Things Are Against Us (Advance Reader Copy) by Lucy Ellman

 

Things Are Against Us

(Advance Reader Copy)

by Lucy Ellman

I hated this book. Which is very sad, because I loved Ducks, Newburyport and hoped this would be not exactly the same, but similar in tone.

Things Are Against Us, set to be published at the end of September, 2021, is a collection of essays Ellman wrote during the Trump presidency up through the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her theme throughout this book is mostly railing against the patriarchy. And I appreciate that sentiment. However, she just took it way off the rails, for me.

For one thing, I completely disagree with anyone from any sex engaging in a hate-fest against any other sex, and Ellman just goes all in on her hatred for men in this book. She overgeneralizes men like crazy. Pitting women against men is no way to achieve equality or equity. It is the exact way to get more men to hate women. Who wants to help anyone else who openly hates on them? Not me, and I'm nonbinary. Attacking any sex just leads to a reaction, not cooperation.

Ellman's use of language is extremely hyperbolic in these essays, which I get is her schtick, but she goes overboard. Not only against men, but against the US, as well, which is also the subject of very many overgeneralizations of the American public. It's quite disgusting, really. I can see why she gets so much hate sent her way. She's almost asking for it.

Throughout the book Ellman likes to make grand proclamations and plans, yet she rarely explores the reasons things are the way they are, completely forgoing science, human psychology, or even the economic necessities of tourism. If the essays in this book explored both sides of a situation and she argued for her points, I might like the book better.

And then there's Ellman's love of Virginia Woolf, specifically an essay Woolf wrote called "Three Guineas." Ellman cites Woolf's discussion about women slaving away in the home for thousands of years. Never mind that Virginia Woolf had servants, did not, in fact, slave away, and also was an elitist and classist who despised those she saw as beneath her, specifically the maids Ellman is talking about in her own essay. Doesn't sound like a good spokesperson for the topic to me.

So, yeah. Hated it. It had its funny moments, and there was some of the list making and anxiety that I loved in Ducks, Newburyport, but overall I think Ellman is far more successful at getting her point across in fiction, where we at least have some empathy for the characters. I give Things Are Against Us 1 star.