The Other Side of the River

Here's the thing - you know who died, and you know where the body was found and in what condition, but you don't know the why and how. And you still can't put this book down! Alex Kotlowitz is a master story teller of a real life murder in a racially charged small town, geographically divided by a river but racially divided by mistrust and suspicion. His research is detailed and thorough, and the reader finds himself quickly immersed and emotionally invovled with the characters. Every character is complex and likeable. There are no bad guys/good guys. Just an unsolved murder, in a town yearning to heal.

As a resident of Benton Harbor, I read with great interest Alex Kotlowitz's "The Other Side of the River". As a white person who spent my entire childhood in Stevensville (the community directly adjacent to St. Joseph), was educated there, was insulated there, and who was influenced by the subtle but constant undercurrent of racism there... only to find myself moving to the "other side" of the river for the last 16 years, I can tell you that Alex Kotlowitz absolutely captured the state of race relations in and around the "Twin Cities"... and probably most of the country. The author does not climb up on a soapbox, agenda in hand, and tell the reader what they should think. Instead, he lets the facts speak for themselves. The result that this book has caused many in the white St. Joseph community to go howling in protest, railing against this "unfair" portrayal, only goes to show that bare facts apparently don't leave much cover for those who would like to hide their fear, loathing, and head-in-the-sand refusal to believe there's a problem, behind a pretty tourist brochure facade. Painfully even-handed, the book does not exactly paint a pretty picture of either the white OR the black communities involved. Rather, it offers a map of several incidents and betrayals that have led these two towns to such a sorry state. That there can be no real conclusion to this book leaves the reader to think about their own prejudices and assumptions. It also leads you to wonder if there can ever be a conclusion to the race problems in our country as a whole... which is perhaps at least a first step to getting there -- just THINKING about it at all! I do wish Alex Kotlowitz would return to the area and look into the community of Fairplain - the only truly integrated area between the two towns. How does this community survive? Because it is made up of working people, all of the same basic socio-economic make-up? Because the people have adopted a "live & let live" attitude? Or because they know the problems of either side of the river, and have tried to make a place where they may not live like kings, but at least they're allowed to live with some dignity. Do read "The Other Side of the River". It will make you think!

Chicago writer Alex Kotlowitz, known for his study of public housing families in There Are No Children Here, is drawn to the twin cities of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor, Michigan. One town is predominantly white, the other predominantly black. He interviews seemingly everybody in Southwest Michigan about the circumstances of the death of a black teenager. He appears more investigator than reporter but expertly fleshes out many colorful characters as he tells how this death, which otherwise would not have made news outside the area, helped polarize the community. During the days I read this book, all I could think about was getting back to it.

"The Other Side of The River" is the devastatingly self-aware, uncomfortable chronicle of Kotlowitz's permanent quest for the understanding of race relations with the death of Eric McGinnis as the focul point. Over the course of the story, Kotlowitz will have you helpless with amazement. "River" is channeling something so universal and familiar that readers will find it useful as a means for raising the precontemplative conscious. A book that can be read in one setting. I appreciate greatly the efforts of Kotlowitz and The Cast.

The author uses the death of a teenager as a micro-example of racial tension in a midwestern town. What is disturbing is that when reading this book many Americans will see a piece of their America portrayed. Well written and thoroughly reported this made what could have been an academic study of race relations a page turning mystry with a moral.