The Reckonings by Lacy M Johnson
"Unflinching and honest...both timely and timeless" (Houston Chronicle), this extraordinary collection of essays by the award-winning writer of The Other Side--rooted in her own experience with sexual assault--pursues questions that strike at the heart of our national conversation about the justness of society.In 2014, Lacy Johnson was giving a reading from The Other Side, her "instant classic" (Kirkus Reviews) memoir of kidnapping and rape, when a woman asked her what she would like to happen to her rapist. This collection "attempts to parcel out several knotted problems and suggests forms of meaningful justice" (Booklist, starred review). Drawing from philosophy, art, literature, mythology, anthropology, film, and her own experience of violence, Johnson considers how our ideas about justice might be expanded beyond vengeance and retribution to include acts of compassion, patience, mercy, and grace.
"The Reckonings is not a book about changing the world. It's philosophy in disguise, equal parts memoir, criticism, and ethics...The twelve essays deserve great consideration, while you read it and long after" (NPR). From "Speak Truth to Power," about the condition of not being believed about rape and assault; to "Goliath," about the ways evil is used as a form of social control; to "The Fallout," about ecological and generational violence, Johnson creates masterful, elaborate, gorgeously written essays that speak incisively about our current era. She grapples with justice and retribution, truth and fairness, and sexual assault and workplace harassment, as well as the broadest societal wrongs: the BP Oil Spill, government malfeasance, police killings. The Reckonings is a powerful and necessary work, ambitious in its scope, which "challenges our culture's expectations of justice and expose the limits of vengeance and mercy" (Ms. Magazine).
Lacy M. Johnson is the co-artistic director of [the invisible city], a location-based storytelling project. She is the author of The Other Side and Trespasses: A Memoir. Her spouse and children reside with her in Houston.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781501159015 |
| ISBN 10 | 1501159011 |
| Title | The Reckonings |
| Author | Lacy M Johnson |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Scribner Book Company |
| Year published | 2019-06-04 |
| Number of pages | 352 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |