Learning to Drive and Other Life Stories, a very funny collection of essays by Katha Pollitt, an FFRF honorary officer who writes the sublime “Subject to Debate” column for The Nation, is now a feature film, nationally released on Aug. 21.
The book (available from ffrf.org/shop) includes personal vignettes, including one on Katha’s decision to finally learn to drive as an adult in Manhattan. The movie is loosely based on her 2002 essay in The New Yorker, and stars Patricia Clarkson as Wendy/Katha and Ben Kingsley as Darwan, the Sikh driving instructor. In real life, the instructor was Filipino, not Indian, Katha notes.
The poet and feminist has received several honors from FFRF, including its Emperor Has No Clothes Award. Katha’s interview about the movie and her newest book, Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights, can be heard on Freethought Radio broadcast and podcast at ffrf.org/news/radio (scroll to Aug. 15, 2015).
