What Was I Thinking? The Autobiography of an Idea and Other Essays

A lifetime of engagement with religion, philosophy, and activism in a series of fascinating reflections.

Brilliant, fractious, mordantly funny, playwright/novelist/essayist Rick Salutin has been Canadian journalism’s agent provocateur for over three decades. Whether needling governments and politicians, holding public policy to account, or decrying the shortfalls of activist thought and action, he has been one of the most outspoken commentators of his generation.

In What Was I Thinking?, Salutin reveals his curiosity about both the world of the mind and the world of the here and now. His life has been graced with contact with extraordinary people from Hannah Arendt to Holocaust theologian Emil Fackenheim to goalkeeper-politician Ken Dryden, and we discover the profound influence their thought has had on his. but he has also had encounters with Conrad Black and Peter Worthington, joined his fellow coffee-drinkers in the infamous fight to save the west-end institution Dooney’s from displacement by Starbucks, and taken furious potshots at the political pandering of the nation’s media outlets.

This is classic Salutin and most of it hasn’t been published before — including a lengthy personal and historical essay on the world of therapy. It’s a wonderful roller-coaster ride of thought and opinion. Step on!

Rick Salutin: Rick Salutin is a playwright, novelist and journalist, who has received awards in all these areas. He wrote a weekly column for the Globe and Mail for 20 years and now provides weekly columns and videos for the Toronto Star.