Match BookMediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America
Ijeoma Oluo
2020 · 278 pages · Narrative nonfiction
How it reads
Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America is narrative nonfiction (social criticism, specifically), and its dominant mood is dark. It goes to difficult places and doesn't look away. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in an international setting, in the recent past, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are identity, power and politics and class and society. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. At 278 pages it's a quick read. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something dark
- you want something to chew on
- you want a complete story in one book
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy, heartwarming or funny
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- narrative nonfiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- international
- Setting: time
- recent past
- Mood / feeling
- dark
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- short
- Narrative style
- first person, one narrator
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- identity, power and politics, class and society
- Ending style
- resolved and happy
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for MenCaroline Criado PérezShares: narrative nonfiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of AmericaSarah KendziorShares: narrative nonfiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- Burn It Down!: Feminist Manifestos for the RevolutionBreanne FahsShares: narrative nonfiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points that Challenge Every Company and CareerAndrew S. GroveShares: narrative nonfiction, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace, resolved and happy ending
- When at Times the Mob Is Swayed: A Citizen’s Guide to Defending Our RepublicBurt NeuborneShares: narrative nonfiction, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace, resolved and happy ending
- The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated AmericaRichard RothsteinShares: narrative nonfiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
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