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

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.