NPR

'The Reckonings,' Examines What It Means To Have Justice

Writing about topics as diverse as race, sexual assault, Hurricane Harvey, and art history, Lacy M. Johnson's essays are together a philosophy in disguise — equal parts memoir, criticism, and ethics.
Source: PR

When writer and poet Lacy M. Johnson was in her 20s, a man who she had recently broken up with kidnapped and raped her.

She wrote about her escape and recovery in the 2014 memoir The Other Side. As she began speaking about the book in public, a pattern emerged: Readers she encountered suggested that Johnson must want her rapist killed, or imprisoned, or tortured.

", strangers tell me," Johnson writes in the essay that opens her tour de

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from NPR

NPR2 min read
Gaza Solidarity Protests Sweep U.S. Colleges; SCOTUS Tackles Starbucks Union Case
Tensions are high as campus protests over the war in Gaza stretch across the U.S. The Supreme Court will hear a case about pro-union Starbucks employees.
NPR6 min read
A Hunk Of Space Junk Crashed Through A Florida Man's Roof. Who Should Pay To Fix It?
"It was not like anything I had ever seen before," Alejandro Otero says. It turned out his home was hit by debris from the International Space Station that had been circling the Earth for three years.
NPR5 min readFinance & Money Management
Housing Experts Say There Just Aren't Enough Homes In The U.S.
The United States is millions of homes short of demand, and lacks enough affordable housing units. And many Americans feel like housing costs are eating up too much of their take-home pay.

Related Books & Audiobooks