Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope
By: Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn / Narrated By: Jennifer Garner, Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn
Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
Seriously—Can’t we get past the idea that focusing on human dignity and offering people hope is a leftist issue?!?
I often head over to Amazon after I’ve listened to a book and have formulated my own views of it… just to see what fellow reviewers, fellow humans, took away from said book. And excuse me, if you will here, for wanting to dash over to my bed to scream into a pillow.
I’ll totally agree that Democrats in Tightrope don’t get the bumps and knocks that Republicans do. But elite Liberals are plenty swatted at when discussing how we got to be this country of stinkin’ inequality for always proposing that the impoverished are total victims. They go right alongside Conservatives who view the impoverished as those who totally have control and who continually make poor choices. And yes, Democrats don’t take their lumps for mass incarceration considering the Three Strikes Law was Bill Clinton’s baby/on his watch, and yes, Republicans get hammered for caring more about fetuses etc. etc. etc. than for living, breathing people once on this planet.
Still, this is an absolutely devastating and sobering look at where we are now, chockfull of personal stories of the people of Yamhill, Oregon, where Kristof grew up. About a fourth of the kids who rode the school bus with him are now dead, from substance abuse issues, obesity as a comorbidity (See that? Covid-19 taught me a new word!), from reckless accidents, and some from things like explosions at meth labs or being drunk and passed out in the midst of a house fire. The stories very much humanize and give a face to people who are noticed only for their seemingly outlandishly poor choices, for passing on the lack of hope and the vulnerability to addiction to their children. These are the people who voted Trump, and if you’re kinda sorta left-of-center, you might feel that they’re getting what they voted for: A deconstruction of safety nets and defunding of support systems.
But the stories are also of working class Blacks, who typically vote Democrat, and of how they too have been denied hope and support. So there’s that.
Mostly, if you take any time to listen past your cue words (Republicans/Democrats), you’ll find plenty of enlightenment regarding the whole: Rich just get richer thing, and about how white collar crime is only raaaaarely prosecuted and nobody serves time. There is ample information given about what sentencing looks like for white collar criminals vs. the general masses who break the law. And see? Why isn’t THAT cause for reviewers to take umbrage with corruption and systemic inequality?
I dunno; I was raised in a Democrat household, Life moved me to Center, and continuing Life Experience has me pinging between left and right, left and right, understanding some of what makes Conservatives tick. I get it, doncha see? As such, I did NOT find this book offensive; rather, I found it horrifyingly real. And by the time we get through tragedy in small towns, tragedy of falling through cracks in urban working environment, horror show childhoods, chaotic adult lives, hope degrading with each passing generation, and of how the U.S. is waaaay down on the list of sooo many things amongst countries of the world, I was VERY ready to hear of possible solutions! Alas, this 9+ hour book has less than an hour of ideas, and even fewer minutes of suggestions of what we, as individuals, can do. Don’t get me wrong: There are a MULTitude of stories of people who’ve rolled up their sleeves, who’ve offered their very lives, all to make a difference, but aside from writing letters to our elected officials, there’s not much that the lazy and uninspired can do (I’m nothing if not a slug), and even then, the electoral college is brought up, and the fact that populous California and near-empty rural states have the same amount of senators.
So I guess I’m just a weeeee bit worn down right about now. AWEsome book, deftly written as it really could indeed come out as a diatribe but (In my opinion) did not, and well-narrated by Jennifer Garner who makes for an empathy-laden reader. Indeed, who can find fault with the authors when their words are so well-spoken by such a well-liked woman?
I’m very, very tired of the lack of civil discourse in the country, of differing beliefs becoming demonized and weaponized. And I sooooo do NOT want Audiobook Accomplice to add to that, to be about my soap boxes.
It’s just that I kinda sorta think that we can do better for each other; we should be there; we should care.
If that makes me a raving lunatic? Okay, so I’m raving…
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