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pattricejones's review against another edition
I'll agree with Sherman Alexie's blurb on the back cover. This book is sometimes so right and sometimes so wrong and sometimes both at once but (or maybe so) worth reading.
reikista's review against another edition
3.0
Essays about race with a personal perspective. Deep, painful, but also satisfying reading.
christinajcraig's review against another edition
5.0
Amazing. So smart. So readable. So decisive. This might be my favorite collection of essays ever.
samwreads's review against another edition
4.0
Essays suffused with confusion and anger.
Biss does a good job of taking injustices playing out on the national or international scale and bringing them back to a very personal level.
That said, I personally liked the two essays without a distinct narrative arc the best - the ones on telephone poles and on apologies. Their economy of language and concise paragraphs really distilled the emotional and logical content, while letting the message build more like a poem than a traditional essay.
Overall I do think that the essays in this book serve more as an introduction to challenging topics rather than say things I found distinctly new. But they do this well and the anecdotes, while often sad and frustrating, are also humorous in a darkly entertaining way.
Biss does a good job of taking injustices playing out on the national or international scale and bringing them back to a very personal level.
That said, I personally liked the two essays without a distinct narrative arc the best - the ones on telephone poles and on apologies. Their economy of language and concise paragraphs really distilled the emotional and logical content, while letting the message build more like a poem than a traditional essay.
Overall I do think that the essays in this book serve more as an introduction to challenging topics rather than say things I found distinctly new. But they do this well and the anecdotes, while often sad and frustrating, are also humorous in a darkly entertaining way.
graceinthebooks's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
richardwells's review against another edition
4.0
A Nation Book Critics Circle Award winning collection of perceptive essays concerning race and white privilege, religion, violence - these are American essays - among other things. The collection is broken down: Before, California, the Midwest, and After, with a Coda. It's written in a personal and personable manner, but the easiness of the read is not an indication of the difficulty of the subject matter - these are American essays.
Worth it.
Worth it.