Book Review: "Call Them By Their True Names" by Rebecca Solnit

Rebecca Solnit previously wrote an incredible book called Recollections of My Non-Existence in which my review called it 'fantastic'. Solnit has a special talent for creating universality in her experiences through her incredible use of language. Articulate and yet, not overly verbose, charming without being saccharine, Rebecca Solnit is one of the best writers of our day and is bound to be remembered as a Joan Didion kind of figure in the future. A woman who's craft is as important as the story she writes. And there are very few more important stories to tell than what has been going down with our friends across the Atlantic for the past decade or so. Let us therefore, not mince our words. We should take these atrocities and call them by their true names...

The boogeyman, Donald Trump - a narcissist who has everything handed to him ona. silver platter. A man who has got away with saying things that most people are too scared (and often too moral) to think. And this is where the big picture truly begins for the reportage of Rebecca Solnit. She links Donald Trump's rise to the fact that he pandered and lied to his audience outright, exploiting the lack of critical thinking that came along with the scoial media age. The white working class men voted for Donald Trump in droves but, did they really know what they were voting for? No. But they were convinced enough to vote for him because of the media they were consuming. However, most people know that the media at best, lies by omission and at worst, lies because they can.

Rebecca Solnit compares Donald Trump's life to a fable about a person who wanted more and more until there was physically no 'more' they could get and thus, they were reduced back down to nothing. I don't agree with stating that Trump will get his comeuppance, because he won't - these people have too many others protecting them. We can all pray he will eventually get what is coming to him, but the chance of it actually happening are next to zero. Solnit presents Donald Trump as a man who has never had to work for anything in his life - and this is most likely true. But another aspect of the analysis Rebecca Solnit makes concerns the fact that Donald Trump has often acknowledged his own privilege with threatening and often almost 'bully-like' behaviour in which nobody has really held him accountable. Instead he simply receives the pushback from the general public. This is a public that holds no monetary or political power and so, there is only so much they can do.

Hilary Clinton is another person of interest that Rebecca Solnit covers. She analyses how Clinton was subjected to a whole different set of standards as a politician with many commentators commenting on the fact that she was 'overly ambitious' - a trait that would've been commendable if she were a man. She was mocked for her appearance, her inability to communicate effectively and even for her policies. This is even though the very things they were saying she was not talking about in interviews and debates were, in fact, the only things she was talking about. Now, between Clinton and Trump, Clinton is the lesser of two evils but I'm not sure I'm on her side either. With the American people, I definitely believe this was like deciding between a rock and a hard place - but at least she actually spoke on the American people. Donald Trump seemed to be polishing an image of himself - an image already damaged beyond repair.

Rebecca Solnit proves to be the perfect person for analysing the socio-political landscape of America during those dark days of Trump winning the presidency. But another thing she makes important is the fact that many people around Trump are trying to purposefully water-down or downplay language used around him that would, if we were to use the appropriate terminology, describe him more or less as being America's greatest threat to democracy. From domestic terrorism committed by the USA's own government, all the way to making sure the undocumented and people of colour cannot vote and even down to shooting an innocent Latino man - Solnit gives us much to think about. Especially as I, being born and bred in the UK, have watched this from afar. It is clear Trump has broken America beyond repair.