To mark Saturday’s protests against the four year war in Iraq, Toronto news blog BlogTO has reviewed Marisa Handler’s timely memoir of political activism Loyal to the Sky:

This book could be read and enjoyed for its interesting environs, its likeable writer, the political insight it offers or its striking and elegant prose.

I enjoyed it for the all of these but primarily for the questions Handler is brave enough to ask. While her answers to humanity’s problems are not entirely satisfactory, it is hard to blame her for falling short. In the full course of human history, far too many people have claimed to have solved these conundrums, while no one actually has.

But Handler has the courage to look within and without, attempting to find a resolution and admitting what she does not know. The best passages are when she gropes for and is eluded by answers. For example, she writes of a New York protest:

“I watch my friends walking and chanting. They are good people, so good that they care about men and women and children they do not know and will never know. They are the conscience of this nation; they will not let these delegates forget what this administration is perpetrating. But this, what we are doing right now - is it helping? Or is it pushing us further apart? We didn’t come here to convince the delegates to change their minds, or to win their esteem. But I can see what they are thinking. Faced with hatred, they hate us right back. That’s what we’ve all learned to do. What would we risk if we tried something different?”

Read the full review

UPDATE!

If you would like to hear Marisa Handler talk about activism and her book Loyal to the Sky, two new podcast interviews with her are available from the Intrepid Liberal Journal and from Uprising Radio.