Quick Take
- Narration: Cassandra Campbell delivers Solnit’s essays with measured authority, her clear diction giving the political arguments weight without tipping into lecturing.
- Themes: Political language and power, American violence, solidarity and resistance
- Mood: Urgent and clarifying, like a strong cup of coffee before a hard conversation
- Verdict: Essential listening for anyone who wants sharper tools for thinking about the state of American public life.
I came to this one on a Tuesday evening after a particularly draining news cycle. I had an hour before I needed to make dinner, and I figured I would get through an essay or two. I ended up standing in the kitchen, coat still on, listening to the end of the fourth piece before I remembered why I had come home. That is what Rebecca Solnit does. She does not just argue, she reorients. By the time you realize you have been intellectually repositioned, you cannot remember where you were standing before.
Call Them by Their True Names, narrated by Cassandra Campbell, collects essays Solnit wrote between 2014 and 2018, and despite that vintage, almost nothing in them feels dated. She is writing about naming, about the refusal to call things by the words that accurately describe them, about how language is weaponized to obscure violence and protect those who commit it. That central argument runs through every piece, from domestic abuse to police killings to the strange grammar of American power.
Our Take on the Essays
Solnit has always been an essayist who thinks in constellations rather than straight lines, and this collection is no exception. The essays range across subjects that might seem disparate, but she stitches them together through her controlling idea: that mislabeling is itself a form of harm. The piece that drew the most attention from reviewers is "Death by Gentrification," her account of the killing of Alex Nieto in San Francisco and what it reveals about whose right to occupy space is treated as legitimate. It is one of the most precisely argued pieces of journalism I have listened to in recent years. She traces the mechanisms through which wealth displaces people while that displacement is rendered invisible in mainstream coverage.
The collection's strength is its accumulation. Any single essay might feel like a strong op-ed. Together they build something closer to a philosophical argument about how narratives are constructed in this country to serve power. "Silence is not an option," as one listener put it, is the ethical undergirding of the whole book.
Why Listen to Call Them by Their True Names
Campbell's narration is a genuine asset here. She brings intelligence and a slightly formal composure to Solnit's prose that suits the material. These essays are not confessional or emotionally loose. They are controlled arguments delivered with rising urgency, and Campbell matches that register. Her pacing lets Solnit's more compressed sentences land without rushing past them. The roughly six-hour runtime means this is a one-sitting listen if you have the afternoon, or easily parceled across the six or seven essays over a few commutes.
One reviewer described Solnit as connecting dots "among seemingly disparate things" in ways that are both lucid and fresh. She is not recycling familiar progressive talking points. She is making a structural argument about how language and narrative function as tools of domination. That is a harder argument to make, and she makes it with the precision of someone who has been thinking about it for decades.
What to Watch For in This Collection
The collection was published in 2018, and some of the political figures and specific incidents it references belong to that moment. For listeners coming to it now, some contextual notes might help, though the mechanisms Solnit describes have not gone away. More significantly, some essays feel more finished than others. A few read as expanded columns that have not fully metabolized into the longer form. "The Loneliness of Donald Trump" is probably the most uneven, leaning slightly more on rhetorical flourishes than on argument. Even in the weaker pieces, Solnit is doing something more interesting than most political commentators manage at their best.
Listeners who want conventional policy analysis or specific prescriptions will find this book slippery. Solnit's method is more diagnostic than prescriptive. She identifies the condition. The treatment, she suggests, begins with the naming.
Who Should Listen to Call Them by Their True Names
This is the right audiobook for listeners who are already engaged with questions of political language and power and want something that sharpens those instincts rather than confirms existing beliefs. It rewards active listening and works best for people willing to sit with arguments that circle back on themselves before resolving. If you have read Solnit's Men Explain Things to Me and liked it, this is the natural companion. If you prefer narrative nonfiction or cleaner theses, you may find the essayistic structure frustrating. Fans of Joan Didion's political writing will feel at home here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to read Rebecca Solnit’s other books before listening to this one?
No. Each essay stands on its own, and Solnit does not assume prior familiarity with her work. That said, listeners who have read Men Explain Things to Me will recognize recurring preoccupations and may find the threads more resonant.
Is this collection politically one-sided?
Solnit writes from a clearly progressive standpoint, but her method is analytical rather than partisan in tone. She is examining structural mechanisms of power and language, not scoring electoral points. Listeners across the political spectrum have found it thought-provoking, though some will disagree with her conclusions.
How does Cassandra Campbell’s narration handle the more emotionally charged essays?
Campbell keeps a composed, authoritative register throughout, which suits Solnit’s controlled prose style. She does not dramatize or editorialize. The result is narration that lets the arguments do the work, which is exactly what these essays need.
Is the collection dated given it was written between 2014 and 2018?
Some specific references and political figures belong to that period, but the structural arguments Solnit makes about language, naming, and power remain directly applicable. Most listeners report that the material feels current despite its vintage.
