Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free digital copy of this book.

Andrew Sullivan is arguably one of the most controversial journalists of our time, and it's easy to see why: he's passionate, outspoken, and heterodox--a conservative, homosexual, HIV-positive, Catholic, English immigrant who embraced blogging early on and has no qualms about speaking his mind. Out on a Limb covers a twenty-one-year period, beginning in 1989 and ending in 2020, and spanning among outlets ranging from New York Magazine to his personal website, The Dish. The articles featured in this collection can be separated into roughly three sections: gay rights and culture (1989-1997), neoconservatism (1998-2016), and the current culture war (2017-2021), with plenty of overlap. Sullivan is an undoubtedly talented writer, but he can be loquacious, and this can grow tiring. The book could have benefitted from being parred down by a quarter or so, with fewer pieces about the same subjects. I am glad to have read Out on a Limb, but it could have made for a tighter, and ultimately more enjoyable, read if it had been better edited.

I have written more extensively (perhaps too extensively) about this book over on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4168959655

This was a good collection of essays that chart the evolution of some of our contemporary issues and of Andrew Sullivan's personal politics and identity. I learned some stuff, but I don't think it's an essential read for anybody except Sullivan's biggest fans and those who are curious about conversatives who have become disallusioned with their party over the years. Some of the first half's essays were pretty boring to someone who wasn't alive when they were written, though admittedly, they were interesting to see how people were feeling about certain topics back then.