I Have Chosen To Stay And Fight

This is Margaret Cho's "politics book." I isn't something I sought out -- but I needed a new audiobook, and it caught my eye when I was at the library. And I'm always interested in the minds of comedians, so I picked it up. I hoped it might be kind of witty, or fun. Unfortunately, it is neither. Most of it is long, bitter, repetitive rants about gay rights and racial prejudice. They sound like the kind of editorials you find in a high school newspaper. I was so bored I almost gave up on it, but I have this tendency to push on through boring things, with the hope that something redeeming might show up. And my patience got some small reward. Though she sounds like a tenth grader when she talks about politics, when she talked about entertainment, like the history of Anna May Wong, and how she was inspired by Richard Pryor, she was kind of interesting. And in one essay, she talks about her relationship with her mother, and it is really kind of touching. Sadly, though, it quickly returns to repetitive rants again. But even in those, I saw something. I could start to hear Margaret thinking, and could hear her getting adolescent logic out of her system, giving way to something more mature. I kind of felt like, hearing all the confusion, the anger, and the gradual enlightenment, I was listening to someone become an adult. And like any adolescence, while it made me feel like I got to know her better, I wouldn't want to experience it again.