“I have a lot of opinions and I come by them honestly,” Roxane Gay writes in the introduction to a new anthology of her essays. The academic and author, whose 2014 collection, Bad Feminist, became a bestseller and cultural touchstone, has gained a devoted fanbase for her insightful, witty and accessible prose. Whether her subject is sexual assault or cookery programmes, Gay has an ability to blend the personal and political in a way that feels simultaneously gentle and brutal.
Opinions brings together previously published columns from the Guardian, New York Times and Harper’s among others – alongside a few celebrity profiles and advice pieces from the past decade. The collection, which is divided into themed sections with titles such as Man Problems and Civic Responsibilities, covers everything from musings on the Fast and Furious franchise, to the legacy of Toni Morrison, to cancel culture. It is a testament to Gay’s writing, as well as an indictment of our politics, that nothing here feels dated. Her first piece, “Tragedy plays on an infinite loop”, was originally published in 2014, in the wake of the killing of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. It’s about how technology has transformed tragedy into spectacle. “We bear witness to the worst of human brutality, retweet what we have witnessed, and then we move on to the next atrocity. There is always more atrocity.”
