Reviews

Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation by

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vtlism's review against another edition

Just way too depressing when my own life is already up shit creek. Seems like a good read if I were less sensitive or depressed

lizmart88's review against another edition

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4.0

A collection of essays by a range of incredible authors about the state of inequality. As the back cover reads," America is broken. You don't need a fistful of statistics to know this." Instead this book showcases through fiction and non-fiction essays about the individual stories across America.

A few of my favorite:
--It opens with Rebecca Solnit's essay about how gentrification killed Alex Nieto in San Francisco, and a meditation on the impacts of gentrification for the lives of people of color.
--Chris Offutt meditates on the meaning of "trash food" and how his identify as being from Appalachia impacts his actions as strives to avoid being classified as white trash.
--Joyce Carol Oates's "Leander" should be required reading for all white people to open up the conversation on white fragility and white saviorism. She writes about an older white woman who shows up at a church meeting after the police kill a young black man. It has so many depths to it.
--Eula Bliss writes about "White Debt" and is an excellent companion piece to Leander for white people about the dangers of ignoring settler colonialism and not knowing your own history.
--If you're a Joy Williams fan, she has a piece in here about a conman who meets a man named Governor in an asylum and agrees to take on his burdens after he dies.

There's so many other ones that are amazing as well! My absolute favorite was Roxane Gay's piece about two sisters caring for their alcoholic, abusive father and how they get away (no spoilers - it's in the title).

The title sounds a little preachy, and some of the non-fiction pieces are meditations on the inequality in America. But most of them approach the subject abstractly. There are some really beautiful pieces included in the collection.

alxsrbraun's review against another edition

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3.0

It's always hard to review collections of stories or essays, because it's inevitable that you'll like some and not others. And that's the case with Tales of Two Americas. There were essays I LOVED: 'Death by Gentrification' by Rebecca Solnit, 'Notes of a Native Daughter' by Sandra Cisneros, 'American Work' by Richard Russo, 'To the Man Asleep in Our Driveway Who Might Be Named Phil" by Anthony Doerr, and 'La Ciudad Magica' by Patricia Engel. There were short stories I loved: 'Dosas' by Edwidge Danticat and 'How' by Roxanne Gay. There were poems I loved: 'i'm sick of pretending to give a shit about what whypeepo think' by Danez Smith and 'American Arithmetic' by Natalie Diaz. There was even an excerpt from a graphic novel that I might have to pick up ('Invisible Wounds' by Jess Ruliffson). There were pieces to love in this book, but there were also quite a few that didn't resonate with me at all or that I didn't feel meshed well with the collection as a whole. But, ultimately, I found it to be a collection of mostly good works of non-fiction, fiction, and poetry, on a timely topic. We read it for book club, and it was without a doubt a conversation starter.

platypus1's review against another edition

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5.0

Several stories unexpectedly gave me some insight on the divisions of our country, explicitly why it happened. I still don’t agree with some people’s political choices, but I feel this book gave me a better understanding of why they feel the way they do and how we got to this point. We have a lot of work to do in America!

hannawrites_1's review against another edition

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5.0

Tales of two Americas presents 36 essays, poems & short stories by Rebecca Solnit, Joyce Carol Oates, Julia Alvarez, etc. on inequality / systemic injustice & racism in today's society. America is a divided nation where for many, the American dream is impossible to achieve. In 2021, Robert Reich wrote: “Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk now own more wealth than the bottom 40% of Americans combined.” This book is an urgent call for change & should be required reading for all US high school students.

mollyculhane's review against another edition

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4.0

This was a quick, pleasant palate cleanser book. It worked very well as an anthology--it was really interesting to have essays, memoir, reporting, short stories, poetry, and even a comic gathered together, and the theme of American inequality felt broad enough to encompass them all but tight enough to cohere. The only chapter that made me roll my eyes was "American Work" by Richard Russo, which isn't bad in a collection of 36. My favorites were "White Debt" by Eula Biss, "Mobility" by Julia Alvarez, "Some Houses (Various Stages of Dissolve)" by Claire Vaye Watkins, "How" by Roxane Gay, "Looking for a Home" by Karen Russell, and "La Ciudad Mágica" by Patricia Engel.