Mobility
Ratings4
Average rating4.5
Godsdamn but this book makes me FUCKING ANGRY! I mean this in a good way, by the way, as this is frankly speaking a pretty good read.
Look, it???s not every day that a book pisses me off, but this one pissed me off in the best possible way, with its focus on the sheer hypocrisy of white people - specifically privileged white women - when it comes to the much larger suffering that everyone else around them experiences. From the moment she is introduced all the way to the very end of this novel, Bunny/Elizabeth thinks of no one but herself. Her disinterest as a teenager can be forgiven, I suppose, because I think a majority of teenagers are self-centered little shits to varying degrees - and I say that as a teenager who was pretty self-centered myself. The few who aren???t are rare and far between.
But later on, as she grows more and more comfortable in her place in the oil industry, you can practically SEE her convincing herself that what she???s doing, what her industry is doing, is right and just and not as problematic as everyone thinks it is. Worse, one can also read how she twists her WILLFUL IGNORANCE into a VIRTUE because IT BENEFITS HER TO DO SO. It???s just so INFURIATING to see that happen, since she has the privilege and the opportunity to do better, and yet: SHE DOESN???T!
The funny thing is, SHE GETS CALLED OUT ON IT! There are several moments throughout the novel wherein she is forced to confront how she doesn???t take a stand on anything, for just sitting on a fence, for thinking only of her own comfort, and while she sometimes pauses to think about what the other person???s saying and wonder if maybe they???re right, you can almost FEEL her flinch away from anything that makes her uncomfortable. THEN she goes RIGHT back to thinking any line of thought that makes her feel ???safe??? and one gets to watch as she chooses the path that makes her feel better, even if it comes at the cost of other people???s lives. They???re not HER people after all, how can she consider the plight of some nebulous entity who lives half the world away and whom she???s never met? This takes a chillingly exploitative turn towards the end of the novel.
I???ll admit, for a few moments while reading this I wonder if there???s anything she could have realistically done to actually take a stand and do something. The size and complexity of the oil industry is mentioned repeatedly throughout the novel; at various points Bunny/Elizabeth herself says that she can???t understand all of it, no matter how hard she tries. And when one is faced with something THAT big, that has the capacity to mutate into a new form to avoid accountability and instead re-emerge stronger than ever??? How does one fight against something like that? Seen from that perspective maybe Bunny/Elizabeth???s reticence can be understood, even sympathized with, but after a certain point even this sympathy evaporates because it becomes clear that she???s CHOOSING to remain complacent.
But the interesting thing is, all this rage at Bunny/Elizabeth and the life she???s chosen can easily be turned on oneself. You read this book and wind up asking yourself: ???Am I actually doing anything about the way the world works? Am I doing enough???? These are important questions, in my opinion, and applies to a lot more issues than just the theme of climate crisis that this book???s built around. None of these questions are comfortable or soothing, and the potential answers are likely to be less so, but they???re questions we need to ask regardless, if we don???t want to face the same kind of future Bunny/Elizabeth faces at the end of the novel.
Overall, this is an infuriating read, but excellent precisely BECAUSE it???s infuriating. It reveals some very uncomfortable truths and make the reader as some very difficult questions, leading to answers that are probably even MORE uncomfortable and difficult than the questions themselves. But the novel also emphasizes the need to ask those questions and find those answers, because seeking only to live in a bubble of comfort, unbothered and undisturbed by the wider world???s troubles, means living a life devoid of compassion and empathy, and only leads to a future where the entire world suffers.
