When I was reading this book, I was periodically thinking, what are my Senators reading? Can I send my Senators an email asking them to read this book? Can I send them the book in the mail with a little note that says “read this book before you take another vote on the senate floor, stay up all night if you have to, I am”? I mean, can I make them present a book report to us after they are done reading to make sure they comprehend it fully?
And then I also wondered, does reading help us have more empathy, or does having empathy unfold the world inside a book as we read it? I think it is a combination of the two. I wish the people around me, the people who vote alongside me, the people who represent me at the Michigan State Capitol and in Washington DC had more empathy and understanding. Karla Cornejo Villavicencio writes with so much love, so much understanding, so much empathy, maybe if just a little of it rubbed off on every reader, we would live in a better world. But I should also tell you, Villavicencio writes with such anger and pain. And it is that anger that lets readers like me know, the documented know: you are culpable. It is her anger that does not let you get away with reading this book and thinking it has nothing to do with you, because it absolutely does have everything to do with you. And on top of all that, she is funny even when writing about her darkest moments.
Read this book, give it for your documented neighbor, your local sheriff, your senator, and if you see Ted Cruz in the airport bookstore – would you please buy him a copy?