Michiko Kakutani is a well-known literary critic, but this was my first exposure to her. The title and premise intrigued me (and, of course, the awesome cover art). Kakutani sets out to examine the current state of things through the lens of radical disruptors—in other words, outsiders who promise change and a break from tradition/the status quo. Understanding this concept is more relevant than ever.

Through this lens, Kakutani addresses politics, history, technology, and art. While she introduces several ideas and ties in interesting bits of information throughout, I often felt that the book lacked a necessary cohesion. Chapters felt like islands unto themselves. While the information itself could be engaging, at times I wondered how Kakutani would tie certain things to her overall argument. Nevertheless, her writing style is direct and thoughtfully construed; she is able to convey information in a pleasant, almost narrative style.

Perhaps the author was preaching to the choir a bit for me, but I still anticipated more examination and arguments around her central thesis. The chapter plates with different images from Hokusai’s ‘Views of Mt. Fuji’ series were a clever part of the design, along with the cover. However, this could not sufficiently make up for the lack of substance. I suppose one positive aspect of the novel is that it does broach a lot of topics relevant to modern political and social thought; since I haven’t delved too much into those spheres, I did appreciate that this was somewhat a refresher on those topics. Yet, it remains surface-level at best.

The author’s argument and understanding of outsiders is an important one, and I do not mean to dismiss it on the lack of merits for this book. However, if she were to develop these ideas further and with greater nuance, this book would have been much more compelling.