amyheap 's review for:

Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin

5.0

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An extraordinary book, I am very surprised I had not read, or even heard of it before. It is the account of John Howard Griffin, who in 1959, took pills and used dye to darken his skin so he could experience life as a black man in the deep south. Much of his experience is as horrific and demoralising as I would have expected, though the pointless stupidity of the hatred and cruelty is still jarring. The most surprising thing, for me, was how quickly he came to feel hopeless and so very far away from his regular life. What happened when what he did became known was fascinatingly horrible as well. I think a lot has changed since this was written, at least on the surface, or from an outsider's perspective, and some things took a bit of getting used to, but I highly recommend this engrossing book. Thanks to Kristy for lending it to me!