Dirtbag Essays

In this chaotic memoir in essay form, journalist Frost, who is best known as cohost of the Chapo Trap House podcast, reflects on her experiences eschewing capitalism and supporting socialism. Growing up in a working-class family in the right-to-work state of Indiana, Frost embraced the pro-union politics of her extended family, recognized the failings of progressivism, and began working for the Democratic Socialists of America. When she moved to New York, she became a major player in the Occupy Wall Street movement and a vocal supporter of Bernie Sanders, who she considers the only true socialist candidate. The details of her involvement in these two campaigns are interspersed with laid-bare details of her personal life. Frost brims with vitriol--Bernie is spared but even Occupy gets its share--and while obvious targets--George W. Bush, Donald Trump, capitalism--get their due, so do Hilary Clinton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Planned Parenthood, and Barack Obama. Her voice is strong, honest, and distinct, likely further endearing her to fans but rubbing other folks wrong, which is, perhaps, the point.

Chapo Trap House podcaster Frost debuts with an irreverent and acerbic take on the contemporary American socialist movement from the inside of the "dirtbag left" (a term Frost coined). In the book's first section, she recounts her working-class upbringing in Indiana with a single mother; part two covers her history with the Democratic Socialists of America and the Occupy Wall Street movement. In part three, Frost ascribes her support of Bernie Sanders's 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns to seeing "an opportunity for a righteous underdog to maybe right some of the wrongs in our country," and links her penchant for "florid storytelling" to such influences as Hunter S. Thompson and Vivian Gornick. Throughout, Frost is cocksure in tone and style, even when she tiptoes into uncomfortable territory (she bristles at the capitalization of Black--"as if all Black people hail from Blackistan or something"). Still, she admits early on that a "book about a millennial socialist's adventures in left politics" is "hardly reinventing the wheel," and describes the self-doubt she felt "the moment I signed a book contract for a 'memoir' "--one that was "difficult to start writing and even more difficult to finish." While she's often funny, intelligent company, her uncertainty lends the proceedings an air of defensiveness. This will please Frost's admirers, but is unlikely to win over the naysayers. (Dec.)

Acerbic, observant tale of coming of age amid "the unlikely rise (and tragic fall) of a post-2008 wave of social democratic politics." Frost, co-host of the Chapo Trap House podcast, delivers a witty, self-knowing, digressive memoir, noting how her ADHD--inflected mindset has "been given free rein to dictate the literary style of this book." While candid about the ups and downs of her personal life, she maintains an impassioned focus on progressive politics: "Socialism for me is simply a chore that needs to be done." She affectingly describes her upbringing in an economically faded Indiana, influenced by her working-class, pro-union extended family. "I first threw myself into politics," she writes, "out of frustration with an economy that sabotaged the talents, desires, and ambitions of so many people I knew and loved." She realized mainline progressivism's limitations upon moving to New York, working for the Working Families Party, then the Democratic Socialists of America, and, later, Bernie Sanders' presidential campaigns. Along the way, she participated in Occupy Wall Street, and she tartly depicts a transition from exciting to pedantic, noting, "every group at Occupy was always unstable, always vulnerable to tyrannical personalities and disruption." In 2016, the Sanders phenomenon seemed a "realignment campaign" that would "show Americans they could demand more than what the Democrats offered." The odds against Sanders' campaigns (and their sabotage by Democratic leaders) left Frost drained and frustrated. "He was an honest man in the public eye," she writes, "and he was exposing the venality and corruption of the DNC." The author peppers the narrative with incisive analytical digressions and unsparing critiques of politics, including the outsized influence of careerists and other toxic personalities. Underneath it all, she remains optimistic: "if you ever feel your faith depleted, you can have some of mine." Occasionally unfocused, but an informed and original progressive voice. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.