Name: Ainsley Jeffery's review of Some of My Best Friends by Tajja Isen
Item: Some of My Best Friends
Rating: 3
Author: Ainsley Jeffery

Tajja Isen

A fearless and darkly comic debut essay collection about race, justice, and the limits of good intentions. In this stunning debut, Catapult editor and award-winning voice actor Tajja Isen explores the absurdity of living in a world that apologizes for structural racism, yet makes only cosmetic attempts to solve it. These nine daring essays explore the quick fixes society makes to mask systemic problems: the entertainment industry’s pivot away from colorblind casting; diverse representation in books as an answer to literary whiteness; the law’s erasure of forms of inequality; the cozy fictions of nationalism. In the spirit of Zadie Smith, Cathy Park Hong, and Jia Tolentino, Isen interlaces cultural criticism with her own lived experience to create a remarkable portrait of who we are and how we live today. Ultimately, Some of My Best Friends is interested in the discords between what we say and what we do; what we do and what we value; what we value and what we imagine to be possible.

Some of My Best Friends

Ainsley Jeffery

Boothby

I think chapters 1 on voice acting, chapter 4 on the personal essays and chapter 8 on the politics of demands were the standouts. 

Well crafted, insightful essays

Ainsley Jeffery &
Some of My Best Friends by Tajja Isen

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Ainsley Jeffery &Some of My Best Friends by Tajja Isen

Reviews

Join the club

Ainsley Jeffery &
Some of My Best Friends by Tajja Isen