Three Quick Takes

 Wretched of the Earth

I picked this off my too read shelf since it had been too long and with the resurgence of the BLM movement this summer I thought I should read something that dealt with the issue. Here is it’s a little oblique, but overall Fanon’s work is still relevant today.

Sartre and Bhabha help put the work into context, and the essays of the book have an amazingly contemporary feel – much to my chagrin that we haven’t put these issues in the distant past. The only real critique is that there doesn’t feel like an overall arc, but I think that was more my expectations of the book being a singular theoretical text prior to reading it. 

The Book of Dust

I bought this because it was a Philip Pullman book that was a prequel to the Golden Compass series.

If you’re a fan of the series, this is a nice setup for the series as it delves you deeper into the world. I think it would also work if you had not read the series since it is a stand alone chase narrative. The only thing that might throw you off is some of the world building that was done in the original series, but that’s explained here just in less depth.

Overall, a fun read.

The Secret Commonwealth

I bought this because it was a Philip Pullman book that was a prequel to the Golden Compass series, and I had just read the Book of Dust and enjoyed it.

This one subverted my expectations a bit. The Book of Dust took place before the action of the Golden Compass, but this takes place after the action. So, the main character is four books in at the point and a surly late teenager. It was a bit jarring and it really took me a while to get into the book because there’s a central conflict between two characters that really didn’t feel right within the universe and in prior characterization. But once it does get going it is a page turner, just feel like Pullman stuck a bit of a wrong note here. 

It does, however, make you want to keep reading into the series, so it does play its role as a bridge effectively.