Book No. 43 of 2021
Hough’s viral essay on her experiences as a “cable guy” (which has been adapted into a chapter here) still haunts me, and so it was a no brainer that I had to read her book when it came out. I really enjoyed and was moved by the book, which is raw and vulnerable yet powerful and bittersweetly beautiful. Trauma is a through line of her essays and the observations she makes of the world around her have a sense of clarity and urgency about them. She’s one of those people who has really seen some sh*t, and reading her essays, I felt a sense of gratitude for her wit and thoughtfulness and power.
One thing that struck me is that while Hough writes plainly about her childhood in a cult, she casts her light not on the clickbaity details of cult life but on the insidious workings of cult psychology. (She also draws connections to how that type of mentality and the need for a group identity is pervasive in places like the military—and how her identity as a gay woman made her career as an airman untenable.) She is unflinchingly direct about the damaging American mythology about hardship and poverty, and the final essay on how she sees cult-like thinking reflected in modern America is a must-read for our times.
Similar Reads
I was reminded of other reads by people who grew up in cults/ultra-religious communities: Educated by Tara Westover, Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood, Whistleblower by Susan Fowler.
Several of Hough’s essays touch on themes that reminded me of Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing.