The world is a mess and bestselling author and comedian Tara Flynn is raging. Well, sometimes. Mostly she's shocked, bemused, irreverent and wondering where the kindness went. Depends on the week, really. 'Rage-In' is a collection of essays providing a personal look at our modern world. Written in Tara's distinctive voice – conversational, witty and easy to read – we are guided through many of today's major issues, be it Emperor Trump, Brexit, an imaginary bunker for the impending apocalypse, trolls, being a Feminazi, or how pastels are actually THE WORST. With humour and empathy – as well as the occasional bout of rage – Tara Flynn tackles modern life and wonders whether anger is really the best way to survive it.
I'm a little disappointed, because I really wanted to like this book. And if it were a book, I might be more inclined to like it. But it isn't. It's a collection of short essays which first appeared on a site called HeadStuff, usually well under the 1000-word mark. So everything feels like it belongs in one of those books you keep in the bathroom for idle distraction. Which is a pity. I am unlikely to ever agree completely with Tara Flynn (or, for that matter, anyone!) on everything but I do like hearing other opinions than my own and this format is not doing her justice in that regard. It's a series of (sometimes funny, sometimes moving) vignettes with a surplus of redundancy and repetition. Had this been edited properly, I'd be giving it a higher rating, but there is still much to enjoy.
The main takeaway from Rage-In is that it’s nice to know that there’s someone out there who believes in kindness and decency. But the problem with kindness as a political project is that walls can so easily built up and kindness only shared with people we recognise in ourselves (race, nationality, class, gender) or who we see as “respectable”.
I would be unlikely to recommend this to a friend (but if they were hanging about my house saying I was taking too long to get ready I’d throw the book to them and tell them to give “Ireland, not as advertised” a read).
Wish I would have read these earlier. Sometimes amusing sotries about the shitness and life today...whether hating pastels, trolls or being self wrong teous....