The Snarling Citizen : Essays

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The only reason to collect columns and call them essays is to display the work of a superlative writer. Ehrenreich is one such. This collection contains pieces from the Nation, the Guardian, Time and other publications, each one short and slamming head on into political correctness and sloppy thinking. Organized religion? Ehrenreich explains the difference between a cult and a religion: ``Forty-eight people donning plastic and shooting themselves in the head is a `cult,' while a hundred million people bowing before a flesh-hating elderly celibate is obviously a world-class religion.'' Before you can draw breath, she polishes off a few more sacred cows: ``[A] half dozen Trotskyists meeting over coffee is a `sect,' while a few million gun-toting, Armageddon-ready Baptists are referred to as the Republican Party.'' She also turns her razor-sharp verbal arrows on health food faddists who attack everything appetizing and even on the holy of holies: ``We are all, it is often said, `in recovery.' And from what? Our families, in most cases.'' Ehrenreich is irresistibly quotable as she lashes out at welfare, Haiti, O.J., Bobbitry and housework. A reader who wants to be entertained or infuriated, or simply to identify will have a roller coaster ride with these bracing doses of verbal purgative. (Apr.)

Library Journal

Ehrenreich (The Worst Years of Our Lives, LJ 4/15/90) writes about everything from Anita Hill to the Zeitgeist in this collection of essays. She has a fresh, challenging perspective, whether she's looking at a popular culture phenomena like Marge and Homer Simpson or the media fascination with O.J. As Ehrenreich sees it, even the most mundane of small-talk topics, the weather, has taken on epic proportions when the TV weatherman leads the evening news with coverage of the "Storm of the Century" while we sit mesmerized watching beach homes float out to sea. She writes in a wry, witty style that allows her to treat all subjects lightly, often using satire to set the tone. Since most of the essays were written for weekly news magazines, they may eventually seem dated and irrelevant, but they are excellent references to the topics of the 1990s.-Jill Ortner, Sch. of Information and Lib. Studies, Univ. of Buffalo, N.Y.