Kirkus Review
Girded for battle, the senior senator from Massachusetts forcefully lays out the bleak picture of an American government increasingly controlled by corporate greed and special interests.Warren (A Fighting Chance, 2014, etc.), a former Harvard Law School professor and a prolific author, has been America's Cassandra even before becoming a Democratic senator in 2012. She is appalled by the inability of regular working people like her own family from Oklahoma to make a living in a once-thriving American economy. She proudly cites how, in the 1960s, her mother got a minimum-wage job after her husband's heart attack and was able to keep the family going and even pay the mortgage. Yet now, a war of attrition is being waged on most Americans, a kind of "economic boa constrictor that is squeezing working families so hard they can't breathe." The causes are broad and include stagnant wages that have not kept up with inflation, unstable employment as companies move overseas, lack of benefits such as basic health and day care, high fixed expenses (transportation, housing, college), and rising debt. Using several examples of personal stories, such as a low-wage worker and an African-American family struggling from layoffs and mortgage discrimination, Warren addresses these issues one by one. In Washington, D.C., she has taken up the cudgel for basic fairness regarding the minimum wage and alleviating the national scandal of student-loan debt, all the while struggling mightily against the Republican majority. Indeed, Warren's education in maneuvering through the powers that be is eye-opening, and she shares her experiences with grim frankness. As she notes, the persistent mirage of trickle-down economics, begun by Ronald Reagan, has taken on fresh life thanks to Donald Trump, resulting in renewed calls for deregulation (especially on banks), withdrawing research and infrastructure spending, cutting taxes for the rich, busting unions, and permitting unlimited lobbying and influence. The author sounds the alarm that an oligarchy is in the making, and her urgency is palpable and necessary. Inspiring words to empower Warren's marching army. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
New York Review of Books Review
THIS FIGHT IS OUR FIGHT: The Battle to Save America's Middle Class, by Elizabeth Warren. (Metropolitan/Holt, $28.) In this smart, tough-minded manifesto, the Massachusetts senator rails against income inequality and its consequences and discusses how it can be reduced through public policy. LAST HOPE ISLAND: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War, by Lynne Olson. (Random House, $30.) Olson, in her fourth book about World War II, argues that the people of occupied Europe and the expatriate leaders did far more for their own liberation than historians have realized. WHAT IT MEANS WHEN A MAN FALLS FROM THE SKY, by Lesley Nneka Arimah. (Riverhead, $26.) Originality and narrative verve characterize the stories in this first collection by a British-Nigerian-American writer. A witty and mischievous storyteller, Arimah is especially interested in the cruelty and losses brought about by clashes between women, especially girls. DEMOCRACY: Stories From the Long Road to Freedom,by Condoleezza Rice. (Twelve, $35.) The promotion of democracy should shape America's foreign policy in the 21st century, the former secretary of state writes in this important new book, even though she recognizes that it's "really, really hard." BETWEEN THEM: Remembering My Parents, by Richard Ford. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $25.99.) In two discrete sections written 30 years apart, Ford describes his parents' lives and deaths by turn, driven by his curiosity about who they were. This slim beauty of a memoir is a remarkable story about two unremarkable people. BORNE, by JeffVanderMeer. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26.) A climate change survivor in a post-apocalyptic city in a sea of toxicity tries to adopt a nonhuman life-form capable of changing and learning. Her companion, along with a defunct (probably) biotech company and a flying bear, also make appearances. This coming-of-age story signifies that eco-fiction has come of age. FEAR CITY: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics, by Kim Phillips-Fein. (Metropolitan/Holt, $32.) Phillips-Fein narrates the story of New York City's fiscal crisis of the 1970s with fresh eyes, suggesting that the transformation into two cities it set in motion was not an inexorable evolution but a political choice. STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND: Searching for Gershom Scholem and Jerusalem, by George Prochnik. (Other Press, $27.95.)When he embraced Jewish tradition as a source of meaning, Prochnik sought out Scholem, a scholar who introduced the kabbalah to secular society. NOTES OF A CROCODILE, by Qiu Miaojin. Translated by Bonnie Huie. (New York Review Books, $27.95.) First published in 1994, this cult classic novel depicts a group of quick-witted and queer friends, students at a university in Taipei, and an obsessive love. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books