It Was Just Another Day in America by Ryan David Ginsberg

Florida 

It Was Just Another Day in America is a compilation of eight short stories and a collection of poems that discuss contemporary and dystopian America, struggles with being a writer, struggles with mental health, and more. This is Ginsberg’s first book, and he self-published it. I found him via an effective ad on TikTok, describing this book as similar to episodes of Black Mirror, the Netflix series. 

On Good Reads, I gave this book a 5/5 because I really liked the premise, and I want to help a young, upcoming author. However, something about the short stories didn’t quite connect with me. I am a leftist (anarchical communist, more specifically), so I love books that dive into how fucked up capitalism and its show pony, the United States, is. But many of the stories were just too on the nose. The titular short story of “It Was Just Another Day in America,” for example, is about a school in which children are given bunker codes for when there are school shooters. Teachers were armed and expected to defend the children, but they couldn’t know the children’s bunker codes because once a teacher killed her whole class by getting into their bunkers. It just…didn’t get there for me. I don’t know how you take that further, because it is certainly dark subject matter, but I wanted that to go further. 

My favorite short story was “Dinner and a Show” which describes in detail a dinner party with the nine most powerful men in the world. Ginsberg describes what all of these men do for a living that have contributed to the near apocalyptic state of the world. The “show” that the men watch after dinner is two(ish) nations fighting each other over something or other, they don’t quite remember. I would have absolutely adored this story (and it would have won me over for the whole book) if he had based more of the characters on real people or used their likeness more. Because there are literally nine men ruining our planet for their own pleasure, and he could have called them out indirectly (or directly, but then he probably would have been sued). One of my favorite quotes from that story is in regards to two dinner guests that are friends but have completely different political leanings: “Politics were created to distract the weak and idiotic from the truth. I am neither weak nor idiotic, so his political leanings mean nothing to me.” I like this, not because I think regular people shouldn’t be informed about politics, but because in the US the two party system means very little. They drum up abortion and LGBTQ issues, as if those rights would completely go away under a Republican system, as the only way to get people to vote Democrat. If it wasn’t for those two things, nobody could ever distinguish between a Democratic and Republican candidate. 

Other than “Dinner and a Show,” which took place in Los Angeles, there was only one story that mentions a specific location in the United States. That story is “The Termination Bureau.” This story describes a future in which abortion is illegal, but the sale and purchase of the unborn was legal (as long as the person who impregnated someone gave consent). Newborns sold to the state are given a series of tests, then are sold to various governments and companies to which they will be an asset. Babies that did not test highly enough to be sold were executed. There is also a 12 year old girl named Jocelyn, who tries to sell her unborn baby to the state. She is not able to because she did not get permission from the fetus’s father, who is also her father. She tries to abort the baby in the alley behind the government building, but she is arrested mid-act. The story is an interesting and disturbing combination of eugenics and abortion rights, but, again, something didn’t quite connect with me. 

Ginsberg’s poetry, on the other hand, I really enjoyed. I would purchase another book of his for just the poetry. 

I would give this author’s stories or a novel a try in the future, I was just slightly disappointed by this book because I was very excited about the premise. I think with a little more experience, and perhaps getting some feedback from the readers of this book, Ginsberg has a bright future. 

Review by the Numbers

Overall: 3/5

Writing: 4/5

Message: 3.5/5

Plot: n/a

Character Development: n/a

Challenges Satisfied

- Florida (Reading My Way Around the World Challenge)

- A Collection of At Least 24 Poems (2024 PopSugar Reading Challenge)

- A Book About Social Class Differences (Shelf Reflection’s Disney Animated Movies Reading Challenge)