The Terror Dream by Susan Faludi
It’s been something like, oh, I don’t know, 5 or 6 weeks since I posted any reviews here. I’m 30 reviews behind and TOTALLY NOT PANICKING AT ALL. I taught a summer class, and then I added another part-time teaching gig on top of the primary and online gigs that I have, so exhaustion is high and time is low. I’m going to try to catch up over the weekend, but if you really want real-time updates, follow me on the Goodreads. I’m a much more active reader, and I’m *full* of shade. So. Onto the reviews, yes? I read this book over 4th of July weekend at my in-laws’ house, and I had a whole bunch of review notes. Let’s do this.
I was 16 ½ years old when 9/11 occurred. I can tell you what class I was in and what the weather was like when I found out that a plane struck the World Trade Center. Because I went to a boarding high school (another story for another time), some of the immediate cultural aftershocks were a bit lost on me. And during my early college years, I was still naïve enough to not fully understand them, either. Fast-forward to the Spring Semester of 2011, when I took a Literature and Terrorism course at the tail end of my MA program. I was no longer a Republican, not quite a Democrat, and I was working a lot of things out, both politically and culturally. We read an excerpt of Susan Faludi’s The Terror Dream as part of our theoretical background, and it was so engrossing that I went and bought the book. And then didn’t read until now. I truly mourn the lost time. Read my full review to find out why.