Changes

Oh, I thoroughly enjoyed ''Fragility''. It's a chaotic survey of the current state of play politically, where traditional alliances are being upended and the ground seems rather unstable and this holds whether you're of the left or the right, liberal or conservative. The city of Portland, one of America's most progressive, rises from the pages almost as a character with its own arc. And it asks a lot of awkward questions - if the push for social justice makes streets unsafe, is that really social justice? And if it isn't, is electing a baboon for a leader really the answer? And there's a passionate appeal for humour, especially the near to the knuckle stuff. Without it, how can we hold the powerful to account? Woods draws on jokes made by Soviet dissidents to illustrate this in a very clever way. And a big shout out to the impactful and sometimes disturbing illustrations that punctuate almost every page. I found them quite mesmerising.

Perhaps it has a tendency to throw everything, including the kitchen sink, into making its points, but I enjoyed all the references in ''Fragility'' and I think readers will, too.