke my rule about not reading books with Trump in the title for the ARC of this very solid extended essay by Michiko Kakutani. If you don’t like Trump, this will be the best book you’ve read since he descended the gilded escalator. This is a fantastic little book about the death of objective truth in our culture. Book Review. The Death of Truth Michiko Kakutani William Collins. The author's historical and cultural analysis is impressive, but more suggestions for how we might bring back truth and decency could have made this a stronger w. Cataloging America's truth decay does not make for easy bedtime reading. ; Pulitzer Prize–winning literary critic Michiko Kakutani, the former chief book critic of The New York Times, is the author of the newly... To see what your friends thought of this book, I would have to agree with Eugene Galt. I was incredulous that a highly educated man such as Irving who attended Duke University could believe this. But, consider a review Orwell wrote in March 1940, near Nazism’s apogee, of Mein Kampf. I may assign it to one of my classes. The rules of the book club are that we would each alternate the choice in book and write a review. " The Death of Truth is destined to become the defining treatise of our age. Will the Second Coming of Jesus Happen in our Lifetime? by Stacking them up in one volume makes the reader alternately despondent and outraged. According to Kakutani, a consequence of the postmodern movement was a prevalent spirit of skepticism toward "the establishment," i.e. Authors; Librarians; Editors F or an obituary, this is a disturbingly slender book. And if you don’t like the tone of modern politics, it is the best book you’ve read in a couple of decades. ETHNICITY & RACE, by I have a very close friend who is highly intelligent and whose opinion I value. As Kakutani points out, it happened because the conditions were ripe for it. Although the book is very well written, with clear, easily-understood prose, I doubt if it will hit the target. The first book was his choice and he chose “The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump” by Michiko Kakutani. She writes about the roles that the internet, Russians, the GOP and Democrats, news organizations, the white working class, Brietbart and Bannon, and most every other player have in the current debacle that is A. You and I may believe that, I have a very close friend who is highly intelligent and whose opinion I value. Intended for healthcare professionals. CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | Immediately below is my preliminary 4-star review. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for The Death of Truth at Amazon.com. Categories: Michiko Kakutani dedicates her book to “journalists everywhere working to report the news.†0 0 vote. Skimpy little tome that rehearses all the liberal arguments against Trump you've heard a thousand times before. The author, Michiko Kakutani, is a well known literary critic and former chief book review editor of the New York Times. The author's historical and cultural analysis is impressive, but more suggestions for how we might bring back truth and decency could have made this a stronger work. I bet you've never thought of Trump as a postmodernist, but according to legendary literary critic Michiko Kakutani, Trump is a product of the postmodern school of thought. Rather, it is a combination memoir and extension of Atlantic columnist Kendi’s towering Stamped From the Beginning (2016) that leads readers through a taxonomy of racist thought to anti-racist action. an attitude of doubt when considering mainstream news, scholarly facts/statistics, and even established science. Never wavering from the thesis introduced in his previous book, that “racism is a powerful collection of racist policies that lead to racial inequity and are substantiated by racist ideas,” the author posits a seemingly simple binary: “Antiracism is a powerful collection of antiracist policies that lead to racial equity and are substantiated by antiracist ideas.” The author, founding director of American University’s Antiracist Research and Policy Center, chronicles how he grew from a childhood steeped in black liberation Christianity to his doctoral studies, identifying and dispelling the layers of racist thought under which he had operated. I was incredulous that a highly educated man such as Irving who attended Duke University could believe this. 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