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The Reckonings
This extraordinary, timely new collection of essays by the award-winning writer of The Other Side—rooted in her own experience with sexual assault—pursues questions of justice, sexual violence, and retribution.
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, a meditative extension of that answer, draws from philosophy, art, literature, mythology, anthropology, film, and other fields, as well as Johnson’s personal experience, to consider how our ideas about justice might be expanded beyond vengeance and retribution to include acts of compassion, patience, mercy, and grace.
From “Speak Truth to Power,” about the condition of not being believed about rape and assault; to “Goliath,” about the concept of evil; to “Girlhood in a Semi-Barbarous Age,” about the sacred feminine, “ideal woman,” and feminist art, 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 strikes 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, a meditative extension of that answer, draws from philosophy, art, literature, mythology, anthropology, film, and other fields, as well as Johnson’s personal experience, to consider how our ideas about justice might be expanded beyond vengeance and retribution to include acts of compassion, patience, mercy, and grace.
From “Speak Truth to Power,” about the condition of not being believed about rape and assault; to “Goliath,” about the concept of evil; to “Girlhood in a Semi-Barbarous Age,” about the sacred feminine, “ideal woman,” and feminist art, 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 strikes at the heart of our national conversation about the justness of society.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published October 9, 2018
About the author
Lacy M. Johnson
9 books226 followersLacy M. Johnson is the author of The Reckonings and the memoir The Other Side, which was named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Autobiography, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, an Edgar Award in Best Fact Crime, and the CLMP Firecracker Award in Nonfiction. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Tin House, Guernica, and elsewhere. She lives in Houston and teaches creative nonfiction at Rice University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 120 reviews
December 29, 2018
A solid essay collection that addresses pressing topics ranging from sexual assault to the BP Oil Spill to the power of art in an oppressive society. Lacy Johnson has a confident and inquisitive approach to examining these large-scale issues, as well as how they affect her on an individual level. She arrives at some unexpected, provocative insights in these essays, such as how she does not want to harm the man who kidnapped and raped her, rather, she wants him held accountable for his actions and for him to spend his life helping to create other people’s joy. I appreciated both the strength of her writing on the topics that seemed most familiar to her (e.g., gender and violence) as well as how she tackled a broad array of subjects overall (e.g., the death penalty, natural disasters). While at times I wanted more of a connecting theme across essays or a little more depth in certain essays (e.g., in her essay on whiteness, how can white people more tangibly help defeat white supremacy) I found this a formidable collection that I would recommend to those who are intrigued by its synopsis. I would characterize “Art in the Age of Apocalypses” as my favorite piece due to its hopeful yet urgent examination of the role of art in times of despair.
December 16, 2018
So so so good. Johnson’s writing balances between poetic prose and direct unflowered words. She is genius in her use of language and shared vocabulary. Not to mention each essay tackles major ideas. From rape culture to toxic waste from mercy to joy. This book, like Johnson, is a total force and not to be missed.
June 30, 2019
Fantastic collection, a blend of memoir and essay.
4.5*
4.5*
February 10, 2021
"More than anything else, what I want is a reckoning. Not only for myself, not only for him. I want it for everyone who asks the question: the woman with the crepe paper hands, the man in the ten-gallon hat, the boy who burned and his mother who must have barely lived. I want a reckoning for the woman shot in the back of the head and the man killed while running away -- for the children who survive him. I want a reckoning for the person who believes he deserves to take life, and for the person who has been sentenced to offer his. I want a reckoning for all the wars politicians ask our children to fight on their behalf, and for all the children those wars fail to protect. I want a long line of reckonings. I want the truth told back to us. I want the lies laid bare.
'No,' I say to the woman who has asked the question from the back of the room or from against the wall, or sitting at the head of the table. 'I don't want him dead. I want him to admit all the things he did, to my face, in public, and then to spend the rest of his life in service to other people's joy.'"
'No,' I say to the woman who has asked the question from the back of the room or from against the wall, or sitting at the head of the table. 'I don't want him dead. I want him to admit all the things he did, to my face, in public, and then to spend the rest of his life in service to other people's joy.'"
December 27, 2018
DNF @ 50%
It's a hearty, resounding no from me. Before I go into all the ways this book fails, I will say: Johnson is at her strongest when discussing sexual assault and gender discrimination. This would have been a stronger collection if she had focused on that. Instead, we have a collection that makes little sense in its structure (how do they all fit together?), and makes attempts to be "woke" that end up fairly problematic in their execution.
Onwards and upwards.
General writing annoyances:
* Repetition. The writing can be repetitious at times, especially with key phrases she really likes to shove into all of her essays.
* Style. Not really an annoyance. It's just fine. She's a fine writer.
* Structure. All of the essays I read (so, half), are braided. I like braided essays. It's a great format to work in. But every essay? Show some variation.
Essays that caused me the most grievance:
"Against Whiteness"
Whoa. All this essay does is show that the author needs to do more research before attempting to discuss whiteness and racial disparity in any sort of theoretical way. If you're interested in these conversations, I'd recommend reading some Peggy McIntosh. And, as always, read all of the various men and women of color currently writing on racial discrimination––So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo might be a good place to start if you're brand new to the topic. Don't read this.
Underneath this essay is a deep seated discomfort and inability to actually, in a productive way, discuss the ways in which Johnson benefits from her whiteness. The first half of the essay lays out her desire to mark herself as different from 'those White people' because she's poor, and that somehow makes her different (it doesn't).
Let's look at a quote from the text: “[Rachel Dolezal’s] discomfort with whiteness might more accurately be called a conscience, though having a conscience doesn’t give any white woman the moral authority to become a black woman instead." That's the wrong take on Rachel Dolezal. It's so far off-base, it's the moment I knew I needed to put this book down. If one looks at what Dolezal did and says it's because she has a conscience, and not because she wanted to fetishize Black bodies, one is wrong.
Secondly: stating that some white people didn't know they were white until they got to America, when they had to perform whiteness to fit in, isn't technically wrong, but it's another wrong take and completely disregards the history of racial discrimination.
Thirdly: there's an entire section on how Johnson failed to speak up against the verbal attacks of a white male professor to a junior professor of color in her graduate seminar. When a friend of color in the seminar asked her "where the fuck were you?" (an appropriate response), Johnson sits sullenly and then talks about white guilt a bit, but ultimately by the end of the essay arrives at the conclusion that what happened that day wasn't her responsibility. That's true. But, it's still a failing on her part to speak up and say anything. You can not be responsible for something, and also fail at saying something while it's happening. That doesn't resolve you. It's still a failing. And ending with an attempt at a powerful "let's just burn it all down" statement disregards her own personal failings in that moment. It's okay to fail, but you have to recognize why you failed and think about how you can do better. By the end of this, I don't see any concrete steps Johnson has taken to be better.
"On Mercy"
Kid cancer ward tragedy porn is so The Fault in Our Stars that I almost couldn't believe it was here, but yup. There it was. And, it was somehow paralleled with the death penalty and racial discrimination in our judicial system (not well, mind you).
This essay made me deeply uncomfortable. So uncomfortable, I had to leave my house. The fact that a) she chose to describe in detail how these kids looked and acted as they were dying, as she was teaching them and b) the fact that she then decided to put them in conversation with her lack of compassion and inability to talk about grief left a sour taste in my mouth. Coupled with the parallel to the death penalty, and that's how we get lazy writing.
Just read Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, and let's not do the kid cancer ward tragedy porn anymore. Their stories, their endings, should not be in service to our own stories.
So, just don't do it. Don't read this. Read any of the other things I've recommended, but don't read this. It's a trash fire.
It's a hearty, resounding no from me. Before I go into all the ways this book fails, I will say: Johnson is at her strongest when discussing sexual assault and gender discrimination. This would have been a stronger collection if she had focused on that. Instead, we have a collection that makes little sense in its structure (how do they all fit together?), and makes attempts to be "woke" that end up fairly problematic in their execution.
Onwards and upwards.
General writing annoyances:
* Repetition. The writing can be repetitious at times, especially with key phrases she really likes to shove into all of her essays.
* Style. Not really an annoyance. It's just fine. She's a fine writer.
* Structure. All of the essays I read (so, half), are braided. I like braided essays. It's a great format to work in. But every essay? Show some variation.
Essays that caused me the most grievance:
"Against Whiteness"
Whoa. All this essay does is show that the author needs to do more research before attempting to discuss whiteness and racial disparity in any sort of theoretical way. If you're interested in these conversations, I'd recommend reading some Peggy McIntosh. And, as always, read all of the various men and women of color currently writing on racial discrimination––So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo might be a good place to start if you're brand new to the topic. Don't read this.
Underneath this essay is a deep seated discomfort and inability to actually, in a productive way, discuss the ways in which Johnson benefits from her whiteness. The first half of the essay lays out her desire to mark herself as different from 'those White people' because she's poor, and that somehow makes her different (it doesn't).
Let's look at a quote from the text: “[Rachel Dolezal’s] discomfort with whiteness might more accurately be called a conscience, though having a conscience doesn’t give any white woman the moral authority to become a black woman instead." That's the wrong take on Rachel Dolezal. It's so far off-base, it's the moment I knew I needed to put this book down. If one looks at what Dolezal did and says it's because she has a conscience, and not because she wanted to fetishize Black bodies, one is wrong.
Secondly: stating that some white people didn't know they were white until they got to America, when they had to perform whiteness to fit in, isn't technically wrong, but it's another wrong take and completely disregards the history of racial discrimination.
Thirdly: there's an entire section on how Johnson failed to speak up against the verbal attacks of a white male professor to a junior professor of color in her graduate seminar. When a friend of color in the seminar asked her "where the fuck were you?" (an appropriate response), Johnson sits sullenly and then talks about white guilt a bit, but ultimately by the end of the essay arrives at the conclusion that what happened that day wasn't her responsibility. That's true. But, it's still a failing on her part to speak up and say anything. You can not be responsible for something, and also fail at saying something while it's happening. That doesn't resolve you. It's still a failing. And ending with an attempt at a powerful "let's just burn it all down" statement disregards her own personal failings in that moment. It's okay to fail, but you have to recognize why you failed and think about how you can do better. By the end of this, I don't see any concrete steps Johnson has taken to be better.
"On Mercy"
Kid cancer ward tragedy porn is so The Fault in Our Stars that I almost couldn't believe it was here, but yup. There it was. And, it was somehow paralleled with the death penalty and racial discrimination in our judicial system (not well, mind you).
This essay made me deeply uncomfortable. So uncomfortable, I had to leave my house. The fact that a) she chose to describe in detail how these kids looked and acted as they were dying, as she was teaching them and b) the fact that she then decided to put them in conversation with her lack of compassion and inability to talk about grief left a sour taste in my mouth. Coupled with the parallel to the death penalty, and that's how we get lazy writing.
Just read Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, and let's not do the kid cancer ward tragedy porn anymore. Their stories, their endings, should not be in service to our own stories.
So, just don't do it. Don't read this. Read any of the other things I've recommended, but don't read this. It's a trash fire.
April 30, 2019
I absolutely loved this essay collection. The topics range from sexual assault to environmental recklessness, from the injustice of the prison system to the responsibility of art, from white privilege to cultural prejudice after 9/11. The way the reader can take part in her working through personal situations that are reflective of broader and global issues of justice is truly fascinating and so smart and considerate. I can definitely see myself picking up this collection again and again. Highly recommend.
March 11, 2019
There's quite simply no one writing like Lacy M. Johnson--a prose stylist and critic looking at the events of the past three years with her cocktail of rigor, empathy, and rage; I ate through these pages like someone was going to rip them from my hands. The focus on justice without revenge, reckoning with mercy, was exactly what I needed <3 Thank you
December 14, 2022
Thoughtful and thought-provoking essays on feminism in action, racism, citizenship, environmental matters. and other things. I learned a lot here, including a bit about how the Houston floods were made more deadly by the floating detritus of the many many many Superfund sites in the region. This information ratcheted up my interest in Johnson's most recent book which is about the floods. For my friends who enjoy sharp beautifully written cultural criticism, I recommend checking this out.
June 11, 2018
I thought the premise of this book was brilliant and really enjoyed the essays, particularly "The Fallout," which is about toxic waste from nuclear weapons and the idea of environmental racism/classism. Perfect next read for fans of Leslie Jamison and Zadie Smith
August 28, 2018
When I began to read The Reckonings, I was already familiar with Lacy M. Johnson from her books Trespasses: A Memoir and The Other Side: A Memoir, so I was eager to delve into it. The introduction, in which Johnson sets up the project she's undertaking here--an ambitious one--caught me immediately and intrigued me, as she wrestled with the idea of justice. How can we understand this concept, and what do we do with it once we do? Johnson fuses her personal experiences with her vast store of references from a mind-boggling number of sources and disciplines to take us on a journey to explore these questions.
As I read essay after essay, I became intrigued to discover what held them together--what made them speak beyond the topic they addressed to those bigger issues of justice. When I got to the essay "Against Whiteness," all of those earlier chapters came together for me, as the through line became clear. From there, I couldn't put down this collection, and when, in the final essay, Johnson reflects on her life as a runner and what that means to these same questions of justice that she explores through so many lenses, I found myself genuinely moved and wanting only to go back to the beginning to read it all again. Read this book. Then, read it again. I know I will.
April 22, 2020
Lacy Johnson dives deep into the concept of justice and violence and holds nothing back. She poses so many difficult questions but no easy answers. Her essay "Against Whiteness" in particular is one I can see myself returning to for years to come.
August 28, 2018
4.5 rating (and yes I'm gonna keep pushing for a half-star rating system)
"The Reckonings," "On Mercy," "Speak Truth to Power," "Art in the Age of Apocalypses," "The Flood," and "The Fallout" are some of the most standout essays, to me, of this collection but as a whole it really does hold it's own in interrogation and exploration post-trauma, in the moment and now of a world we live in and aim to make better. The differentiation between hope and optimism within "Art in the Age" pretty much signifies the heart of Johnson's latest collection because it weaves through this while never looking away from the brutality and violence we each endure in our own ways and have very well projected to others. To be in pain is not to be unfeeling and turning the page doesn't always mean a resolution but further inquiry.
"The Reckonings," "On Mercy," "Speak Truth to Power," "Art in the Age of Apocalypses," "The Flood," and "The Fallout" are some of the most standout essays, to me, of this collection but as a whole it really does hold it's own in interrogation and exploration post-trauma, in the moment and now of a world we live in and aim to make better. The differentiation between hope and optimism within "Art in the Age" pretty much signifies the heart of Johnson's latest collection because it weaves through this while never looking away from the brutality and violence we each endure in our own ways and have very well projected to others. To be in pain is not to be unfeeling and turning the page doesn't always mean a resolution but further inquiry.
January 29, 2020
Powerful essays on misogyny, racism, climate change, elections, and the role of art in seeking for justice. I appreciate how this book deals with the Big Issues without ever leaving behind small and nuanced personal experiences.
Especially recommended for those who are grappling with the thorny question of justice for rapists and predators. Johnson, herself a survivor of rape and attempted murder, is searching out ways to seek justice without buying into the retributive criminal justice system.
Especially recommended for those who are grappling with the thorny question of justice for rapists and predators. Johnson, herself a survivor of rape and attempted murder, is searching out ways to seek justice without buying into the retributive criminal justice system.
April 25, 2019
heartbreaking, breathtaking, all-the-taking, yet it gives so much back too
February 6, 2022
What would you do if someone did something really, really horrible to you? How would you react? What would you feel? And how would you want to treat this person, or have them treated by others?
In The Reckonings, Lacy M. Johnson has written a book of essays about lots of horrible, terrible, painful things. Some of these have been directed at her specifically, others she has been one of many directly effected by them, and still others she been involved in a more casual or subtle way. Be it rape, or hurricane, or flood, or the election of a misogynist bigot, each of these things caused incredible pain and Johnson has pondered how she should respond to these injustices. She then wrote an excellent book about what she experienced, what she pondered, and how she responded.
I have wrestled with this question many times in my life; how to react to something that causes you pain. I’m pretty sure that everyone has, at one time or another. When someone else is the cause of the pain, I often get angry and then want to lash out, to get revenge. Somehow the old eye for and eye thing seems like a good idea and, if you are really angry, two eyes for an eye is even better.
In another excellent book I read, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger by Rebecca Traister, she speaks to the power of anger. Anger, she points out, is an excellent motivator, a way to get you up and doing. She points out that men often make use of anger while, for the most part, anger is something that women for centuries have been forbidden to engage in. For Traister, women need to get in touch with their anger in order to mobilize and motivate themselves. She makes many good points in her book.
Johnson, in her set of essays, takes a different tack. Anger and revenge do not make things better. Deep down, they don’t even make you feel better. She talks about compassion and community and sisterhood and pooling resources and performing mitzvahs, and speaking truth. I am amazed that a woman who has been hurt to this degree can put aside revenge and take up the task of rebuilding. She seems to have an inner strength that I can only dream about.
Which of these women is right? Are they speaking about completely different things or just opposite sides of the same coin? I have no answers to these questions. What I do know is that each of these books made me think and look at both myself and the world in new and different ways. The Reckonings was a very difficult book to read but well worth the time and effort.
In The Reckonings, Lacy M. Johnson has written a book of essays about lots of horrible, terrible, painful things. Some of these have been directed at her specifically, others she has been one of many directly effected by them, and still others she been involved in a more casual or subtle way. Be it rape, or hurricane, or flood, or the election of a misogynist bigot, each of these things caused incredible pain and Johnson has pondered how she should respond to these injustices. She then wrote an excellent book about what she experienced, what she pondered, and how she responded.
I have wrestled with this question many times in my life; how to react to something that causes you pain. I’m pretty sure that everyone has, at one time or another. When someone else is the cause of the pain, I often get angry and then want to lash out, to get revenge. Somehow the old eye for and eye thing seems like a good idea and, if you are really angry, two eyes for an eye is even better.
In another excellent book I read, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger by Rebecca Traister, she speaks to the power of anger. Anger, she points out, is an excellent motivator, a way to get you up and doing. She points out that men often make use of anger while, for the most part, anger is something that women for centuries have been forbidden to engage in. For Traister, women need to get in touch with their anger in order to mobilize and motivate themselves. She makes many good points in her book.
Johnson, in her set of essays, takes a different tack. Anger and revenge do not make things better. Deep down, they don’t even make you feel better. She talks about compassion and community and sisterhood and pooling resources and performing mitzvahs, and speaking truth. I am amazed that a woman who has been hurt to this degree can put aside revenge and take up the task of rebuilding. She seems to have an inner strength that I can only dream about.
Which of these women is right? Are they speaking about completely different things or just opposite sides of the same coin? I have no answers to these questions. What I do know is that each of these books made me think and look at both myself and the world in new and different ways. The Reckonings was a very difficult book to read but well worth the time and effort.
Read
February 10, 2021so good
November 26, 2018
“speak truth to power”, “the reckonings”, and “girlhood in a semibarbarous age” are all based around her experiences and are all very good.
when she focuses on other people’s realities though, she forms a lot of very tenuous links - “on mercy” being a good example of this imo. the essays on race are also just not good or necessary tbh.
when she focuses on other people’s realities though, she forms a lot of very tenuous links - “on mercy” being a good example of this imo. the essays on race are also just not good or necessary tbh.
December 16, 2019
A strong collection of essays revolving around the idea of justice. Definitely interested in reading more from Johnson.
October 11, 2018
Histories of dreams upside down, histories of terrible crimes, children dying, towns flooded, the evil that men in particular do, and with the darkness there is writing of joy, love, hope and courage.
Necessary truth work with the myriad of complexities with justices and injustices, the fears, hopes, love and hate, laid out on the page with a great selection of writing.
A writer finding herself free upon the page, discovered her potent voice and with that a meditation on things past and within the whirlwind of her mind, beating against her heart these resounding testaments of reckonings of hers.
“Writing can change us, make us better, stronger people whose actions, though they may seem small and inconsequential at the time, can matter, for ourselves and for the world.”
Writings, necessary readings, therapeutic and meditative, must-reads to re-read, let others read, and for some to have hope and empathy that there is someone else that has walked in those footsteps, especially with mental health awareness starting to be generated, people taking their lives, you are not alone, with craft in writing, honesty, courage, and paying forward, Lacy Johnson has written something very important for our times.
Review with excerpts @ https://more2read.com/review/the-reckonings-essays-by-lacy-m-johnson/
Necessary truth work with the myriad of complexities with justices and injustices, the fears, hopes, love and hate, laid out on the page with a great selection of writing.
A writer finding herself free upon the page, discovered her potent voice and with that a meditation on things past and within the whirlwind of her mind, beating against her heart these resounding testaments of reckonings of hers.
“Writing can change us, make us better, stronger people whose actions, though they may seem small and inconsequential at the time, can matter, for ourselves and for the world.”
Writings, necessary readings, therapeutic and meditative, must-reads to re-read, let others read, and for some to have hope and empathy that there is someone else that has walked in those footsteps, especially with mental health awareness starting to be generated, people taking their lives, you are not alone, with craft in writing, honesty, courage, and paying forward, Lacy Johnson has written something very important for our times.
Review with excerpts @ https://more2read.com/review/the-reckonings-essays-by-lacy-m-johnson/
February 5, 2019
Lacy Johnson is a thoughtful, intelligent writer. She takes on subjects that she feels are important to address; however this essay collection fell a little short for me.
It becomes difficult to review the thoughts and personal experiences of another. There was a certain disjointed quality to this collection that I'd hoped more organized thoughts Would remedy. Maybe it was overly ambitious in scope. It failed to resonate with me as other essay collections of the same subject matters have.
I am intrigued by her first book, a personal narrative of her abusive relationship that culminated in her kidnapping and imprisonment. Johnson's language is often lyrical and poetic and somewhat stream of consciousness which may lend to her personal story of violence.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for allowing me to review this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.
It becomes difficult to review the thoughts and personal experiences of another. There was a certain disjointed quality to this collection that I'd hoped more organized thoughts Would remedy. Maybe it was overly ambitious in scope. It failed to resonate with me as other essay collections of the same subject matters have.
I am intrigued by her first book, a personal narrative of her abusive relationship that culminated in her kidnapping and imprisonment. Johnson's language is often lyrical and poetic and somewhat stream of consciousness which may lend to her personal story of violence.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for allowing me to review this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.
January 17, 2019
Many thanks to Scribner Books for my free copy of THE RECKONINGS.
This is an extraordinary collection of essays and one of my favorites to date. I have never read Johnson’s THE OTHER SIDE but when I finished this book, I immediately purchased a copy. Her use of language and poetic prose is a magnificent, powerful force.
Each essay is thoughtful, introspective, and timely - they can each stand on their own but especially shine as a collection. Johnson covers a range of topics such as criminal justice, sexual assault, racism, environmental issues, and hopelessness to joy while using art, history, and her own personal experiences throughout. The writing is intelligent, sharply observant, honest, deeply moving, and supremely executed.
THE RECKONINGS is an exceptional collection of work and I thank my friends at Scribner for surprising me with this masterpiece.
This is an extraordinary collection of essays and one of my favorites to date. I have never read Johnson’s THE OTHER SIDE but when I finished this book, I immediately purchased a copy. Her use of language and poetic prose is a magnificent, powerful force.
Each essay is thoughtful, introspective, and timely - they can each stand on their own but especially shine as a collection. Johnson covers a range of topics such as criminal justice, sexual assault, racism, environmental issues, and hopelessness to joy while using art, history, and her own personal experiences throughout. The writing is intelligent, sharply observant, honest, deeply moving, and supremely executed.
THE RECKONINGS is an exceptional collection of work and I thank my friends at Scribner for surprising me with this masterpiece.
January 16, 2019
This was the first read in my book club and unfortunately it fell flat for me. It brought up pressing topics but with little substance and I felt like there was more ‘feeling’ than facts, she could’ve provided a little more substance/background. The book was all over the place jumping from one topic to another, I wish she would’ve stuck with one and ran with it. It was magazine-esque, lets cover all the bases to make everyone happy. Surprise us, make us mad, make us cry, make us feel uncomfortable, make us feel something. I finished the book knowing an agenda with no substance was being pushed. I just finished ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’, that book gave me chills, it made me think differently about research and what happens to my ‘specimens’ when I leave them at the hospital. This book tried to do that but failed.
October 9, 2018
I began reading The Reckonings the weekend Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court—this book could not have arrived in my hands at a more appropriate moment. In The Reckonings, Lacy M. Johnson confronts justice and mercy, the silencing of survivors of sexual assault, whiteness’s refusal to examine white privilege, the function of art in a fucked up world. Johnson has an exceptional skill for intricately woven essays, pulling pieces of history, art, myth, and personal narrative together. This is a stunning, timely collection.
Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for providing me with a digital galley for review.
Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for providing me with a digital galley for review.
May 15, 2019
This is a powerful collection of essays, many with deep research for context, mainly about justice--what it means, how we find it, when it's missing--in many realms, i.e., in violence against women, the environment, race and discrimination. Lacey Johnson's style is to hook you in with quiet moments and observations, and then take you deeper into the issues historically, philosophically, scientifically, morally.
April 12, 2019
3.5/5
This is a really good essay collection! It's not my favorite ever but it had a ton of good information and it reads like a conversation (which is my favorite in nonfiction). I do wish the footnotes at the end had actually been noted throughout the book. It didn't make as much sense to read them after, especially since I had no easy way of checking the main text for context. However, I would still recommend it. The author has lead a really interesting life and she backs up her own anecdotes with research, making for powerful arguments.
This is a really good essay collection! It's not my favorite ever but it had a ton of good information and it reads like a conversation (which is my favorite in nonfiction). I do wish the footnotes at the end had actually been noted throughout the book. It didn't make as much sense to read them after, especially since I had no easy way of checking the main text for context. However, I would still recommend it. The author has lead a really interesting life and she backs up her own anecdotes with research, making for powerful arguments.
August 12, 2020
Collection of essays about anchored in personal experience and research. Each essay examines violence (sexual, environmental, racist, and more). I especially liked the definition of injustice and justice the author provides in the final essay. “Injustice is anything that gets between a person and their joy”
File under: not uplifting, thought provoking
Learned about: sexual violence, violence, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, justice, illness, racism, whiteness, Missouri, environmental toxins, superfunds
File under: not uplifting, thought provoking
Learned about: sexual violence, violence, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, justice, illness, racism, whiteness, Missouri, environmental toxins, superfunds
February 6, 2019
Lacy M. Johnson is a masterful essayist, and this collection makes me want to buy and read her others, as well. Many of the essays concern sexual assault from a justice perspective, specifically her own kidnapping and assault. But Johnson then branches out into politics, race, and environmentalism. There's also a beautiful, personal piece about her experience during Hurricane Harvey (she's a Houstonian, woo!), during which she examines her privilege. I admire the way these essays manage to be cohesive together, despite not being too related in subject matter.
Shelved as 'abandoned'
February 22, 2020This collection is really not resonating with me. I’m moving it to the DNF shelf part way through the essay titled Mercy. It’s a braided essay (like the others before) and the connections are tenuous at best, problematic at worst. Maybe a case of it’s not you, it’s me. Dunno. Onward and upward.
November 3, 2019
Ferocious, brilliant examination of justice—how we envision it, what it encompasses. These essays leave me with so much to think about that I’ll be mulling them over for many years.
December 9, 2018
I only wish I’d read the fascinating notes st the end upon finishing each separate chapter. They alone are worth the read. Deeply moving, smart, far-ranging essays on everything that matters. Strongly recommended.
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