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A review by zelma
How I Shed My Skin: Unlearning the Racist Lessons of a Southern Childhood by Jim Grimsley
2.0
The topic is important, interesting, and timely, but the writing style turned me completely off of this book. The idea fell short of the impact it should have had, solely with the way Grimsely told his story. He was so careful in making sure his readers knew that his memory was imperfect that half of the book felt like conjecture or mere possibilities. He relies on newspaper articles for events he can't remember, just after mentioning how unreliable the newspapers are. He also comments how certain conversations or events were likely, rather than remembering them outright; the entire books felt like he just said, "well, this might have happened."
However, my biggest issue was his use of short chapters to separate various anecdotes or themes. It felt like he wrote them out of order and then pieced the together thematically and chronologically. The result felt too piecemeal and was so repetitive I wondered if it was edited at all. Entire turns of phrase were repeated, sometimes more than once, and often in the very next chapter.
Grimsley has written his truth and I respect that. Unfortunately, he is so careful with his storytelling that it never reaches an emotional level for me; it was just kind of milquetoast. He tries to go for some shock in the last chapter with details of lynchings that seem out of place compared to the rest of the book. It was jarring and takes the reader out of Grimsley's story, without any return to the larger history.
However, my biggest issue was his use of short chapters to separate various anecdotes or themes. It felt like he wrote them out of order and then pieced the together thematically and chronologically. The result felt too piecemeal and was so repetitive I wondered if it was edited at all. Entire turns of phrase were repeated, sometimes more than once, and often in the very next chapter.
Grimsley has written his truth and I respect that. Unfortunately, he is so careful with his storytelling that it never reaches an emotional level for me; it was just kind of milquetoast. He tries to go for some shock in the last chapter with details of lynchings that seem out of place compared to the rest of the book. It was jarring and takes the reader out of Grimsley's story, without any return to the larger history.