No Straight Road Takes You There
Essays for Uneven Terrain
The urgent, prescient essays in Rebecca Solnit’s No Straight Road Takes You There name social inequities and ecological pains while insisting upon hope.
Writing after the 2020 election, at a time when many on the left implored triumphant Democrats to reach across the aisle and soothe hurt feelings, Solnit is a blunt defector from such niceties: “When only half the divide is being tasked with making the peace,” she writes, “there is no peace to be made.” Hers is not a book in which ground is ceded to centrist concerns, or excuses delivered for inaction. Rather, in her signature style, it diagnoses contemporary ills and suggests logical paths forward—via reason, determination, and knowledge that change is possible.
Revising tired paradigms—herein, left and right are less accurate designations than isolationists and interconnectionists–the essays ask people to acknowledge hard realities while also using their privilege to work toward improving the world. Solnit notes that progress does not happen overnight: the student loan relief moved toward under Biden had roots in Occupy Wall Street and before; feminist victories always took time, too. And while technology billionaires “often seem more interested in surviving the apocalypse than preventing it,” there’s power in naming the liberties they take with truth and justice while working against them, toward a future not dominated by the rich.
The selfishness of the science-resistant during COVID-19 is examined; so, too, is the #MeToo Movement and the felling of predatory men once thought untouchable. While climate change is a dire presence throughout the book, the book refuses to call today too late: “the future is shaped by what we do in the present, on what we make happen. There are no guarantees but there are possibilities.”
No Straight Road Takes You There is a powerful book of essays from a beloved activist.
Reviewed by
Michelle Anne Schingler
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
