
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Hey, I liked this one too!
And the thing I liked, most particularly (still not the mystery) is how this relationship is between two really different people. The most obvious way is in their politics – she’s a bleeding heart liberal, he’s a head-in-the-sand social conservative in the way some people are by virtue of pretending that a lot of problems aren’t problems. And they argue about this stuff! Like grownups! In ways that make neither of them look stupid in the long term! That is so refreshing. I had no idea how tired I was of the sameness of romantic relationships – we love each other because we think the same way about everything important.
(Although points off for trotting out one of the more damaging liberal clichés: the “I know you’re not a homophobe because you care enough to worry about the question.” Uh, no. That’s what we call self-congratulatory crap. Knowing enough to ask the question is not an inoculation against being a homophobe/racist/whatever, because the isms are systemic and subconscious. “You can’t be a homophobe, you’re worried about being a homophobe,” is a correlate to the lovely thought that brought us hipster racism. And it does not belong in this otherwise thoughtful, deeply humane book.)
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