By Shonna Stewart Roxane Gay’s book “Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People’s Business” was a strikingly blunt and overall positive book of essays and a few interviews and some of her own personal experiences as a LGBTQ Black woman trying to make her own way in our current toxic society.
Gay is an eloquent writer and does have her own particular insight, especially when it relates to the LGBTQ and Black communities. It is a collection of previously published essays that she has written over several years, mostly dealing with topics of importance in her life.
While I have no problem reading articles, essays, or even short stories by authors with whom I don’t share the same views, this was particularly heavy and quite grueling reading at times. She is, as I earlier stated, an eloquent writer and very well published as well. But her views and the types of things that she feels compelled to write about were things that the mainstream reader will find difficult to get engrossed in.
Immediately, Gay attacks big issues that provoke outrage from her truly insightful perspective and her unwavering opinions on the “here and now” issues of the last 10 years. Topics that were previously impermissible or risqué to speak of have become the chief topics of her strong feelings and opinions expressed in these small doses of the things that mean the most to her. Gay has an engaging approach and jumps in with such ferocity because she believes deeply in what she is trying to convey and longs for the day that these issues will be a thing of the past.
Several of her earlier essays were forceful and powerful especially when she was speaking about the LGBTQ, women, Black people and particularly Black women. This portion of these essays reads more easily simply because some of these issues are things that women may find relatable. Gay endeavors to approach these topics in a timeless fashion that is easily relatable to women of all ages. Her uncompromising opinions at times make it more difficult to stay engaged with the book, but overall, it is a hard truth that some really need to hear.
Gay focuses almost exclusively on the plight of Black people and the LGBTQ community. She then transitions to her leftist views in the political field and her complete dislike of Donald Trump and anything he stands for. She writes of the triumph that would have been if Hillary Clinton would have become the first woman president and wholeheartedly admits that her views differ in some areas with Clinton, but she would have been a much better choice for our country.
Gay holds nothing back when speaking about what she believes are white supremacists who lead the Republican Party and the country and how they hamper any progress that Barack Obama was able to create. She also has very strong opinions on the plight of the modern woman. Gay is adamant that bodily autonomy should never be something that anyone else has control over. She laments women are tired of living their lives with the anxiety and stress of losing total control of our reproductive freedoms. She is concerned that women’s rights are systematically being eliminated. Later in the book Gay does personal interviews with some celebrities that make the book much more intriguing than her earlier essays. These interviews were very well thought out however she approaches them as a person in awe of the celebrity she is interviewing much like any regular person seeing them on the street and being starstruck. Even as she appears starstruck, Gay converses with these stars as if they are her next-door neighbor. She is not afraid to ask the hard questions and move on if they are not willing to answer. She is gifted in the art of reading the room and knowing when to let go.
Gay ends this collection with several excerpts from some of her advice columns. She is opinionated and has no trouble whatsoever giving her straight up advice on each of the situations. She does this in a lighthearted way that lets the reader know it is just like asking the advice of a sister or best friend. As she did in the beginning, Gay concludes by letting the reader know that this book was indeed her opinions, and she has every right to have them and to express them in her own style. Gay has over the years evolved as a diverse and prolific writer while keeping true to herself and her own beliefs.
Published by Harper Collins, 2023, “Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People’s Business” is available at Amazon, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Target and Walmart.
Shonna Stewart earned a teaching degree in English and has worked for Beckham County for 29 years. She is currently with the Beckham County Assessor’s Office and may be reached at stewarts2000@yahoo.com.