I basically ate, slept, and breathed this book and finished it in a couple days. While it is very good, I think consuming it in such a short amount of time made a few things that bothered me really stand out. Truant especially. As a character he really grated on me throughout the book. I wasn’t a huge fan of the way female characters were written either. If I were to reread I think I would skip all the citations and all of the parts where Truant is talking about his life. I know they’re important in their own way, I just did not care for either.

I found myself disagreeing with Mark Fisher quite a bit, as a marxist myself. I thought his idea of capitalist realism, not being able to picture an alternative reality beyond capitalism, was true to life. I will say though I don’t agree with his take that all mental health conditions are directly linked to capitalism. I think he’s correct about a lot of depressive disorders being a symptom of a person being miserable in a capitalist system, but schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are certifiably brain disorders that require medication. I would still struggle with bipolar disorder even if I was in a communist utopia. I also disagree with his opinions on the USSR, but I’m not going to delve into that right now.

I think this book has some big hits and some equally big misses throughout. I think Mark Fisher did have some really interesting things to say, but all together I’m not sure I’d recommend this especially if you’re just starting to read leftist political theory.