How to Be Safe
McAllister, Tom
Recently suspended for a so-called outburst, high school English teacher Anna Crawford is stewing over the injustice at home when she is shocked to see herself named on television as a suspect in a shooting at the school where she works. Though she is quickly exonerated, and the actual teenage murderer identified, her life is nevertheless held up for relentless scrutiny and judgment as this quiet town descends into media mania. This is a piercing feminist howl written in trenchant prose, a compulsively readable, darkly funny expos? of the hypocrisy that ensues when illusions of peace are shattered.
Publisher: New York :, Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company,, [2018]
Branch Call Number: F McAllister
Read more reviews of How to Be Safe at iDreamBooks.com
laphampeak May 02, 2018
What an insightful way to tell a story of a school shooting described by the main character Anna which paralleled her own life's drama. McAllister relays to the reader the many ways our present life skews our sense of safety and yet he didn't sensationalize or put it into another "timely story". This novel is written with sensitivity, depth, and laugh-at-yourself wit.
LPL_PolliK Mar 28, 2018
How to Be Safe is an incredible, much-needed book for our times. It introduces us to Anna Crawford, a former teacher who faces a moment of scrutiny when her school suffers from a shooting. But a moment is all it takes to utterly destroy her life and the lives of everyone around her. A searing indictment of toxic masculinity, gun culture, the 24/7 news cycle, and sexism. Tightly written and hard to put down.
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