Tajja Isen

Some of My Best Friends: Essays on Lip Service by Tajja Isen is a collection of essays that use the personal to examine the broader society. In doing so it leads the active reader into examining their own personal worlds for similarities.

These essays draw the reader into Isen's own world enough that we can step at least a bit into her shoes as we learn about what she has seen and experienced. From there we are given both her personal reflections and the various research and data that has influenced her understanding. This aspect of the book is what makes it a good read, we can chuckle or shake our heads (or scratch them) while we also learn about the industries within which she has worked and studied.

The strength of the book and what makes it even more important is how, for an active reader, we can take her specific experiences and use the new perspective we have at least partially been offered and look at the various communities (geographic, work, study, leisure, etc) we inhabit. Claiming an inability to relate because Isen's experiences are different from ours is disingenuous at best and makes a much bigger statement about you. I have yet to read a book where the writer's experiences align with mine, if I want to seek difference I can always find it. But I hope I can find whatever lessons or ideas in a book that I can apply to my life and my part of the world. The same holds true here and it was not difficult to see parallels between what I was reading and things in my life, albeit from very different positions.

I think one question someone like myself (older, male, mostly and almost always perceived as white) should keep in mind while reading this book, and probably most books, is: how often have I, intentionally or not, just paid lip service? This shouldn't be looked at as accusatory, especially if you're asking it of yourself. It should be exploratory so you can see where you could have done better, and then maybe do better next time. Isen does not write in a way that makes a reader like myself get defensive but rather she makes me want to look beyond the kneejerk reactions we often use to substitute for actual nuanced engagement with a less than ideal situation.

While not a memoir (I echo another reviewer who would welcome a full-fledged memoir) this will appeal to those who like to read about someone's personal history in relation to the topic they have chosen to tackle. For those who simply enjoy the essay form, this is an excellent collection. Most of all this will resonate with readers who want as many perspectives as possible on race, justice, and what we can do.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (altro)