ASK Musings

No matter where you go, there you are.

Monthly Archive: March 2021

Tuesday

30

March 2021

0

COMMENTS

Shit, Actually by Lindy West

Written by , Posted in Reviews

Five Stars

Best for:
Anyone who watched blockbusters from the 80s-early 2000s and enjoys a fair bit of of honest snark.

In a nutshell:
Lindy West, who started as a film critic, revisits a bunch of films and comments on them.

Worth quoting:
ARG SO MUCH

From the Harry Potter review: “Even in the moment when his whole family is being terrorized by a giant, fatboy Dudley can’t stop himself from plunging his face directly into the cake and omph momph gromph skromph. As a fat woman, this moment of cultural representation moved me deeply.”

From the Forrest Gump review: “‘My momma always said life is like a box of chock-lits. You never know what you’re gonna get.’ I mean, you mostly know. They write it on the lid.”

From the Rush Hour review (a film directed by Brett Ratner) “Unfortunately, due to the indefatigable vileness of men throughout history, sexual exploitation and abuse of power have pervaded all of our art and media, and everything is tainted and fucked!”

Why I chose it:
It’s LINDY WEST. Also MOVIES.

Review:
I don’t believe this book has been officially published in the UK. When it first came out, the only place I could theoretically find it was on a website I’d rather not use. I eventually was able to get it from a different bookseller, but it took over a month for it to arrive.

Worth the wait.

I thoroughly enjoy West’s writing. Shrill is an excellent book, and The Witches Are Coming was a great follow-up. But I love that she got a chance with Shit, Actually to just sort of … have fun. Obviously she doesn’t turn off her brain when watching these films (as evidenced by that last quote above), but there’s a sense of joy coming from the writing even when she’s reviewing such steaming piles as American Pie.

The book starts out with a review of The Fugitive, which West proudly proclaims as the best movie ever, and the one by which all others are judged. In fact, her rating system is 10/10 DVDs of The Fugitive.

This book arrived yesterday. I spent the evening reading it, then finished it up today, because it was just so good. So fun. I laughed to the point of snorting multiple times. And yes, part of that is possibly because I, too, am a white lady who is about the same age as West, so we are going to have some cultural touchstones in common. I’d seen all but one film she reviews, but even that review had be cracking up.

Times are hard, and it’s fun to read something delightful like this.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Keep it.

Monday

29

March 2021

0

COMMENTS

The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indriðason

Written by , Posted in Reviews

Four Stars

Best for:
People who enjoy a good mystery.

In a nutshell:
A skeleton has been found in a drying lake bed. Might be suicide, except there’s Cold War-era Soviet equipment tied around the skeleton’s body.

Worth quoting:
N/A

Why I chose it:
I had bought a bunch of this author’s books all at once, and finally decided to pick up this last one.

Review:
These books are either growing on me a bit, or the story within this one was just a bit more interesting to me. Not sure, but I’m not complaining, because after reading the first hundred pages on Friday, I basically devoured the last 300 today.

The premise: a skeleton is found in a lake and associated with some Cold War era Soviet equipment. The person likely was killed in the late 60s / early 70s. So Detective Erlendur and his colleagues need to figure out if anyone who was reported missing around that time might be this victim.

At the same time, we are in the memories of an unnamed man who was a young member of the Icelandic Socialist Party, and who was invited to study in East Germany, Leipzig, during the 60s. He’s all in on the ideals of socialism, but his experiences are getting odd. Is someone spying on him and his friends?

I think what I most enjoyed about this book is that I both sort of knew what was coming but also was surprised by the ending. There are another 5-7 (unsure if all have been translated into English) in this series; I think I’ll likely get around to reading all of them in the next couple of years.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Donate it.

Sunday

28

March 2021

0

COMMENTS

Fighting For Your Life by Lysa Walder

Written by , Posted in Reviews

Three Stars

Best for:
Anyone who likes sort of true-life medical stuffs.

In a nutshell:
London paramedic Walder shares stories from various Paramedic calls she’s experienced during her career.

Worth quoting:
The bit at the end with tips about calling 999, should probably be printed and distributed in every household in the UK.

Why I chose it:
I was looking for something not too involved that I could listen to on my longer runs. This came up in the audio book app I use, given some previous purchases.

Review:
This is a fairly short book (5 hours as an audio book) that is broken into different types of paramedic calls author Walder has experienced during her career. She doesn’t share lots of her personal life or her path to the field like previous similar books; instead after a fairly straightforward interview she just gets right into it.

I can see why she decided to write the book and why a publisher chose to print it – the stories are generally interesting, not too over the top or salacious, and give a wide perspective on what it is like to be a paramedic in London. We don’t learn a lot about the author herself, but that’s okay – not every book like this need to go deeper into the author’s life. I don’t think the book is that much the worse for it, though it would have been interesting to learn about what (if any) support is offered to paramedics after particularly traumatic experiences.

If this isn’t usually your type of book, I’m not going to say you should drop everything and pick it up, but if you find yourself enjoying medical memoirs, you’ll probably like this one.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Audio book, so kind of have to keep it.

Saturday

27

March 2021

0

COMMENTS

I’m Anxious About Resuming ‘Normal’ Life

Written by , Posted in Random

For some of us, it’s been a year. A year of staying inside, ordering groceries for delivery, taking a walk every single day because that was the only legal excuse to leave the house

(I say some of us, because some states haven’t had many restrictions, some countries had intense restrictions and then returned life to almost normal, and some had a hybrid of lock down / fewer restrictions / lock down again. And of course, others who have died from COVID-19 don’t have the chance to worry about anything anymore.)

During this time, even people in countries with a lock down have still had to go to work. They’ve been around other people on public transit, in the office, out in the world. They have likely experienced more trauma than the rest of us (especially and obviously those who have been providing care to those sickened by COVID-19). They also, I would guess, will have an easier time easing back into the social aspects of society, because being around someone other than their roommate or immediate family members, or perhaps the person ringing them up in the grocery store, won’t be weird. They have been around coworkers for the past year.

So this is for the rest of us – the ones who, regardless of lock down status, have been following recommendations to not be indoors with people outside your household if possible, not going out to dinner, not visiting stores for non-essential items. Maybe we’ve been able to play some outdoor sports, or met up with a friend for a walk in the park. But we’ve not seen friends in a bar in at least a year, and we haven’t had to make small talk with the co-worker we don’t really know.

***

I am an introvert. I know a lot of people roll their eyes at the extrovert / introvert discussion, but the reality is that being attentive to or receiving attention from more than a handful of people is, to me, exhausting. I love my friends. I love getting together over dinner with one or two of them, having interesting conversations. I love going to the movies with them. But I can only do it in fairly small doses without being exhausted for awhile.

And work? Oh man, work has always been a challenge. Working from home this past year has been hard in many ways, but in others it’s been AMAZING. I’ve gotten about 30 minutes extra sleep at night while still getting my morning run in each day. I’ve saved money on the breakfasts and lunches I would purchase during the workday. And while I have some morning phone calls where I have to be ‘on’, I haven’t had to make small talk with my admittedly awesome colleagues when I’m still getting oriented to the world. I can focus on my work without interruptions, and can also just get up and lay down on my bed for a few minutes when I’m overwhelmed. I know so many people thrive in the in-person office space, especially people who have more creative jobs than I do, but the idea of having to keep my mood chipper and my interactions constant for eight hours a day, every day, is a bit terrifying. Like, how was it okay that we used to do this? How is it still okay for people working in jobs that must be done in person? Surely they deserve fewer hours and higher pay because ack. That’s just so … much.

Between July and October I was able to train with my former football club, and that was amazing. It was structured – training once a week, matches once a week – but still a time where I was around other people, some of whom have become friends. And being outside, there wasn’t nearly as much concern about transmitting the disease. We could for the most part just run around and play, expending energy before returning back home to resume some of the elements of lock down life.

But (other than a couple of weeks in December), even that social interaction has been gone. Since early November, my in-person contact with other humans outside my partner have been primarily with my dentist. I needed a root canal, and the process took four visits. I admit I looked forward to those visits as it was a legally allowed way for me to both leave the house and hear another person’s voice. Also my tooth feels much better, so that’s nice. But I would always feel some anxiety in the day leading up, not because of the fear of pain, but because it was me, being around someone else.

Now that rules are starting to lessen, we’re starting to make plans, and I’m starting to get a little anxious.

Like, my new football team is starting training on 31 March. I’m seeing some friends this weekend and this week (outdoors, of course). And at some point, even more will open up. Restaurants will start serving again, and friends will want to go to one. I’ve not been inside a restaurant since February 2020. I did not “eat out to help out” because that seemed like a horrible idea (spoiler alert: it was). But I understand why some people did. They wanted to see people. They wanted some sense of normalcy. And they were probably tired of doing all the washing up after cooking every meal every day for months.

I would like a different normal when more people are vaccinated and restrictions are lifted. I want to start traveling again, for sure. That’s what I’ve missed the most – that, and bookstores. But I want to be more careful with my time, because I’ve learned that yes, I definitely need more human interaction than the pandemic has allowed, but I also work better with less than pre-2020 expectations required.

So what does that mean? Well, I’m keeping up with football, so that means one night a week I’ll have training, and Saturdays I will have games. I know that Friday nights I’m usually pretty tuckered out, so I think my primary times for seeing friends will need to be Sunday brunches or perhaps Monday evenings. Obviously I can’t be so strict that there’s no flexibility for seeing friends who are in town, or going to a show, or just spontaneously meeting up with folks, but I also know that I cannot and will not try to ‘make up for lost time’ by trying to shove my days full of things again. It has been nice, having weekend days that aren’t jam packed. It’s been nice knowing that when work ends, I have my evenings to my self.

But I do also really miss my friends. And I’m excited to have the option of making plans that aren’t just a zoom chat.

I know some people might read this and feel a connection to it. But others are probably flummoxed by the idea that, once vaccinated, I’m still going to be a bit timid with returning to ‘normal’ life. Or that I’m hoping that life never returns to the exact normal that we all had before.

So to my friends who are extroverts, and cannot wait to pick everything back up, and start making loads of plans: please be patient with us. My not jumping on the first opportunity to meet up does not mean I don’t want to see you. It just means that I’m still trying to figure out how to navigate the world again.

Monday

22

March 2021

1

COMMENTS

Life With Near Regrets

Written by , Posted in Adventures, Move to UK: Before You Go

I’d love to live my life with zero regrets. And for the most part, I do. Choices I’ve made when I have as much information as possible have generally been good choices. They haven’t always been popular with my family (declining my admissions offer to UCLA Law School probably ranks high on that list), but I’ve never done anything that deeply opposed my values.

I have, however, made some decisions that, in hindsight, were not the best. In nearly all of these cases, the decision would have been improved if I’d had a bit more information, or if I’d fully understood the consequences of my actions. That doesn’t necessarily mean I would have made a different choice, but life might have been a bit easier if I’d better known what I was signing up for. That’s probably not a unique experience. There are probably loads of people looking at their partners or children or careers and thinking “yeah, if only I’d known about X, I probably would have done Y, and saved us all a lot of stress.”

For me, the biggest near-regret has been moving to London for my partner’s job.

Moving anywhere new is hard. I’ve never moved anywhere that wasn’t home to at least one person I knew. Wait, that’s not entirely true. I didn’t know anyone in New York City when I moved there in the fall of 2002, but my housing was sorted ahead of my arrival, and I was there for school. I had people to help me, and it wasn’t a country with a different currency, or language, or customs (for the most part). And even when I did move to a new country the first time, I spoke the language, and I once again had a university helping me with everything from housing to banking. It was a tough transition emotionally, but the logistics were all sorted.

This time, when my partner and I moved to London over three years ago, I spoke the language and knew the customs better than the last time, but we had almost zero support in the lead-up to and after our arrival. The risks and challenges we’ve experienced are not the same as what others have experienced, but given how many of us live in a country other than the one they were born in (as of 2017, about 258 million people), I know that — even in a pandemic — there are individuals who are choosing to move to a new country.

We made the choice mostly because my partner had always wanted to live overseas. I liked my career for the most part but didn’t love it, and was definitely open to a change. We’d bought a house just a couple of years earlier, but when my husband lost his job as part of large lay-offs at his company, we agreed that it was as good of a time as any for him to look for something outside the US. My partner works in a field where workers are in high demand but not necessarily in high supply outside the US, which meant that in some ways it was easier for him to find work overseas than within the Seattle area.

I know there are many people who bemoan ‘foreigners’ taking ‘their’ jobs (these people are generally known as xenophobes), but there are a lot of reasons why companies might be open to hiring someone from another country. They might want to diversify their workforce, the job description might include skills that are harder to find in local candidates, or they just might have enough money to offer a sponsorship and so don’t want to limit their candidate pool.

In nearly all jobs in all organizations, there is a serious power differential right from the start. This is not unique to immigrants; every time a person is hired, they are taking a much larger risk than the person doing the hiring. They are trusting someone they don’t know to treat them fairly, pay them a reasonable wage, and not put their mental and physical health at risk. Potential employees need jobs, and have at most a handful of interviews with a few people to determine whether their potential employer can be trusted. In our case, making that decision when I’d also likely be giving up my career and we’d be moving away from friends and family carried a different kind of weight, and required an even higher level of trust. In the end, my partner secured three offers from companies in three different countries. With not a lot of time (about an hour)to consider the final offer, we agreed on London.

Here is where my first near-regret comes in: we didn’t fully appreciate how big of a risk we were taking in comparison to the company doing the hiring, and as such, we didn’t require adequate compensation. And no, I’m not just talking about the pay (which was, frankly, deeply insulting, but then many tech salaries outside the US are embarrassingly low considering the level of skill they demand). I’m talking about the entirety of the contract.

Once there is agreement that the potential out-of-country employee and organization are a good fit, many companies consider their job done. They will likely assist with securing the visa because they need that to comply with the law, but many treat that as the beginning and end of their moral duty to their new hire. I disagree, and if I had known at the time what all went into moving overseas when one is not a student, my partner would have negotiated his contract very differently to ensure that the company was offering proper support.

And proper support is much more than a couple of weeks at an Air BnB, some money to ship a handful of boxes, and a visa.

And speaking of visas, governments need to provide more information about their terms. My second near-regret is not requesting much more detail about all the restrictions and requirements associated with our visa from the immigration attorney my partner’s future employer secured. All we got was a letter telling us the dates within which we needed to enter the country, and directions to go pick up our permanent visas at a nearby post office within 10 days of arrival. That was it. There was nothing saying if, for example, the sponsored employee parts ways with their sponsoring company, they will not be able to leave the country until they secure a new visa, if they want to keep working in the UK. That’s information one can only find if one knows to go looking for it.

But back to that original near-regret: there is a huge difference between starting a new job in one’s own city or state and starting a job in a completely new country. Employment laws are different. Tenancy laws are different. Banking laws are different. It’s hard enough to jump into a new job and learn about the company culture and one’s place in it; add on doing that while not knowing where you’re going to be able to live and it can be extremely stressful. I would have required that either the company hire a relocation company to work on our behalf, or provide us with enough funds that we could fully pay for a relocation company on our own. Such a company can help find a place to live, set up necessary financial and other accounts and documentation, bring pets over, and provide support to partners who don’t have jobs lined up.

Unfortunately we weren’t offered the services of a relocation company when we moved, so I was the one who navigated the rules and regulations set up to make moving that much more difficult. For example, we needed to get an ID number from the UK so our belongings wouldn’t be taxed upon arrival. If we hadn’t done that, we might have had to pay part of the value of items we already owned just to get them back! I was the one who found an apartment via a private landlord; a relocation company would have known that we should have instead rented through an estate agent to help secure our bank account, as banks in the UK don’t accept private landlord leases as proof of address. As I didn’t have a job for the first few months, I was able to devote a significant part of my day just doing life administration and searching online to figure out what I didn’t know. It was physically and emotionally exhausting, and it was happening while I was getting used to living in a new country, far away from family and most of my friends.

Consider banking. This is where my third near-regret appears. It’s hard to do pretty much anything in a new country without access to funds. Paying for things in the wrong currency ends up increasing the cost, as exchange rates are often not favorable to the purchaser, and wire transfer and conversion fees add up. We didn’t realize that my husband’s proof of employment (and the need for an account into which his paycheck could be deposited) would not be sufficient for us opening a bank account when I arrived. We read that Metro bank, for example, was especially kind to people who moved from the US (narrator: they were the WORST), but it took us a dozen visits to four different banks and like six different branches to finally open an account. If we’d known this, we would have explored opening an account in the US at a bank that had branches in the UK so we would have an existing relationship.

But that’s not something one should have to sort out. One of us had a job, and the company confirmed that. The financial sector should allow people to open bank accounts with proof of employment OR proof of address, instead of requiring both. Someone who has just moved overseas doesn’t have an address, but they do need a bank account. If they have a job, let the employer take on the responsibility of confirming that, and allow that person to open a bank account. Allow their partners to open their own accounts without proof of employment (but with proof of address once they have found a home) to ensure they are not being financially abused.

Housing is a challenge for pretty much everyone who isn’t rich, and looking for housing was one of the biggest concerns I had when we arrived. Which is where my fourth near-regret rears its head. We basically took the first place that fit our needs and was affordable, and we paid for that. A year and a half after moving in, our gas was shut off when we learned that the gas connection to the building was illegal and could have exploded at any time. This is on top of the fact that the landlords refused to perform the paperwork required to get our address registered with the Royal Mail. If we’d either negotiated more than the two weeks the company paid for our temporary housing, or had negotiated for a relocation company, we might have been able to do more research into trustworthy landlords. And if landlords were willing to accept our rental and credit history in the US as proof that we could rent here, we might have had more options. As it was, we got our first flat by having enough money to offer to pay the first three months up front. That’s ridiculous! No one should have to do that.

After taking on all that risk, moving one’s entire life and family across an ocean, sometimes it still doesn’t work out. Perhaps the company was less than honest about what they were looking for from the employee. Or perhaps the employee learns the company is less than ethical, or is asking for work but not fairly compensating for it. Perhaps the company just loses money and has to lay people off. Perhaps the employee is struggling with the work. What happens to those visa holders?

Nothing good. We were so lucky that my partner found work and got a new visa prior to the pandemic, but if he’d been let go after March 2020? I don’t know what we would have done. There’s nothing we can do about it, but I’d have another regret to add if I didn’t include this here: the government must also allow workers who are no longer with their sponsoring company more than 60 days to sort out their lives. Currently, the sponsoring company has to immediately let the Home Office know when they have parted ways, and then the Home Office (eventually) sends a letter to the visa holder saying they have two months to find a new visa or get out. Now, with delays and back-ups that letter might not come for as many as three months, but there’s no guarantee, so visa holders have to assume that they will need to leave the country within eight weeks. That’s absurd. Six months should be the bare minimum; a year would be better.

It also creates opportunities for abuse within companies. If the sponsored employee is being mistreated, or the terms of employment differ than what was discussed during hiring, what can the employee do? If they quit, they may need to leave the country! And what’s to stop the company from immorally letting the employee go if the employee isn’t a perfect cog in the machine? Are employees meant to stay silent when they witness bad practices or poor employee treatment because in the first two years than can just be fired at will? These rules give employers even more power, and we know companies cannot be trusted to do the right thing when they have that much power.

There are also some pretty insidious rules related to access to benefits, as though someone who finds themselves in a shit situation should be forced to suffer because there are an immigrant when they encounter it. When the furlough scheme was implemented, I raised to my boss that someone needed to get clarification that having our salaries paid by the government wasn’t considered a public benefit; otherwise they’d need to ensure they weren’t furloughing any people working on visas. What a silly, unnecessary stress during an already challenging time.

If I knew what I know now before moving here, I think we would have done a lot of things differently. We might have chosen a different company’s offer to take. We might have picked a different country, one that is more welcoming to people who weren’t born there. I’m happy we live here, and we aren’t planning on leaving any time soon, but we know part of the reason we are able to still be here is because we have access to resources.

With all that said, things have generally worked out for us. I’ve found a decent job working with a wonderful boss and delightful co-workers who could not have been more supportive during the pandemic. I’ve gotten involved with soccer (football) again and love playing every week when we aren’t in lock down. My partner has become extremely involved in organizing and worker rights, and it’s been wonderful to see him flourish there. We’ve made great new friends and deepened friendships with those we knew before. And prior to the pandemic, we were doing wonderful things like spending Christmas in Scotland, or traveling to France repeatedly for the World Cup. Living in London has worked out, so I can’t say anything above is ultimately an actual regret, but those are some lessons I wish I’d learned before we signed on the dotted line.

Monday

15

March 2021

0

COMMENTS

The Emperor’s Babe by Bernardine Evaristo

Written by , Posted in Reviews

Two Stars

Best for:
Fans of the author’s previous work. People who want to have to work really hard to understand what they are reading.

In a nutshell:
Zuleika is a Sudanese woman living in Londinium in 211. She is married as a pre-teen, then eventually starts an affair with the Roman emperor.

Worth quoting:
“She moaned she had no time to herself now. I moaned that was all I had.”

Why I chose it:
It was part of a subscription box.

Review:
I want to challenge myself as a reader, to learn more, to experience different styles of writing, to get inside the lives of others. But I also want to enjoy what I read. When I flipped open this book and saw it was written in verse, my first thought was ‘but why?’ My second thought was ‘I’ve got to at least give it a go.’

Life is short, and I kind of wish I’d gone with my gut on this one.

You likely have heard of author Evaristo – her book “Girl, Woman, Other” was everywhere in 2019 and 2020. My mother in law even recommended it to me, but when I flipped through it and saw it was written in verse, I declined to pick it up. I do not have a literary background, so freely admit that this book was likely just over my head. The plot was pretty loose, and given how few words are on any page when one writes in verse, I was surprised at how long it took me to finish it.

This is not a bad book. It is also not a book I enjoyed at all; I think I’m not sophisticated enough to follow it. I would have thoroughly enjoyed the plot had it been presented as a novella or short story, but for me, it just doesn’t work here.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Donate it

Saturday

13

March 2021

0

COMMENTS

Soccer Goalkeeper Training by Tony Englund and John Pascarella

Written by , Posted in Reviews

Three Stars

Best for:
Coaches of goalkeepers

In a nutshell:
Authors Englund and Pascarella offer their ideas for technique, fitness, tactics, and mental preparation.

Worth quoting:
“Communicate!”

Why I chose it:
I am a goalkeeper.

Review:
I bought this back in 2018 when I started playing football (soccer) again after a couple of years off. When we come out of lock down 3 in England, I will get back on the pitch, this time with a new team, and with a five-month off-season. While I run 8-10K every day, I’ve done virtually no strength or agility training for three months.

Yikes.

I decided to crack this book and while it includes a lot of very good information, it isn’t for me as a player – it is for the coaches. And while I appreciate they use some photos of women keepers, they choose to refer to every goalkeeper as ‘he’. Not exactly an inclusive approach.

I was hoping there would at least be some information in there on exercises one can do to improve strength and agility outside of formal training with one’s team, but there is none of that here. The discussions around different types of tactics were, however, very useful, and I’ll likely review them again regularly to get my mind back on football.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Keep it – some of the training diagrams might come in handy some day.

Friday

12

March 2021

0

COMMENTS

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

Written by , Posted in Reviews

Five Stars

Best for:
Anyone who appreciates excellent investigative reporting, people who are intrigued by true crime, anyone who is interested in the Troubles.

In a nutshell:
Investigative journalist Keefe uses the disappearance of widow and mother of 10 Jean McConville in the early 70s to explore the Troubles, focusing primarily on the Republican fight.

Worth quoting:
N/A (Audio book)

Why I chose it:
I find the Troubles to be an absolutely fascinating part of history. And they are being discussed a bit more often now, as the Good Friday Agreement is at risk due to Brexit.

Review:
For some reason, I have always found Ireland to be interesting. I’ve visited the Republic multiple times, and also spent time in the North, including in Belfast and Derry, where I visited the Museum of Free Derry. I was even accepted to a Masters program in Belfast where I planned to focus my studies on The Troubles, though ultimately I chose another path. I’ve read many books on the topic, and most have been emotive and intriguing, but none have been as well-written and fascinating as this one.

The book feels almost like a crime novel, but it’s about real people. Jane McConville was a widow with ten children, living in the Catholic area of Belfast in the early 1970s, when a group came and took her away. She was never seen again. Her story is the through-line we keep revisiting as Keefe explores some of the major players in the Republican fight for Irish independence in the North of Ireland. Dolours Price is the other main focus of the book, and her story of serving in the violent Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) is much of what keeps the book together.

Keefe explores how Price enlisted in the Provisional IRA (membership in which was and remains a crime) and carried out attacks, including the bombings in London in March 1973, and then engaged in a hunger strike after her conviction in an attempt to be recognized as a political prisoner and returned to Ireland. Keefe follows Gerry Adams as well, who has always claimed he was never a member of the IRA, but who clearly was very high up within the organization.

The book explores how the IRA disappeared some individuals, such as Jane McConville, and the impact that had on their families. But it also looks at the evolution of the movement from a violent one to one that embraced politics, through to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. It then asks the question – what now? Price herself asks that question repeatedly, as she wonders what everything she did in her youth meant, given that the North of Ireland remains part of the UK.

Another intriguing part of the book is how the Belfast Project, which was housed at Boston College, plays a part in solving the McConville mystery. The Project was where individuals secretly recorded their experiences of the Troubles, with the promise that their recordings wouldn’t be released until after their deaths (spoiler: that didn’t happen). The goal was to build an archive of recollections before those with first-hand knowledge died.

I got the audio book version, and it was nearly 15 hours long but ultimately worth it, though I think a physical version would be just as good. Keefe is brilliant at spinning together tons of information without losing his reader.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Keep it