CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES American Crises (and Essays)

As the audiobook title suggests, essayist Rebecca Solnit is not interested in pretense or adulteration. Too much is at stake, particularly related to America's political climate when considering issues of social justice, gender and racial equality, and the environment. Similar to the essays themselves, narrator Cassandra Campbell is unrelenting in her steadiness, and her understated performance offers a perfect counterweight to the challenging themes and ideas. Solnit's essays are political and provocative, sometimes sobering, sometimes infuriating, and always resolute in their underlying exhortation for more awareness and more justice. Interestingly, to the attuned and politically allied listener, Campbell's even modulation may actually increase the vitality of the essays--and by extension, the consternation of the listener. A judicious pairing. A.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2018]