I JUST READ THIS TWICE IN A FEW MONTHS. I read it on the subway only, on the way with my sign in the morning. I keep it in the old Patagonia bag I take with me. So it was slow going, a couple pages a day. The train trip is short and I usually stand on the more-crowded return train. ANYWAY, it’s quite a book. Won the Pulitzer Prize. I may read it again. A memoir. A Taiwanese-American student at Berkeley. Why would I read it twice and maybe/probably again? An honest-seeming voice, good details. Very good details. A real life. 

 

Nell Irvin Painter’s understanding of America is beautiful and bracing. 

We should listen.
“I Just Keep Talking” brings together wide-ranging and pointed essays by the author of “The History of White People.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/06/12/nell-irvin-painter-just-keep-talking-essays-review/

 

THE SIGN is by the door ready for 7:40 in the morning when I take it with me to the subway downtown. Many of the same people see me every weekday when I hold the sign on Chambers Street. Some give a thumbs-up every time. A bright-faced Latino young woman folds her hands prayerfully and moves her mouth shyly without making any sound and says, Thank You. Sometimes I say to her, sometimes I say it to others:  It Would Change the World.