one day, everyone will have always been against this

one day, everyone will have always been against this by omar el akkad

Devastating. What a true and brutal read. I’ve been looking at this book on my shelf for months now, trying to get into the headspace to read it. It sat in my backpack on at least one trip, bounced around from desk to end table to shelf, until finally this week I cracked it open. It’s beautifully written, and once I started it I found it a very easy read (well, “easy” is wrong - it’s exhausting and brutal and deeply challenging in its content, but the form and structure and writing is brilliantly and elegantly straightforward).

I think the book is right across the board. I think everyone should read this book. I don’t know what it means for me to do, but it must be something. It’s been almost a year and a half since the book came out, and it’s interesting to see how little things have changed. “interesting” could and should be replaced with “devastating” or “heartbreaking” in that last sentence.