A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town
(PublicAffairs, $28)
A great read and “an even better Coen brothers film,” this darkly comic book delivers hard lessons for anybody who believes government is what ails America, said Reid Forgrave in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. In 2004, a handful of activists selected a tiny town in New Hampshire as the perfect place to establish a libertarian utopia—and succeeded in adding 200 new residents and seizing control of the local government. But tempers flared in little Grafton, N.H., as spending was slashed, potholes bloomed, a tent city sprang up, and old-timers learned more about gunwielding newcomers’ sometimes offensive views. Then the real trouble began. Though “the character portrayals are what make this book,” the marauding black bears might be the inhabitants of Grafton that you’ll remember longest.
Unfortunately, author Matthew HongoltzHetling “sees his story as one great big joke,” said Elizabeth Austin in Washington Monthly. The fiercest supporters of the Free Town Project, with their elaborate facial hair and rusty pickups, “present him with seemingly limitless opportunities to display his own cleverness,” and the award-winning Vermont-based journalist grabs almost every one. But really, it’s “not at all funny” that across four years Grafton’s population of sex offenders jumped from eight to 22. Or that suddenly impoverished town workers started going without heat in the winter. Or
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Pachinko
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Men Explain Things to Me
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Little Fires Everywhere
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Tiny Beautiful Things
by Ottessa Moshfegh (2018). I was surprised by this novel, which is so painful and yet so hilarious. Moshfegh has created an incredibly interesting and twisted protagonist, and I couldn’t help cringing even as I excitedly turned each page.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
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A Little Life