But the story’s secondary. Cornwell’s book is about John crabbing his way across contemporary America, through extended set pieces at dinner parties, airports, and eventually liberal Oregon, where the women’s collective called The Conscience scream that all men are rapists. The satire is over-the-top, sometimes inventive, and not always fresh—expect lots of jokes about Al Gore and pantsuits. Still, Cornwell writes with crisp, engaging prose and proves adept at running gags and the occasional cockeyed one-liner. In an airport bathroom, John contends with “towel dispensers gone digital,” an encounter ending with “soapy hands performing a variety of yoga moves, before being wiped on pants.”
For all its polish, reader enjoyment of #ScaryWhiteFemales will come down to sensibility, political bent, and patience with its episodic storytelling. Whether by design or not, John’s characterized not as the last reasonable person in the U.S. but as a stick-in-the-mud every bit as hypersensitive as the many people we are told he “detest”s. Cornwall scores some laughs lampooning the idea of “safe spaces,” even as his hero yearns for one.
Takeaway: An episodic satirical novel about a Libertarian bureaucrat facing progressive “safe spaces.”
Great for fans of: Burt Walker’s Status Schmo, Curtis Edmonds’s Snowflake’s Chance.
Production grades
Cover: C+
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: B
