Cynthia Carr's 6 favorite books that explore social issues

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Cynthia Carr, a longtime former culture writer at The Village Voice, has written books on artist David Wojnarowicz, performance art, and a 1930 lynching in her Indiana hometown. Her new book is a biography of Warhol superstar Candy Darling. 

'Killers of the Dream' by Lillian Smith (1949)

Probably the first and best (and still one of the few) books ever written to address what racism does to white people as well as Black. Smith, the granddaughter of a slave owner, set out to write "what life in a segregated culture had done to me, one person." Though Jim Crow is gone, "Killers" remains fresh, unfortunately, as a study of racism. Buy it here. 

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'Marmalade Me' by Jill Johnston (1971)

Johnston championed artistic innovation in the 1960s Village Voice columns collected here. Her pieces about the Judson Church dance scene, the Fluxus group, and other avant-gardists put her own consciousness at the center — as she sought out "whatever isn't settled, labeled, canned, caulked, cherished, claimed, and consumed." Buy it here. 

'Crazy Horse' by Mari Sandoz (1942)

Working in the 1930s, Sandoz interviewed old people who'd known Crazy Horse. The legendary Oglala warrior was never defeated in battle, never signed a treaty, never allowed himself to be photographed. He remains a great symbol of resistance, courage, and integrity. Buy it here. 

'Severance' by Ling Ma (2018)

I'm a fan of post-apocalyptic fiction — and this is one engrossing read. Our hero/survivor is Candace Chen, who works on producing specialty Bibles while her colleagues and, well, nearly everyone gradually disappears because of an infection. One theme here is the trap of consumer culture. Buy it here. 

'Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead' by Olga Tokarczuk (2009)

This murder mystery by Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk reads like a Russian fairy tale. The 60-year-old woman protagonist, who much prefers animals to humans, discovers the dead body of a reviled neighbor as the book begins. From there, the body count rises along with political and philosophical implications. Buy it here. 

'Life & Times of Michael K' by J.M. Coetzee (1983)

Coetzee is a master of understatement — never more so than in this slim novel. The word "apartheid" is never used and the character's race never identified (though he is clearly Black). The story of one man's struggle to survive at the most elemental level. A masterpiece. Buy it here.

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