I just finished the book for the 3rd or 4th time (so that I can start reading it again for this project for the 4th or 5th time).  It is a long book with lots of little details and minor characters that are sometimes hard to keep track of. But every time I read it, I remember how absolutely mindblowing that it is.

I am reminded of the ways that it assisted in my political maturation.  As much as it is a book about politics (or anti-politics, as the case may be), it is a book about morality and the ways that our morality is shaped by others. I may have stolen this from Aragorn! who first introduced me to the book, but I always describe the book as having layers like an onion.  You start with a set of beliefs and they are slowly peeled away until you just have a tiny little core that is practically nothing.  It does take a certain kind of person to be able to challenge their beliefs so fully and apparently, I am one of them.

Check out this review for a bit more and some quotes from Lorraine Perlman describing how the characters in the book reflect Fredy Perlman’s life.