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A review by lizmart88
Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation by John Freeman
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.
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.